In Holdrege, the Nebraska Prairie Museum mixes lighted G, HO and N scale model railroads with a sod house, a German POW exhibit and a Phelps County town square, open year-round.

The Mount Washington Cog Railway climbs the highest peak in the Northeast on grades of 25 percent and more, with biodiesel engines and a pair of century-old coal-fired steam locomotives.

The Illinois Terminal grew from street railways into the Illinois Traction System interurban, linking central Illinois with St. Louis. Here is who keeps its history and where its records are held.

Inside the old Santa Fe Storehouse at the Albuquerque Rail Yards, the volunteer-run WHEELS Museum gathers model trains, locomotives, wagons and cars to tell how transportation built the city.

Founded in 1952, the New Jersey Museum of Transportation runs the Pine Creek Railroad, a narrow gauge train ride in Wall Township where volunteers keep historic equipment and buildings working.

A family guide to 45 Pennsylvania train museums, heritage railroads and rail sites, from Strasburg steam and Scranton's roundhouse to the Horseshoe Curve, with quick picks, drive times and day trips.

The Black Hills Central Railroad runs the 1880 Train, a narrated steam ride of about two hours between Hill City and Keystone on a branch line first laid in the late 1880s.

Since 1939, volunteers of the Wabash Frisco & Pacific have run 12-inch gauge live steam trains, and since 1961 they have carried families two miles along the Meramec River in Glencoe.

At the historic Grand Trunk depot in St. Johns, Michigan, the nonprofit Clinton Northern Railway Museum shows early 1900s railcars, with a special focus on Barney and Smith cars.

Inside a Southern Pacific bay-window caboose beside the downtown depot in Truckee, California, this free volunteer museum tells how railroads built the town, with a Thomas train table for little ones.

From 1991 to 2014 the Ashtabula, Carson & Jefferson ran seasonal 6-mile excursion trains behind Alco switchers in Ashtabula County. The rides have ended, but the short line still hauls freight.

Since 1967 the Cripple Creek & Victor Narrow Gauge Railroad has carried passengers behind small steam locomotives on 2-foot track, out of Cripple Creek and past the mines of the old Gold Camp.

At the Rochelle Railroad Park, families watch Union Pacific and BNSF freight trains cross a double diamond from a covered viewing platform, with a scanner, a gift shop and live webcams.

In Harrington, Delaware, the Greater Harrington Historical Society saved a railroad tower in 1993 and restored it with a 1926 Pennsylvania Railroad N5 caboose and watchman's shack. Admission is free.

The Stourbridge Line runs scenic and themed excursion trains from Honesdale and Hawley, Pennsylvania, along the Lackawaxen River through the northern Poconos, with fall foliage rides among its busiest.

Kennesaw's Southern Museum is home to the General, the locomotive at the center of the 1862 Great Locomotive Chase, along with a recreated locomotive factory, Georgia's Merci Boxcar and a hands-on kids' center.

From its Chattanooga depot, the Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum runs vintage trains across the state line into Northwest Georgia, including the all-day Summerville Steam Special and the Chickamauga Turn.

In Chandler, the all-volunteer Arizona Railway Museum opens its yard of Southwestern locomotives and walk-through passenger cars on weekends from September to May, with a fall festival when everything opens.

Find New York train museums near you: subway cars in Brooklyn, the state's only electric trolley ride near Rochester, steam in Arcade, Adirondack excursions and free depots, with family tips for each.

Running since 1885 on the Redwood Route of Mendocino County, the Skunk Train carries riders from Fort Bragg and Willits through redwood groves, with railbikes, a roundhouse tour and holiday trains.