This is a must-stop in Portland for any railfan. Get up close with beautifully restored MASSIVE steam engines with informative history displays. See behind the scenes of ongoing resoration work. Volunteer docents will happily answer any questions. Great gift shop with a large variety of items for all ages. Diesel-led scenic train rides in the summer and early fall are great for kids. Donation-based entry, make sure to pitch in to keep it going!

What a great place to take your child! Even as an adult, I had fun here. I highly recommend buying a ticket for the train ride.

A stunning museum for museum lovers of any kind. Not a huge number of exhibits but it’s packed with information that really helps pique your curiosity for locomotive transport. The central stunning pieces are the multiple full sized locomotives that are still in working order and used seldomly on a yearly basis. Step up on the multiple display to get a close look at all the engines and conductor compartments. Got a sneak peek at the inside of one of the conductor compartments in a rare occasion. Come support this museum through an awesome train ride a couple miles away which run every hour or two. Considering the entire museum is absolutely free, this museum shouldn’t be missed whether you’re a local, or a visitor from any corner of the globe. Easy enough to get to on public transport and take advantage of the river walk trails nearby.

The staff were very friendly. The historical trains are so fun to walk through. Well worth the stop if youre walking around OMSI. If you have kids this is a true little gem in Portland.

What a cool place! I knew old steam locomotives were big I just never realized they were THAT big. Admission is free since its donation based. Everyone who works there are volunteers. There are a few locomotives to look at in various stages of being restored with sign boards detailing the history of that particle engine. The front of the museum has a sleep car and caboose that you can go inside of. Neat place to go if your interested in trains and of course a great place to take the kids.

Great experience for the whole family .. My son is in love with the 4449 Daylight. Great staff .

This has to be one of the best Railroad Museums ever. Everyone is so friendly, and the tour is amazing. The history there is just incredible. They have an extremely famous steam locomotive there (Southern Pacific #4449) and it is beautiful. I would highly recommend going here. You will not be sorry.

Awesome place to introduce your little ones to the massive majesty and history of the steam locomotive! Multiple static displays, interactive learning stations, and incredibly knowledgeable, helpful, and most importantly friendly folks on staff to answer questions and tell all about the history and the workings of the trains.Dont waste a weekend sitting at home.

Very friendly staff, neat exhibits, great preservation of rail history

Cool vintage trains. Visitors are able to get close and view the old locomotives. The volunteers are kind and friendly and there is a fun train ride that takes you alongside the river to Oaks park. Also a fun toy train play area for the little ones in the museum. Outside the kids can ring a bell that was from an old train. Slight downside is the many homeless people camped under the bridge along part of the train route. Brings down the mood a little. But the views of the water, the bridges and the natural habitat areas more than makes up for it.

Really cool old trains, kids area with play train tracks, gift shop and history displays all for a suggested $5 donation. If you like trains at all, it is definitely worth the trip. We rode the MAX to the OMSI stop and it is just a few yards away. Nice volunteer staff. Take a few minutes and youll see trains, the trolley, buses and MAX all in motion from here.

Thoroughly enjoyed the day we spent here. Wish they had more to see and do, but they are off to a good start. My son absolutely loved the train ride! Come visit and check out railroad history. Their huge Freedom Train exhibit was absolutely awesome!!!!

Very interesting place to visit. If you have any interest in trains whatsoever then I would certainly suggest popping in and taking a look around. They have a few engines that are being restored on site in the custom-built building. It’s run by volunteers and survives on donations, grants and profits from the shop. Entry is free, and we were told that if we enjoyed it a donation we felt appropriate would be gratefully received - something that I would certainly encourage!

Wonderful train museum for your train lovers. We took our three year old who loves trains and he was most intrigued by the toy trains in the lobby :-) nevertheless he had fun and we enjoyed seeing the steam engines, Diesel engine and other cars that were very well kept for display. Thanks to all the volunteers that help put this together for the public!

A small but great rail museum where they are actively restoring engines right in front of you. Though several of the engines in the building you could walk up to, access for exploration other than looking in the window was blocked off. By request you could tour a passenger car and crew caboose in the rail yard. Several more engines outside were off limits. There is an optional train ride, where you can choose between two open sight-seeing cars, a caboose with seating in the upper viewing area, and a restored high-class sleeper coach. We chose to ride in the sleeper coach and explored its many rooms, vintage electrical features, and wood charm. Was a great experience. My young nieces and nephews loved riding in the upper part of the caboose, and though their parents found the $10 fee unreasonable, the vintage car we rode in was worth every penny. Would love to explore this place again. Information placards are hard to follow, especially if you know nothing of train and rail terminology.

