In North Platte's Cody Park, a free railroad museum lets kids climb into the cab of Union Pacific Challenger 3977, then walk through a mail car and caboose full of railroad memorabilia.

Denver's Forney Museum of Transportation grew from one 1921 Kissel into hundreds of vehicles, from carriages and motorcycles to steam locomotives, including Union Pacific Big Boy No. 4005.

Saved by its community for $1 in 1979, Durand Union Station is a 1905 Chateau Romanesque depot that now houses the Michigan Railroad History Museum, its archives and a busy events calendar.

Lawrence's 1956 Santa Fe Depot on East 7th Street is a Midwestern Modern station designed by two KU graduates, listed on the National Register in 2018 and still served by Amtrak's Southwest Chief.

Volunteers of the Leatherstocking Railway Historical Society run vintage trains from the restored 1869 Milford depot along the upper Susquehanna River, crossing it twice on steel truss bridges.

Nashua's Heritage Rail Trail turns the old Worcester & Nashua Railroad corridor, later a Boston & Maine branch, into a flat, paved path for walking and biking across the south side of the city.

Downtown Wilmington's railroad museum keeps the Atlantic Coast Line story alive with a climb-aboard steam engine and caboose, a Children's Hall full of train tables, and more than 1,200 feet of model railroad track.

Sedalia's 1896 Missouri-Kansas-Texas passenger depot, restored in 2001, now serves as a railroad exhibit museum, Katy Trail trailhead and the city's welcome center, with two MoPac cabooses outside.

Rhinelander's old Soo Line depot was moved to Pioneer Park, restored to its original floor plan and reopened as the town's railroad museum, beside a logging museum and the famous Hodag displays.

Inside Lakes Regional Park in Fort Myers, the Railroad Museum of South Florida runs a one-mile miniature train past tiny 1950s villages and through a 100-foot tunnel, beside a restored 1905 steam engine.

From the old company town of Stearns, the Big South Fork Scenic Railway runs on the historic Kentucky & Tennessee Railway down into the Big South Fork gorge to the Blue Heron coal mining camp.

Salt Lake City's Rio Grande Depot was built in 1910 for $750,000 to outshine the Union Pacific station a few blocks away, served as the city's Amtrak stop from 1986 to 1999, and now faces a new chapter.

Ironhorse Central Railroad Museum, also called Ironhorse Railroad Park, is a small Chisago City collection that began in 1963 when three rail fans bought a locomotive. Visits are by appointment.

Chicago's Griffin Museum of Science and Industry is home to The Great Train Story, a 3,500-square-foot HO scale railroad with more than 20 trains, plus the Pioneer Zephyr and the 999 steam locomotive.

In Baldwin City, Kansas, the Midland Railway Historical Association restored a former Santa Fe branch toward Ottawa as a demonstration excursion railroad. Confirm the current schedule before you go.

The volunteer-led Austin Steam Train Association runs the Hill Country Flyer, a 66-mile round trip from Cedar Park to Burnet in restored vintage railcars, plus themed rides and the North Pole Flyer.

At the last stop of an old branch line in Currie, Minnesota, End-O-Line Railroad Park & Museum keeps a hand-operated turntable, an 1875 Baldwin steam engine and a village of historic buildings.

At Shelburne Museum, the 1890 Shelburne railroad station that once served Central Vermont and Rutland passengers stands on the campus with a stationmaster's office, telegraph gear and a freight shed full of rail tools.

Free every day it is open, Travel Town Museum in Griffith Park has preserved the railroad history of Southern California since 1952, with historic cars, a Fred Harvey exhibit and a miniature train ride.

In Pocahontas County, Cass Scenic Railroad State Park runs geared Shay steam locomotives up the 1901 logging line on Back Allegheny Mountain and rents out the old company houses of a lumber town.