This is a fantastic museum!! It’s well laid out, has tons of information, really too much to comprehend in one day. It’s very large. When we arrived at opening time, my heart sank to see 3 bus loads of elementary students there. But this place is so big it wasn’t crowded at all even with all those kids. It is a very comprehensive collection, from antique engines to toy and model trains. There were some great model layouts and a good junior ranger program to keep the kids interested. My favorite exhibit was the examples of the china place settings from the various trains. I’d love to go back to catch what I missed the first time.

This is an excellent museum even if you are not into railroading. There is a lot of history here and the hands on exhibits are worth the price of admission alone. This place is a lot bigger that what you expect by looking at the outside. Well worth a trip to go there!

This museum is amazing even if no one is there to share with you. The exhibits are well marked, interesting to see and very informative. The rail cars and locomotives are in such beautiful shape. You could get a feel for what it was like to be in the sleeper car, or the mail car or even the box car that moves produce. The model train collection is extensive beyond description. The true treasure is in their staff and volunteer staff. The docents are personable and have knowledge way beyond a script. The working personnel also have much knowledge and freely share it. Plan for the large portion of the day to give it justice. We, my husband, grandson and I, spent almost 2 full days there. Even though we live in Colorado we chose to get a membership. These kinds of museums must be supported.

This is a truly remarkable collection of both real and model trains! It’s a great place to learn about the history of trains too! We learned about the Chinese rail workers that helped build the first transcontinental railroad! The golden spike was cool to see too! The have various engines, dining cars, mail cars, sleepers, box cars and even an engine built for clearing snow! It’s situated in the old town area of Sacramento and fits in perfectly! I highly recommend visiting this place! It’s both fun and educational with great photo ops!

We had a few hours to kill before our flight home. What a nice surprise. We are not RR buffs, but the California history and the amazing railroad displays were a winner. We enjoyed the train cars that were restored to historic accuracy and allowed us to walk through. The docents were great with info and fun facts. Definitely worth a visit.

I loved touring this museum, stepping inside the old trains, and learning the history of the building of our railways. Fascinating. I especially loved the posted information about the women who not only supported the men, but also helped pave the way for future women in the railroad museum. We need to give more credit to Chinese-Americans, who risked their lives and were poorly compensated in building our railway system. As an aside, if you want to ride one of their trains, make a reservation early. The Railroad Museum train ride - The Polar Express - is sold out for the season!

We really enjoyed our trip to the California State Railroad Museum. There are lots of beautiful American 4-4-0 locomotives from the 1870's era and the last Cab Forward in existence, the Southern Pacific 4294, where you can go into the cab and sit in the Engineers or Fireman's seat. There is also a box car, a Post office car, a sleeper car and a dining car you can walk thru. A few years ago they added to the 3rd floor a Model Railroading exhibit called the Magic of Scale Model Railroading with assistance of the National Model Railroad Association (NMRA) which is great info if you think you are interested in starting in the Model Train hobby. There are also some excellent different scale model railroad layouts and they even have the control panels belonging to the greatest model railroader of all time, John Allen who designed and created the Gorre & Daphetid layout, that burned up in a fire in his house on display. On the 3rd floor is also an area for children to play in. They also have on Fridays from 10 - 12 noon a model train repair booth. There is also a really nice gift shop for books, videos, T shirts and coffee cups. It's located in old town Sacramento with lots of shops & restaurants in the area. Parking is in a parking garage right across the street.

What a great place, it covers the history of the railroad, the people involved, the places and conditions. The exhibits are great and are dressed ie with tableware etc.. and one of the trains rocks as though it’s moving. There is also a fantastic model railway exhibition. Definitely worth a visit.

Had a great time visiting. Only disappointment was being a weekday so missed out on the train ride as its only weekends. You can sit in the cab of steam loco, walk through dining and sleeping cars. Staff are excellent, polite. Informative and always take time to answer any questions

Lots of fun history of trains in America! We loved being able to climb into a few train cars and wish they had more that were hands-on, but it was good enough. They had a lot of really interesting info about the history of the railroad. We also loved the exhibit of model trains on the third floor, especially the cool dioramas. We only had an hour to spare but managed to see everything quickly!