Because I here to you know me, Im Southern Pacific 4449.

Not the biggest train mesuem but its great to see the old steam engines up close.

Great place to take a train lover. The museum is free. My husband and I took our 1, 3 and 13 year old here and they had a good time. We walked around a steam train and got to see how they do repairs. It has so much information about trains. They have a game for the kids to play and two train tables for the little kids to play with toy trains. We did buy tickets to ride the train and the kids enjoyed being on a real train. Its a good place to spend a little time.

This little museum offers a wonderful 45 minute train ride with a stop at the end to a little amusement park in the woods. The ride was soothing, picturesque and pleasant. I will visit this little gem if ever I get back to Portland again.

Great place to take kids

Highly recommended!! Great for families or just adults. We totally LOVED the Saturday train. Be sure to go and take your friends. We were surprised at hope much fun we thought it was. Staff is super friendly and knowledgeable. Check out the Freedom Train exhibit closely, there are a lot of details including a mock up train. Well done.

Very well kept, if you are a rail buff go see it

One of Portlands best kept secrets for kids! Great location, just down the street from OMSI. The volunteers are super friendly and informative. Plan on maybe spending 45 min here (longer if you are feeling chatty or take the train ride). And its free!

My grandson loved it. Wish we could have gone inside the cars and the locomotive cabs like other train museums. They had shuffled engines so the signs did not match and caused confusion.

Nice place for train, if you are a fan. You can look into classic train closely.

An excellent place to bring your kids to show them how Industry and Travel used to work in this country. Friendly, accommodating staff, and admission is totally free, but they love donations. Be sure to check the website for hours of operation, as it is usually only open on weekends.

The trains are massive. Was surprised how large the steam engines were. My 2 year old loved the train ride. Will go back again

So much fun and informative! The whole family enjoyed the experience and were looking forward to going back in the summer!

Amazing place. Have been here several times and always learn something new about trains. It is really cool to walk next to the giant steam engines and see inside the boilers. We had my sons 5th birthday here and it was great. All of the volunteers are tremendously helpful and friendly. Will definitely go back again. My kids are interested to go about once a month or so and as a free activity it is a regular place on our schedule.

Great place to visit and see the history of the American railways. Free to get in, but donations are welcomed and appreciated to keep the museum open. Staff is happy to answer any questions and give a tour through the facilities.

Its a great place to visit, specially if youre in a budget since its free. We were lucky enough to see the train actually run, which is reserved only for members. Great place for awesome pictures! And very friendly and knowledgeable people.

My son loves trains! So naturally we had to come on a weekend and take a train ride. Thats really all we did. Id love to go back and learn more about these amazing machines.

Cool little place to check out, by donation. Nice older men working the front who we got to chatting with. Small place with a little gift shop but definitely worth stopping by.

Home of the SP4449 and other classic steam engines.

Free museum which is good. Docents were a little gruff but they were all volunteers. Only one out of three were able to answer my questions about the mechanism of the steam locomotive. Otherwise its a great place to take kids.

This is an excellent place to go! The people there go above and beyond to help you and give you information on the trains and the area.

A most amazing place with lots of awesome train knowledge. Super kind staff

I have not been to this place yet to check out the old trains and Im a train lover but I will get there and let you know ASAP until then go check it out from the outside looks pretty new and cool recommended

A railroad museum. For a very small fee you can get a guided tour of their engines and climb around on a caboose. Its fun.

You find yourself face to face with beautiful iron beasts of history as you walk around this place. The art deco Southern Pacific Daylight 4449 locomotive - the last of its kind - sits at rest, but you know that in short order it could be powered up and would be capable of pulling passengers to destinations far and wide, and would look stunning doing it. But for now, you can get right up close and personal with it, as just its wheels tower over you, not to mention the rest of the engine that sits upon them. And for the briefest of moments, you are transported back in time, to when steam was king, when the industrial revolution was happening all around, and modern history was still in the future.As you pass around the Oregon Rail Heritage Center, youll also come face to face with several locomotives, cars, and equipment, and each one alone is in its own right worth the visit to the Center.For children, the experience will be totally different from that of adults, but your family will love having these experiences together.Entrance is free, but its well deserving of your donation.If you visit on the weekend during the summer, make it a day of trains! Ride their train that goes to Oaks Park and back, and then be sure to coordinate with the Willamette Shore Trolley. Just take the Portland Streetcar or MAX across Tilikum Crossing, then the Streetcar south to Lowell. Get off and walk a block down Moody to Bancroft, and youll find the station there.Take your kids to experience the wonder of the history of rail. You wont be disappointed.

