Inside the former Cotton Belt shops in Pine Bluff, the Arkansas Railroad Museum keeps steam locomotive 819, a wartime relief train and dozens of diesels, cabooses and passenger cars.

The volunteer-run West Chester Railroad carries families on 90-minute round trips through the Chester Creek Valley to the 1880s Glen Mills station, with fall, Halloween, Santa and Christmas tree trains.

A volunteer-run Fall River museum telling the story of the Old Colony Railroad, now known for a detailed model railroad with more than 240 feet of track. It opens only on select dates.

On the Missouri National Guard's Ike Skelton Training Site near Jefferson City, this free museum traces Missouri service from the Revolutionary War era to today's Guard.

Volunteers in Jefferson, Ohio saved an 1872 Lake Shore & Michigan Southern depot two weeks before demolition, then built a 19th century living history village around it with costumed guided tours.

In Hagan Community Park, Rancho Cordova, California, volunteers of the Sacramento Valley Live Steamers run ride-on scale trains over more than a mile of track, trestles and bridges beside the American River.

Georgia's Official Transportation History Museum spreads more than 90 locomotives, Pullmans, cabooses and buses across 35 acres in Duluth, and every regular admission includes a caboose train ride.

For years, volunteers ran spring, fall and Santa excursion trains over the Buckingham Branch Railroad's 17-mile line between Bremo and Dillwyn. Here is the story of that line and where to ride now.

In Tehachapi, California, volunteers rebuilt a 1904 Southern Pacific depot after a 2008 fire and filled it with the story of the Tehachapi Loop, a signal garden and oral histories. Admission is always free.

In downtown Savannah, the Georgia State Railroad Museum fills the old Central of Georgia shops with a working turntable, a handcar kids can pump, walk-through railcars and short train rides on select days.

The Texas Railroad History Museum appears on lists of Houston area rail preservation efforts, but we could not confirm a public site, address or hours. Here is what to check and where to go nearby.

In Union Bridge, Maryland, the Western Maryland Railway Historical Society keeps the WM's 1902 station and office complex open as a museum of artifacts, archives and model layouts.

The Railroad Museum of Long Island runs two North Fork sites: a hands-on restoration yard in Riverhead with a World's Fair park train, and the 1892 LIRR freight house in Greenport.

At the south end of Lincoln Park, the Chicago History Museum connects families and researchers to the city's railroad and 'L' story through artifacts, trolley tours, classroom lessons and its research center.

Looking for a railroad museum in Santa Cruz? The Santa Cruz County Railroad Historical Society shares local rail history through operating model railroad exhibits at the annual County Fair.

From the 1880s depot in Chama, New Mexico, Cumbres & Toltec steam trains climb a 4% grade to Cumbres Pass and lunch at Osier, with an open rail yard full of rotary plows and freight cars.

At a restored 1909 Erie depot south of Rochester, volunteers keep a large collection of historic trains and vintage diesels running, and on event days they take visitors for a ride.

The San Antonio Railroad Heritage Museum shares South Texas railroad history from Elmendorf, with railroadiana inside the public library and a growing roster of locomotives, cabooses and work equipment.

In the piney woods of Long Leaf, Louisiana, the Southern Forest Heritage Museum preserves a complete early 1900s sawmill complex, with a roundhouse, steam locomotives and a railbus that carries visitors down the line.

North Tonawanda's free railroad museum, run by the Niagara Frontier Chapter NRHS, fills a restored Erie Railroad freight depot with artifacts from more than a century of Western New York railroading.