Our Story.

Art Bosse was born in Richmond Hill, Queens, NYC and after moving to Van Nuys, CA has lived in Santa Barbara since 1963. He was five years old when he got his first Lionel train, the "City of Denver." His parents bought it for him for Christmas. 

The focus of the museum are Lionel "O" Gauge trains originating from 1915 to 1942. Lionel ceased production of toy trains in 1942 and produced "high tech" equipment for the U.S. Military, primarily for the U.S. Navy. With the end of WW II in 1945, Lionel resumed production of toy trains in 1946. In 1953 Lionel was the world's largest toy manufacturer. 

Art realized that train collectors like himself can amass a large collection and what takes years to accumulate may or may not be appreciated by their heirs. Collections are split up and the purposeful pulling together of collections are all for nought. That revelation was the birth of the Bosse Toy Train Museum of Santa Barbara. The train museum has the reputation among fellow train collectors for acquiring and displaying the finest quality trains. 

By learning about these historical trains and railways one can learn much about the time period and how train travel has changed America. The museum's purpose is to preserve them and inspire an interest in trains for generations. 

There are individual trains and sets of trains in their original boxes on display. Along with two operating layouts plus ceiling- mounted operating trains. There is a full size reproduction of an observation car rear platform, where guests can stand on the platform and travel back in time (and take a photo for Instagram). Featured is a scaled down version of a steam locomotive boiler front with steam chests, cowcatcher, original head light, marker lights and a Baldwin builder plate.  

This building was purchased in 2009 and the interior was painstakingly designed by Art and Richard Redmond of Edwards-Pitman AIA and reconstructed by Roger Eggers of Eggers Construction. Every care was taken to have authentic items that would have been used at the time that the Lionel trains were being created. These items include the re-creation of the custom brass ticket counter with grille at the front entrance, reproduction oak desk, authentic benches at the entrance, and porcelain enamel signs that hung on display at the Western Union, Bell Telephone, Santa Fe Railroad, Southern Pacific Railroad and Union Pacific Railroad. The Bosse Toy Train Museum building was constructed in 1951 and designated "historic" on June 6, 2017. 

There are more toy train collections on the east coast as toy trains were more popular in cities from Chicago to New York. The city of Santa Barbara is fortunate to have this amazing collection.