Great old trains, free to get in, friendly staff. worth a visit!

October 2017, I decided to go on a Portland adventure. I drove, rode MAX, and walked in order to take pictures of any mural I came across. I had wanted to go to the ORHC for a long time. I was moseying around outside and decided to go inside. I didnt know to they sold train rides. Of course, I went! It was such a beautiful, little jaunt down the Spring water Corridor. If you have small children, sit inside and/or have to them wear ear protection; the whistle is loud (obviously).

The docents were so nice and offer tours, and the trains are humongous! The kid in you will enjoy learning all about them!

We enjoyed our time at the railroad museum. The volunteers were great, very friendly and knowledgeable of the displays. We met people from Washington, Oregon, Idaho, New York and Texas in the span of about 45 minutes. The souvenir shop has some nice stuff and the restrooms are clean. This is a nice place to take family and friends for a little bit of Americana from the past.

The ORHC was an amazing experience! My 5 yr old enjoyed every single minute.

7 year old train lover loved looking at the historic trains. Theyve done a great job at this all volunteer museum. The rail trip to Oaks Park and back was great, got to sit up front with the engineer. I have one very happy boy.

Awesome Museum! Will be back to take a train ride. Everything was well thought out in a beautiful new building. Funny and informative greeters at the front door.

What a great experience!! My kids loved seeing the trains and interactive things they could play with

The Daylight is a marvel. Thank you to the Rail Heritage Centre for preserving it for us to enjoy. We enjoyed our visit and would love to return to see the Daylight in action.

This is the place to go to get up close and personal with gigantic working steam locomotives. The vintage rail cars are quite a sight. I love that there is a working machine shop fabricating parts to keep these trains rolling, and that the skills for maintaining this rail equipment are being passed on to younger folks. Fascinating piece of history!

Great place, there were people playing live bluegrass when we were there. Close to OMSI too.

Knowledgeable staff. Their work is a labor of love

Great place to explore the history of rail! Super friendly volunteer staff... kids enjoyed the scavenger hunt!

Would be great to have access inside the locos.

Went to the festival of Lights being held at this location. We had an incredible time. The old trains were hella cool to see but I adored the tesla coil show

The staff was very knowledgeable on each of the trains. There exhibits are interactive and the train ride was wonderful. Try the Saturday afternoon train rides, I highly recommend it! It is located close to OMSI, so its a great afternoon activity.

Worth a quick stop, although it would be great if we could actually go inside some of the trains.

SP4449!!! Need I say more?The staff there is very friendly, and bring able to get up close and personal with those magnificent machines ... and its free!

Quirky and fact-filled. Great if you want to learn anything about Oregon railroads or take a short ride along the Willamette.

The museum is very accessible and enjoyable to folks with a varying range of interest and knowledge about railroads. The staff is quite knowledge and very friendly, a wonderful experience!

Amazing if you like steam trains. Lots of memorabilia. Fun for 2- 100+ aged people. You get to ring a bell and look up close at Steam Trains!!!! Play area for young children( Two sets of train tracks) volunteers on site to talk to and answer questions. Five dollar suggested donation. MT. Hood brewery across the st. Wood fired pizza at a reasonable price.

Portland is the only city that owns TWO OPERATING steam locomotives. The ORHC is where they live. In addition, there is another steam engine and another early diesel under restoration. This is where you learn about Oregons rail history. There is no place like this anywhere else.

The folk at this place are performing quite a feat in restoring these old (1930s perhaps) railroad locomotives to nearly pristine condition. Although not exceedingly large, I enjoyed all that they currently have on display.No admission fee is charged, but they urge a donation if possible - no pressure on that. They seem to be pleased to have visitors and make one feel welcome.

Youll like it if youre really into trains. It has three restored steam engines, one of which pulled the Freedom Train in 76, plus a diesel. Its a working shop so you cant actually get inside any of the engines or other cars on site. Entrance by free will donation.

