The museum consists of static displays as well as a 7-mile (11 km) round trip ride aboard preserved railroad cars.

By August 12, C&NW president Marvin Hughitt had arrived in North Freedom in person to announce that a branchline would be built.

The town was surveyed and registered in January 1903, but it was soon realized that its location in the southwest corner of the intersection of present-day Highway W and Diamond Hill Road would prove to be too far from where the mines were developing.

By November 1903, the development of the town shifted nearer to the Illinois Mine, 0.5 miles (0.80 km) to the south at the present day location of La Rue.

At the height of iron mining production, the population of La Rue likely did not exceed 50 people, but the town did include a hotel, lumberyard, church, general store, and two saloons to supply and entertain the several hundred miners living nearby.

In 2023, the museum hosted a 60th anniversary celebration event on May 27th, marking 60 years to the day that the first train pulled passengers along the 7-mile route.

[4] The museum operates a heritage railroad which offers passenger excursion trains on a 7-mile (11 km) round trip.

Trains leave from North Freedom, pass through the former mining community of La Rue, and turn around at a rock quarry, returning on the same route.

The excursions take approximately one hour and operate daily from early June through Labor Day and most weekends in May, September, and October.

Trains operate at a top speed of 15 miles per hour (24 km/h), requiring approximately 20 minutes to travel the length of the rail line.

[5] During that time, railroads saw an unprecedented rate of expansion, growing in size in the United States from 93,000 to 254,037 miles (149,669 to 408,833 km) of track.

The depot consists of two seating areas separated by the ticket office, and a gift shop occupies the former freight room.