Designed by architect Cass Gilbert and built in 1898, the Northern Pacific depot at 701 Main Avenue in Fargo once had two huge fireplaces and a restaurant, and it joined the National Register in 1975.

Opened in 1894 as the world's largest train station, with 31 tracks under one enclosed shed, St. Louis Union Station is now a National Historic Landmark filled with attractions and dining.

Beside the tracks on East Douglas in downtown Wichita, the volunteer-built Great Plains Transportation Museum shows Santa Fe steam and diesel power, cabooses and cabs kids can climb into.

Summerville's 1918 Central of Georgia depot sits beside Dowdy Park with a working turntable across the street, and it is the end of the line for steam excursions from Chattanooga.

From the Santa Fe Depot in Cañon City, the Royal Gorge Route Railroad runs 2-hour trips into the Royal Gorge, with granite walls rising over 1,000 feet above the Arkansas River and meals cooked on board.

In downtown Albany, Georgia, Thronateeska Heritage Center fills the old railroad depot district with a history museum in the 1913 Union Station, a rail car display and the Wetherbee Planetarium.

Brownwood's Lehnis Railroad Museum grew from a retired Santa Fe man's lifelong collection. Expect a 1931 caboose, a 1929 Pullman car, running model trains and a Saturday Mini-Train for kids and adults.

In the restored Southern Pacific passenger depot in Colfax, California, the Colfax Area Historical Society runs a heritage museum on the town where the Central Pacific began its climb over the Sierra.

In Cheyenne's Holliday Park, Union Pacific Big Boy No. 4004 sits on display, a retired giant from the class of 25 steam engines built for Union Pacific between 1941 and 1944.

A family guide to 7 South Dakota train museums and rail sites in 7 towns: a steam train through the Black Hills, a prairie railroad laid with 1887 rail, old depots in Deadwood and Sioux Falls, and two free museums.

Off I-5 in Brooks, Oregon, Powerland Heritage Park gathers heritage museums on 62 acres, with trolley rides, miniature trains, steam engines and the award-winning Great Oregon Steam-Up each summer.

The Pennsylvania Railroad Technical & Historical Society collects, researches and shares the history of the PRR through The Keystone, The Keystone Modeler, an online PRR Chronology and its annual meeting.

In Fort Madison's Old Santa Fe Depot Complex by the Mississippi, the North Lee County Historical Society runs free museums with Santa Fe steam engine 2913, a caboose and a transportation museum.

A family guide to 6 South Carolina train museums: the Best Friend replica in Charleston, granite quarry train rides in Winnsboro, 1916 dioramas in Aiken's rebuilt depot and a Merci Train boxcar in Bishopville.

The Shore Line Trolley Museum in East Haven runs restored trolleys on the Branford Electric Railway, opened in 1900, and cares for nearly 100 streetcars, subway cars and work cars.

North of Pittsburgh in Gibsonia, the Western Pennsylvania Model Railroad Museum tells the region's railroad story through a 40 by 100 foot HO scale layout of the line from Pittsburgh to Cumberland, Maryland.

For more than 25 years, Joanne and Howard Schrader's quarter-scale Michigan AuSable Valley Railroad carried riders through the Huron National Forest near Fairview. It closed for good in 2021.

The Indiana Railway Museum runs the French Lick Scenic Railway, a train ride from a 1907 limestone depot through the Hoosier National Forest and the 2,200-foot Burton Tunnel in southern Indiana.

Inside the family-owned Clark's Bears park in Lincoln, the White Mountain Central Railroad pushes visitors over a 1904 covered bridge behind a rare 1920 Climax geared steam locomotive.

In Willimantic, the Connecticut Eastern Railroad Museum gathers restored railroad buildings, a rebuilt six-stall roundhouse and diesel locomotives into a small railroad village called Columbia Junction.