Built in 1882 and still on its original spot beside active tracks, the National City Depot is San Diego County's oldest railroad building and home to the San Diego Electric Railway Association's streetcar museum.

Scottsdale's 30-acre McCormick-Stillman Railroad Park is free to enter, with $3 rides on the Paradise & Pacific Railroad, a 1950 carousel, a model railroad building and a Pullman car used by presidents.

The Byesville Scenic Railway preserves Guernsey County's coal mining and railroad history on the old Cleveland & Marietta line. Train rides stopped in 2011; static displays have been shown by appointment.

On the grounds of the old Ann Arbor Railroad steam shops in Owosso, Michigan, the Steam Railroading Institute keeps Pere Marquette 1225 in steam and offers free guided tours of its backshop.

Every Saturday, the Galveston County Model Railroad Club opens its layouts on the second floor of the Texas City Museum, a city history museum in a 30,000-square-foot former J.C. Penney building.

Since 1988 the Leadville, Colorado & Southern Railroad has carried riders from the old silver town of Leadville up 1,000 feet into the San Isabel National Forest, with views of Mt. Elbert and Mt. Massive.

In Ely, the Nevada Northern Railway Museum keeps an entire early 1900s railroad in working order, with steam train rides, handcar trips, yard tours and the chance to run a locomotive yourself.

The Flushing Area Historical Society keeps a fully restored train depot on Main Street as the Flushing Area Museum, with railroad and pioneer exhibits, free admission and volunteer-run open days.

Between Camillus and Marcellus, the Martisco Station Museum keeps a restored 1870 brick railroad station, its ground floor set up like a small-town depot and its second floor filled with railroad exhibits.

On the South Dakota State University campus in Brookings, the South Dakota Agricultural Heritage Museum tells the story of farming and rural life in the state, with free admission and a store of South Dakota made goods.

Just north of downtown Asheville, volunteers of the Craggy Mountain Line run open-air trolley rides on a historic Southern Railway branch, with river views, restored cabooses and the Jingle Bell Trolley each December.

The city-run Paterson Museum, founded in 1925, tells the story of Paterson's industries, and its Locomotive Works exhibit covers the shops that built engines for railroads around the world.

The Buckeye Lake Museum, run by the Greater Buckeye Lake Historical Society, shares the story of a central Ohio lake that grew from a canal reservoir into a busy resort and amusement park.

The Livingston Depot Center fills the 1902 Northern Pacific station in downtown Livingston, Montana, once the railroad's gateway to Yellowstone, with a summer museum and year-round community events.

In Clifton Forge, the old heart of the Chesapeake & Ohio, the C&O Historical Society's Heritage Center shows restored locomotives, a 1932 dining car, a Pullman sleeper and a row of cabooses.

The Arkansas & Missouri Railroad hauls freight by day and runs vintage passenger coaches through the Boston Mountains to Winslow and Van Buren, with fall foliage trips and a holiday pajama train.

In downtown Scranton, Steamtown National Historic Site keeps the old Lackawanna railyard alive with a working roundhouse and turntable, Union Pacific Big Boy No. 4012, and steam-era train rides.

From the 1905 depot in downtown Branson, vintage Budd coaches and dome cars roll into the Ozark hills on the old White River Route, through tunnels and over high trestles.

Since 1982 the volunteers of the California Trolley and Railroad Corporation have restored San Jose's vintage streetcars and cared for Southern Pacific steam engines 2479 and 1215. Here is how to see their work.

Near Hockessin, Delaware, the Marshall Steam Museum keeps one of the world's largest operating collections of Stanley steam cars and the Auburn Valley Railroad, a 1/8-size coal-fired line that circles the estate.