Steam trains have run between Durango and Silverton since 1882 on a line blasted into the Animas Canyon. The railroad also runs a free 12,000-square-foot museum inside its Durango roundhouse.

Outside Freeport, Illinois, a volunteer club runs a 1912 Heisler steam locomotive over track it rebuilt by hand, with an 1889 caboose, a depot full of memorabilia and a 28-room museum next door.

In Toledo on the Oregon coast, the Yaquina Pacific Railroad Historical Society shows the town's logging and mill railroads with a Baldwin steam engine, a 1907 caboose and a 1923 Railway Post Office car. Admission is free.

In historic Old Town Rosenberg, the nonprofit Rosenberg Railroad Museum tells Fort Bend County's railroad story with Tower 17, rail cars and a model train layout near the old Southern Pacific station.

Beside the Santa Fe tracks in Belen, New Mexico, a restored Fred Harvey dining house now tells the story of the Harvey Girls, local railroad life and Belen's past, with a volunteer cafe inside.

The North Shore Bank Safari Train is the Milwaukee County Zoo's oldest and most popular ride, carrying hundreds of thousands of riders a year through the zoo's parkland behind small diesel locomotives.

The Watauga Valley Railroad Historical Society runs the Chuckey Depot Museum in Jonesborough, restores vintage passenger cars for mainline service and sponsors train excursions for the public.

The Virginia Scenic Railway runs dining, dome and themed excursions from downtown Staunton and from Louisa, with a restored 1948 California Zephyr dome car and a holiday Santa Express.

Volunteers run 40-minute weekend train rides on the Glass Rock Spur in Mt. Perry, Ohio, with themed days from Hobo Camp to the Pumpkin Train and Santa Train, and dogs are welcome aboard.

Fillmore's 1887 Southern Pacific depot anchors a small historical park in Ventura County, with a 1919 Rancho Sespe bunkhouse, a 1905 Craftsman home and exhibits on the town the railroad created.

The Saginaw Valley Railroad Historical Society runs the Saginaw Railway Museum in a historic depot on Maple Street, with cabooses, boxcars, an interlocking tower and free admission.

Decatur's restored 1905 union depot, built by the Southern Railway and shared with the L&N, now holds a small railroad museum with a model train layout, railroad videos and a front-row seat for passing trains.

The Dollywood Express is a genuine 110-ton narrow gauge steam train that carries Dollywood guests on a five-mile, 20-minute loop through the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains.

In Virginia City and Nevada City, the Montana Heritage Commission cares for a gold rush collection of over a million artifacts, a depot visitor center and the narrow gauge line Charlie Bovey built in 1964.

A family guide to 17 Michigan train museums and heritage railroads, from the Glancy Trains in Detroit and the Greenfield Village turntable to steam rides in Coldwater and a narrow gauge train in the Upper Peninsula.

Nine Connecticut train museums and rail sites: trolley rides in East Windsor and East Haven, a turntable train in Danbury, steam in Essex, real tower levers in South Norwalk and a holiday model train show.

Edaville began in 1947 as Ellis Atwood's two-foot gauge railroad around his Carver cranberry bogs. Today its holiday festival pairs train rides through the lights with villages, skating and Santa.

From its depot in Bryson City, the Great Smoky Mountains Railroad runs steam and diesel excursions over 53 miles of mountain track, across Fontana Lake to the Nantahala Gorge and through Cowee Tunnel to Dillsboro.

Built by the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad as its line reached Sheridan, the Historic Sheridan Inn became Buffalo Bill's headquarters and is again welcoming overnight guests.

Since 1973, the Lackawanna & Wyoming Valley Railway Historical Society has kept northeastern Pennsylvania's rail story alive, preserving the old DL&W depots at Moscow and helping run holiday trains with Steamtown.