North Alabama Railroad Museum

The Mercury and Chase Railroad operates regularly scheduled, public excursions and private excursions on track owned by the museum. All equipment used by the Mercury and Chase Railroad is owned and maintained by the museum. Equipment used on the excursions was all built prior to 1950. The Mercury and Chase Railroad offers trips of about 10 miles round trip from Normal east to Mt Carmel.

The NARM is an all volunteer organization. Membership is opened to anyone. Members are eligible to volunteer to work at the museum and on the excursions.

The depot at Chase, was the smallest Union station in the United States. It originally served the Southern Railway and the Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis Railway. The primary customer of the Chase Depot was the Chase Nursery which used both railroads to ship plants throughout the country. The building currently at Chase was built in 1937, and serves as the depot for the Mercury and Chase Railroad today. Tickets for your train ride can be picked up at the ticket window of the Chase Depot.

The Plevna Depot was a whistle stop depot located in Plevna, Alabama originally. The depot is displayed at the side of our loading platform. It is a small wooden structure that was used by passengers as a waiting area while waiting to flag the train down.

The Chase Office building originally was the office for the Chase Nursery. It now houses the library and the Hugh Dudley Railroad History Center.

The Mercury train shed is used for restoration and maintenance of railroad equipment. It can be seen while on excursions on the Mercury and Chase Railroad.

The Mercury and Chase Railroad owns and operates a number of Alco locomotives. There are three ALCO S-2 and S-4 units, and an ALCO RSD-1 that serve the railroad with their passenger excursion trains. The RSD-1 was built for the US Army and was used during the closing months of World War II. Many of the sister units to this locomotive were shipped to the Soviet Union under the Lend-Lease program to be used on the Trans-Iranian Railway. The S-4 was built for the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway and had the number 1534 with that railroad.

The Mercury and Chase Railroad has a number of operational railroad cars. There are two stainless steel coaches, built by Budd Company in 1939 and 1940, these are used on all excursion trains. There is a dining car which was originally built as a hospital car for the US Army by American Car and Foundry Company in 1943. There is a heavyweight coach built in 1927 by Pullman Company and a baggage car built in 1924 by American Car and Foundry Company.

The NARM also owns a number of cars that are used as static displays. Some of this is planned for restoration and some are permanent displays. The museum owns a 1926 ALCO boxcab locomotive, which was built with GE generator, motors, and controls and an Ingersol-Rand diesel engine. The museum owns a Railway post office car that was built for the Cincinnati, New Orleans and Texas Pacific Railway in 1928. There is a Caboose on display the museum's entrance that was built for the Southern Railway in 1947, which is opened when volunteers are present. The caboose is set up as it would have been used as the working and living quarters for railroad workers in times past.

The NARM owns many other railroad cars, including baggage cars, passenger coaches, a dining car, box cars, flat cars, cabooses, and a tank car. Many of these are on display in their current condition. Feel free to bring a camera and enjoy your time walking down the line of cars.

The NARM offers a field trip program each spring for kindergarten and first grade classes. This program includes a guided tour of the museum, a video presentation concerning railroading, a train ride and a ride in our railroad surrey pulled by a vintage motor car. In excess of 100,000 teachers and students have participated in The School Program since 1971.[2] For information concerning this program, please contact the museum by phone.

The NARM offers a Saturday session in which young men associated with Boy Scouts of America can begin the work on their Railroading Merit Badge. Much of the work can be completed during this session. The NARM has offered this program for many years and has aided many young men in receiving their merit badge.

The NARM has worked with scouts on Eagle Scout (Boy Scouts of America) projects. Scouts have helped in restoration of equipment, landscaping, and building a handicapped accessible loading platform.