If you live in the Philly area, you probably remember taking a field trip to the Franklin Institute and running around their giant, old-fashioned train.
The Franklin Insitute announced on Tuesday that their iconic Train Factory is getting a makeover.
The exhibit is known for having a 350-ton Baldwin 60000 locomotive that the museum aquired in 1933. Guests could walk inside the train and interact with its buttons and levers.
That Train Factory will now be transformed into a two-story gallery. The Baldwin 60000 will still be the main attraction of the exhibit, but there will be new artifacts on display.
They include Ben Franklin’s glass armonica, the first photographs of lightening, a bust of Ben Franklin by Samuel Skillin, equipment used by the Wright Brothers and more.
The train and artifacts will be on the second floor of the exhibit and will overlook a lower level of archival collections that are off limits to the public.
The renovations were made possible because of a $6,000,000 donation made by the Hamilton Family Charitable Trust.
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Construction for the exhibit will not occur in 2019 or 2020 according to Stefanie Santo, a spokesperson for the museum.
The renovations are expected to be complete by 2024, which marks the 200th anniversary of the establishment of the museum.
