The Shanghai Railway Museum is built in accordance with the model of former Shanghai Railway Station which was completed in 1909 in the British classical architectural style. Built on the former site of Shanghai Railway Station in the ratio of 1:1.08, Shanghai Railway Museum is one of the popular science education bases, which introduces the development of railways in Shanghai as well as in East China over the past 100 years.

There is an old platform in the courtyard in front of the museum. Three trains are about to depart from it: a jumbo-sized locomotive, an elegant private carriage, and a choo-choo specially-designed for narrow-gauge railroads. The large one is a KD7-641, which was made in the 1940s in the United States, and was donated by the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration to help China recover its economy.

The black green carriage was the high-class service car of major government officials during China’s Republican Era. It is said that it used to be the private car of Soong May-ling. Its luxurious and elegant interior has been refurbished and is a highlight of the museum. The third one on display is a SN-26 type steam locomotive specially-made for running on narrow gauge railroads. Measuring less than half the width of ordinary ones, the mini-locomotive retired in the 1990s. 

The collections are divided into four zones with different themes. Enter the room on your left side, and you will get a glimpse of China's railway history. Here you will see an exact copy of a Pioneer locomotive, the first engine to run on the Wusong Railway, China’s first railroad built specifically for commercial use in 1876. The theme of the second zone is railway transportation. Besides scale models of locomotives, there is a set of steam locomotive wheels that demonstrate how the wheels rotate. In the third and fourth zone, you see all kinds of railway workers' uniforms and badges. The collection in this section is a locomotive-shaped laboratory where you can learn to drive a train. Besides, you can feel the spirit apparent in China's railway industry through a scale model depicting the layout of Shanghai South Railway Station in the fourth zone.