The Union Pacific Museum is only open Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays 10-4 each day. It is free but donations are encouraged ($5/adult, $15/family). We tossed a few bucks in the donation box and grabbed a map.
The museum is in the old library which if for no other reason, you need to check out the building itself. You enter on the ground floor and the exhibits are on floors 1 and 2. It is not a big museum. It can easily be done in 30-60 minutes. It doesn't matter which way you go through the floors as they are a giant loop.
On the first floor which is the main exhibit hall, we learned how the transcontinental railroad was built, viewed some of the artifacts from Lincoln's rail car, and artifacts from the days of rail travel.
Lincoln's car and the china was neat to see. I liked being able to walk through the "mountain" and attempting to blow a hole in the mountain. Other than that it seemed like a lot of reading and not enough interactive exhibits for me.
The second floor consisted more of modern rail travel. The hubby got to "drive" a train... okay so he learned how to drive a train by a computer but didn't actual get to steer or brake. I thought the whole getting to drive the train was lame since you really never got to drive it even with the help of a computer. You could also attempt to pick up a piece of rail. Again not too interactive.
Overall, I wasn't overly impressed with the museum. The hubby, on the other hand, loved it. I don't know if I was just tired and not feeling a trip to a museum, even if I suggested it, or it was just that boring. However, if you have a train enthusiast, big or little, it was worth checking out.
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