You cannot board the engines but you can look inside. The size of these engines are very impressive! Well worth the visit, admission is free

Great place to learn about trains locomotives cabooses! Lots of volunteers help you to understand what’s going on. Donations are excepted. The goal is around house

Very friendly, fun and educational as well as affordable! Great for all ages.

Took my son there and he loved it trains are his favorite

This museum is donation based. I love this place, Ive been several time. The staff is friendly, it is in a convenient location. The size of the locamotives here is awe inspiring. Lots of history here.

Some amazing hardware on display. Those engines are BIG!

Had a lot of fun looking at the old locomotives. Time well spent.

Alot of great history and a trin ride

Awesome collection of locomotives and train hardware with details and looks into the rebuild and maintenance process.

This is my second visit to see these huge steam locomotives. Glad to see things are progressing, and look forward to seeing the turntable being built and eventually operating. I think it might be an idea to get a small 040 or 060 tank engine to steam around the sidings. Would enable people to see an engine in steam far more frequently than steaming the big locos.

Nice to see old trains. Would have liked to see inside passenger cars and how it may have looked back in the olden days. The trains are huge, and cool but more artifacts would have been nice. The smell was pretty strong (oil + grease?) So that was uncomfortable. Too many volunteers standing around in entry way, very crowded just trying to walk in the door. Kind of awkward. They were friendly though.

Pretty cool place to go and learn about train history and see a few train engines up close.

If you have any interest at all in steam trains, this place is great. I had no idea how big and complex these old trains were. Its nice to be able to be so close to history.

I brought my unvaccinated nephew here, he absolutely loved it! Especially the ball pit in the play pen. Definitely recommend you to being your own kids too!

Wow, overwhelmingly awesome. Perfect place for any train enthusiast.

Not the usual museum. Actual engines to see besides history displayed in a great way

Such an awesome place to take our 3 year old for a quick look at real train engines. Wooden trains up front to play extended our time there. Good displays of information for older groups to read (did not spend any time reading displays with our kids)

For what it is it is wonderful! Definitely made for older rail enthusiasts. My 2 year old still had a mega blast and the gift shop is awesome. And the volenteers were super friendly.

Very cool to be up close and personal with some old steam and diesel trains. Check the running schedules ahead of time to make sure theyre all in. We missed the Southern Pacific 4449 due to it running the holiday Christmas service. Well be back to check it out again in the future.

Beautiful locomotives and super kid-friendly. Great birthday party spot

Ok if you like trains. Pretty small place, but there is no admission. Donations are accepted.

Free admission (donations encouraged but not required), knowledgeable staff, interesting displays, huge trains. Even if you just have 5-10 minutes to stop by and wander around after going to OMSI its a worthwhile trip.

It is a fun place to visit for the weekends. You can take the train for 30 minutes ride along the riverbank to the oaks tree amusement park.

The museum has done a fantastic job of preserving and maintaining some amazing locomotives. Its clean and for someone who loves trains, this would be a fantastic museum.For the kiddo train enthusiast, there are a couple train tracks and toy trains available to play to setup and relax before your trek towards the OMSI.Parking is under the overpass across the :O train tracks from the museum. Dont miss it.

Beautiful Locomotives! These guys are taking great care of them! THANK YOU!

Awesome museum with full size functional trains.

The engines on display are very impressive and my kids also enjoyed the train tables. Getting to see inside the trains is their favorite thing, so I hope they will add more stairs for viewing. We enjoyed the trip down to Oaks Park- lots of options for seating in different cars.

The Daylight is a beautiful piece of living history, and Portlands little ray of California sunshine. Ive been a fan my entire life. Im very grateful that ORHC exists to preserve these engines and educate the public.

Great! Everyone is super friendly and eager to answer any questions you have.

See and touch one of the largest steam locomotives in rail history. Learn the history of the Daylight #4449 and 3 other lovingly restored engines. Come when the engines are fired up from time to time! Tours and gift store available, too.

Amazing one of a kind engines. The volunteers are very friendly and knowledgeable.

Fun place. Our grand nephew had a birthday party here.

A very interesting place to see all sorts of old trains & equipment. Several are in the rebuilding stage so inner workings are visible.

Good and great place to go visit...

Wonderful museum. Parking lot is hard to find. Restaurant across the street is fabulous.

Fun place! Growing up the son of a railroad man, I always loved the old school trains. This place doesnt disappoint!