The Western America Railroad Museum occupies part of Barstow’s Casa del Desierto, the historic Harvey House hotel and station complex. That setting gives the museum a railway story before a visitor reaches the first display. Barstow developed as an important railway service point in the Mojave Desert, and the surviving passenger complex recalls the infrastructure needed to move travelers across long distances in the American West.
Casa del Desierto replaced an earlier station building destroyed by fire in 1908. Built for the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway, the complex combined transport and hospitality in a substantial architectural landmark. Its history belongs to the Fred Harvey network of hotels and restaurants serving railway passengers. Food, accommodation and reliable service were essential parts of a journey, not decorative extras added after the trains had been designed.
The museum’s indoor collection includes railway timetables, uniforms and other memorabilia, while locomotives and cars are displayed outside. These two scales of exhibit complement one another. The machinery shows what moved along the line; smaller objects suggest the people, information and routines that made the railway work. A uniform identifies a human role, and a timetable reveals a network of destinations that extended far beyond the desert station.
The building also houses other uses, including the separate Route 66 Mother Road Museum. That combination creates an interesting transport-history comparison, but the two museums should not be confused. The railway collection interprets Barstow and the wider Pacific Southwest, whereas the neighboring road museum tells a different story about movement through the same landscape. The station’s continuing association with passenger rail adds another layer of continuity.
During a visit, consider the scale of the hotel-and-depot architecture alongside the working railway surroundings. The complex makes it possible to explore transport history as a complete traveler experience, with station facilities, hospitality and trains all connected. Access to one part of Casa del Desierto should not be assumed to establish the opening arrangements of every institution within it.
Visitor information
Researched November 2026.
Sources
More railroad museums in California
- California State Railroad Museum — Sacramento: Major railroad museum
- Fullerton Train Museum — Fullerton: Passenger-car and railroad collection
- Golden Gate Railroad Museum — Schellville: Locomotive and passenger-equipment preservation collection
- Laws Railroad Museum — Bishop: Railroad and local history museum
- Lomita Railroad Museum — Lomita: Railroad museum
- Nevada County Narrow Gauge Railroad Museum — Nevada City: Narrow-gauge railroad museum
- Niles Canyon Railway / Pacific Locomotive Association — Sunol: Operating railroad preservation collection
- Niles Depot Museum — Fremont: Depot and railroad history museum
- All 19 railroad museums and sites in California
Keep exploring
- All heritage sites — museums, stations and landmarks
- Pacific — the trains you can ride in the region