The history of the creation of the museum dates back to 1975. There are eight exhibition halls in the museum building.

The materials of the first hall tell about the history of the railway in Russia. The second hall is dedicated to the construction of the railway in Altai. The third hall tells about the participation of Altai railway workers in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945, the Afghan and Chechen wars.

The small hall is decorated in the form of a peasant hut, like the settlers who came to Siberia to build a railway lived.

The "Pulse of Steel Highways" hall is dedicated to all major farms in the Altai region.

The hall of the Barnaul locomotive depot, in which an interesting exhibit is installed, a model of a section of the L-1703 steam locomotive's cabin with an imitation of “fire in the furnace”.

The multimedia hall is used to show films on the history of Russian railways and individual enterprises, as well as to organize exhibitions of applied art of railway workers, photo exhibitions, etc.

The exposition hall presents 10 models and models of railway equipment, for example, an operating model of a railway, natural rolling stock - two steam locomotives: 9P and L-0186, a model of the old building of the railway station at Barnaul station and others.

Some unique items that came to the museum in 2015: the Ob loudspeaker 1951; Dementyev system lock in 1962; a hand-made plane of the early XX century; personal documents of Vladimir Konstantinovich Ivanov, steam locomotive driver, 1941, etc.

The museum is constantly renewing its expositions and creating traveling exhibitions.