Northern Pacific Railway Museum

We came over for the Christmas extravaganza that goes on the last weekend in November and the first three weekends in December. The museum is re-outfitted with Christmas garb and the train out front transport you, if desired, to Santas workshop about 500 yards up the way in another train car.

Entrance, at least for the Christmas themed stuff, was eight dollars per adult and five dollars per kid. That ended up including cookies and hot chocolate (donate if you desire) and a train ride over to Santas workshop, in addition to all the train exhibits. It initially feels a bit steep, but you end up spending a couple hours there and it was well worth the expense.

The place is run by Community volunteers which included folks in high school as well as older train enthusiast. It's nice to see the melding of generations in a place like this. There were a total of five or six rooms that had train sets of varying sizes. One out front included a Thomas the train type setup and the one in the back included cars that were about a foot tall. The set up on these things were pretty impressive and the guys there genuinely seemed like they enjoy putting it on. It's got a better than average gift shop here as well. Plenty of train toys, books and other railroad related pleasantries.

The train ride was a fun and fairly unique experience. The train only went about a quarter of a mile, but it was fun for the kids to get to ride in a legit train car. On the way back, we rode in a caboose with some seats that were up above the normal sitting area. Made for a little bit better view and a reminiscing tale for the kiddos.

All in all, this place is really solid. It's not huge, but they've got some neat exhibits and it's filled with people who are excited about the place.it's also a great excuse to come down to the lower Valley, hit up a tourist attraction, including the national hop museum across the street, and go check out a restaurant in the area.

This young man Nevin running the depot knows his stuff! We go to all the old depots this young man isn't even 30 and mind blowing about his knowledge,depot is well kept up,highly recommend.

This is a surprise - we went during Christmas and they had model trains running of all sizes AND we rode on a real train in a caboose AND they had hands-on wooden play sets for young folks AND they had a gift shop AND they had food AND they had Santa. The model trains that were on display and running are overwhelmingly entertaining. I have no idea how 2 hours elapsed. I wish I had thought to take more photos, I was too busy having fun.

This is a worthwhile destination and it stands on it own, it is worth going to specifically, travel to this town just to see this? Yes!

This review will fade into oblivion as other, newer, reviews take it's place, but since you're here why don't you add a nice rating if you have some nice words to say (and remember what your Mom always said, "If you have nothing nice to say don't say anything"). Great to see businesses thrive in the Yakima area. Let's support Things To Do here just by being Yakima-friendly.

I've been to better museums as museums, but for authentic and realistic feel for what was... this was a decent exhibit for history. If you want to see refurbished trains and a lot of them, go to the train museum in Sacramento, California, there you'll see an awesome exhibit. I love the realistic feel of the station and trains here in Toppenish.

A good rail museum but call to be sure they are open. After driving 20 miles on a day posted as open (Wednesday) no one was there. We did manage to view the outside exhibits. Friends went the next day - it was open and they loved it.

Just visited this railroad museum for the first time. It is so good! The depot is restored to its original condition, and is full of photos and items from the old trains; also model trains, and a gift shop. On special occasions they have train rides in the depot yard. We got to ride both in the caboose and in the locomotive! And the hand car! The old train cars and engines have been beautifully restored by volunteers. The most popular event here is the Santa Claus toy train running every weekend between Thanksgiving and Christmas. But if you love trains, this museum is good entertainment any summer weekend.

We've never been to the Museum before and thought we'd take our 3yr old for the Santa Toy Train they run at Christmas time. It was absolutely horrible. Admission is cheap at $4/child $6/adult and I supposed you get what you pay for. There were some trains for the kids to play with and they had some model trains going around a Christmas tree. We got on a train car to go to the 'North Pole' and when we arrived, it was another train car that had Santa and Mrs. Clause on it, that was all. Photos are $20 and you're not allowed to use your own camera unless you purchase a photo first. I had called about this event to see what exactly it was. The man on the phone said that there was a ton to do with the kids. He said we would get on a train and go to the 'North Pole' where they had built up this whole little land in a parking lot. That was not the case at all. We were very unhappy with the event and will not ever go again.