California State Railroad Museum

Specs
Type:	Museum, Trains
Distance:	Short Drive
Area:	Sacramento
Ages:	All Ages
Cost:	$
Information:	www.csrmf.org

The California State Railroad Museum is not huge, but it has enough to keep a family occupied for a couple of hours, especially if you take your time and then finish your trip with a train ride along the Sacramento River.

This museum is pretty inexpensive and has a lot of walk-on exhibits, which is great for train-loving kids. There are 21 restored locomotives and cars, and exhibits are designed to teach visitors about the railroad's place in California and western-states history. Regular exhibits include a dining car complete with railroad china, a refrigerator car and a railway post office, as well as a Pullman-style sleeping car and a caboose.

When you're finished looking at the stationary exhibits, you can go outside to the train station and board a closed coach or open-air gondola pulled by a vintage diesel locomotive. Or if you're feeling rich, you can get on board the first-class observation car.

Photo Credit: Jack Snell "Snappy Jack"

Train ride tickets aren't included in the cost of the museum; in fact you can expect to spend about as much for the tickets as you do to get into the museum--unless you're going to ride the first class car, in which case the price is about $5 more for adults and an extra $10 for kids.