northern ohio railway museum

This isn't the kind of museum where you walk around in a temperature controlled environment and look at displays behind glass that you can't touch or get close to. This is a working museum where you are walking through the spaces where dedicated volunteers are are wrenching away on history. If you like the smell of axle grease, old wood and welding fumes, and like to actually touch pieces of this country's industrial past, then this is the place for you. You have to step over stuff and walk around things. Myself and my 7-year-old loved it. I much prefer visiting places like this over clean, sterile, museums that nickel and dime you for parking, admission, IMax, etc, and have items behind glass that look better than new. I don't want to see something that looks better than new, I want to see things how they looked and worked while they were in use. You just can't appreciate historical items as much unless they are experienced this way. In fact, the place is 100% free. They do have a donation box. Our tour guide, Brian, was very good, very friendly, and knows his stuff. I do have one suggestion. The gift shop (which is in an old freight car-cool) could be a good source of income for the museum and a draw for visitors, but it has almost nothing in it, and almost nothing has a price on it. The gentleman who gave us our tour had to go through piles of papers to try and figure out the price of the item we wanted to buy, then finally had to make up a price that we both agreed on. They may have lost money, or I may have overpaid, who knows? Keep in mind, this is a suggestion for a place that I really liked, and want to see continue, and I think a little investment here could pay off in spades.