Transportation - Overview Americans have always been a people on
the move—on rails, roads, and waterways (for travel through the
air, visit the National Air and Space Museum). In the
transportation collections, railroad objects range from tools,
tracks, and many train models to the massive 1401, a 280-ton
locomotive built in 1926. Road vehicles include coaches,
buggies, wagons, trucks, motorcycles, bicycles, and
automobiles—from the days before the Model T to modern race
cars. The accessories of travel are part of the collections,
too, from streetlights, gas pumps, and traffic signals to
goggles and overcoats. In the maritime collections, more than
7,000 design plans and scores of ship models show the evolution
of sailing ships and other vessels. Other items range from
scrimshaw, photographs, and marine paintings to life jackets
from the Titanic.