On 20 acres north of New Prague, volunteers at the Gopher State Railway Museum run a caboose train on first Saturdays and are restoring the 1880 private car James J. Hill rode west.

In Folkston, Georgia, a covered railfan platform sits beside the Folkston Funnel, the double-track CSX main line that carries dozens of freight and Amtrak trains into and out of Florida every day.

The all-volunteer Belfast & Moosehead Lake Railroad keeps a Maine shortline story of more than 155 years alive with weekend round trips, themed food trains and holiday rides from Unity station.

Since 1970, the Folsom Valley Railway has carried families around a park in Folsom on a 12-inch gauge steam train that first ran in the Berkeley hills, including the little 4-4-0 known as Cricket.

Volunteers have run narrow gauge steam trains around McMillan Park in Mount Pleasant, Iowa since 1960, led by 1891 Baldwin No. 6, Maria. Rides run at the Old Threshers Reunion and holiday events.

Across the tracks from the Cheyenne depot, Union Pacific's working Steam Shop and roundhouse house Big Boy 4014 and the railroad's Heritage Fleet. The public gets in only on occasional tour days.

Six vintage railcars at the east end of the Fullerton Train Station, from a 1929 Santa Fe caboose to a 1951 Santa Fe sleeper, open free two Saturday mornings a month by SCRPA volunteers.

Built in 1891 for the Cumberland & Pennsylvania Railroad, the Frostburg Depot is now the mountain-top terminus of the Western Maryland Scenic Railroad, where riders step off to explore downtown Frostburg.

Behind Pueblo Union Depot, the all-volunteer Pueblo Railway Museum keeps steam engine ATSF 2912, Rio Grande and Colorado & Southern cars, and runs caboose and speeder rides on event days.

On Kingston's Rondout waterfront, the volunteer-run Trolley Museum of New York keeps streetcars from Brooklyn to Oslo, classic New York subway cars, and runs short trolley rides on weekends in season.

Known as the Movie Railroad, Railtown 1897 in Jamestown keeps the Sierra Railway shops and roundhouse working and runs 45-minute steam and diesel train rides through California's Gold Country.

The Colorado Railroad Museum in Golden keeps more than 100 locomotives, coaches and cabooses on a 15-acre railyard, with a working roundhouse, Galloping Goose rides and a sold-out Polar Express each winter.

San Francisco's vintage streetcars, painted for cities from Boston to Mexico City, run in daily service thanks in large part to Market Street Railway, an independent nonprofit founded by volunteers.

Medford Railroad Park offers free rides on miniature built-to-scale steam trains on the 2nd and 4th Sundays from April through October, with full-size cars, model trains and a working telegraph.

A family guide to Nebraska's 10 train museums and rail sites, from 1940s passenger cars at Omaha's Durham Museum to the tower above Bailey Yard and a Challenger you can climb in North Platte.

The Beaver-Lawrence Railway Historical Society preserves the railroad and industrial history of western Pennsylvania, with a 1957 GE 50-ton locomotive that pulls its B&O and Pennsylvania N5C cabooses.

Next door to the East Broad Top in Rockhill Furnace, volunteers at Pennsylvania's first operating trolley museum run restored streetcars from Philadelphia, York, Johnstown, Portugal and Brazil through the countryside.

Inside Stone Mountain Park, a full-size 1940s locomotive pulls open-air cars on a 25 to 30 minute loop around the base of the granite mountain, boarding at the Marketplace Depot in Crossroads.

At Tucson's historic Southern Pacific depot, the free Southern Arizona Transportation Museum tells how the railroad reshaped the town, with steam locomotive 1673 parked outside and live trains rolling past.

Daniel Burnham's Washington Union Station opened in 1907, nearly fell apart in the 1980s and was restored in 1988. Today it is a working Amtrak, MARC, VRE and Metro hub a few blocks from the Capitol.