Missouri’s railroad museums include one of the country’s largest transportation collections. The National Museum of Transportation in St Louis is the anchor, Sedalia’s Katy Depot and Crocker’s Frisco Depot preserve railroad stations, and Saint Joseph’s Patee House combines a full-size train and depot with broader history.
Each listing below links to a full guide with the history, what to look for and how to reach the operator.
Railroad museums & collections — 3
Crocker Frisco Depot Museum
The Frisco Depot Museum in Crocker preserves the story of a railroad that helped create and connect several Pulaski County towns. The station setting gives visitors a direct link with the transport network behind the area’s development. Exhibits combine railway and regional history, making this a focused community heritage stop rather than a large equipment collection. Its correct location matters: Richland shares the Frisco story, but the depot museum identified here is in Crocker.
Read the guide →Katy Depot Sedalia
Sedalia’s Katy Depot was built in 1896 for the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad and restored in 2001. The building preserves the scale and architectural presence of an important passenger station, while exhibits connect railway history with the town around it. Its continuing visitor role demonstrates how a former depot can remain a civic landmark. This is a strong choice for readers interested in station architecture, the Katy system and the relationship between a railroad and a railway community.
Read the guide →Poplar Bluff Railroad Museum
Poplar Bluff’s railroad museum explains the industry that connected the city with major destinations such as Little Rock, Memphis and St. Louis. Its exhibits place the railway within the town’s growth and daily life, making the local setting central to the collection. It is a useful smaller-museum addition for visitors interested in regional rail networks and community history. Care is needed with contact details because the town has other history museums with similar search results.
Read the guide →Operating & preservation collections — 1
Museums with railroad collections — 2
National Museum of Transportation
The National Museum of Transportation in the St. Louis area preserves a substantial railway collection within a broader account of how people and goods moved. Its locomotives and cars allow visitors to compare technologies, purposes and periods rather than focus on a single railroad. The museum’s history dates to 1944, reflecting a long-established preservation effort. The wider transportation exhibits add context for understanding how railways worked alongside, and later competed with, other forms of travel.
Read the guide →Patee House Museum — Train & Depot Collection
The Patee House Museum in St. Joseph includes a full-size historical train and a preserved nineteenth-century depot within a much broader collection. The railway exhibits sit alongside other vehicles and regional-history objects, allowing visitors to consider rail transport as one part of the city’s changing connections with the wider country. This is a related collection rather than a dedicated locomotive museum. Its unusual indoor historical setting makes it a useful addition for visitors interested in both transport and local history.
Read the guide →Ride a train in Missouri
Museums are for walking around; these operators run trains you can ride.
- Branson Scenic Railway — Branson: scenic & dinner railway
Keep exploring
- All heritage sites — flagship sites and state guides
- Midwest — the trains you can ride in the region
- Railroad museums in Illinois
- Railroad museums in Indiana
- Railroad museums in Iowa
- Railroad museums in Kansas
- Railroad museums in Michigan
- Railroad museums in Minnesota
- Railroad museums in Nebraska
- Railroad museums in North Dakota
- Railroad museums in Ohio
- Railroad museums in South Dakota
- Railroad museums in Wisconsin