The Canadian Museum of Rail Travel — now operating as part of the Cranbrook History Centre and carrying the brand name "Trains Deluxe" — occupies the original 1898 Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) freight shed at 57 Van Horne Street South in Cranbrook, British Columbia. It opened in 1977 and grew out of the Cranbrook Archives, Museum and Landmark Foundation, founded in 1976 with the modest goal of turning an out-of-service rail car into an art gallery. The group then discovered it had unknowingly bought a dining car from the short-lived Trans-Canada Limited luxury service (1929–1931), and the project shifted toward serious rail-car restoration. Founder Garry Anderson received the Order of Canada in 2007 for his work developing the museum.

The collection comprises 28 railway cars, of which 13 are currently accessible to the public, and is regarded as one of the largest assemblages of early Canadian passenger rail cars in North America. Unlike the mechanical and technological focus of many railway museums, this institution emphasizes the social history and interior design of deluxe long-distance travel across distinct eras (1886, 1907, 1929 and 1936). In a study updated for the museum, Robert Turner, Curator Emeritus of the Royal British Columbia Museum, described the collection as unparalleled anywhere in Canada and of clear national as well as international importance.

Cranbrook, a city of roughly 25,000 on the western slope of the Rocky Mountains, was developed by the arrival of the CPR in 1898 as the administrative centre for the railway's Crowsnest Pass route, and remains an active freight hub. Since the museum broadened into a full history centre, the site also presents Ktunaxa First Nation history, East Kootenay settler heritage, and a paleontology gallery featuring fossils from the Burgess Shale and Fort Steele regions.

The richest interiors are seen on the guided tours: the Art Deco Solarium-Lounge and dining car of the Trans-Canada Limited, the wooden Edwardian cabins of the Soo-Spokane set, and the oak-panelled Royal Alexandra Hall. The covered platform and the exterior line-up of cars in the CPR freight-shed setting also photograph well. Car interiors are dimly lit, so a fast lens or steady support helps; follow the interpreters' guidance on photography during tours.

The headline exhibit is the 1929 Trans-Canada Limited, a complete restored seven-car set — crew baggage car, day parlour car, dining car, three first-class sleepers and a Solarium-Lounge car — that won Heritage Canada's Achievement Award for restoration in 1993. In its day it was the fastest and most luxurious way to cross the country, running first-class passengers between Montreal and Vancouver through the summer season in a classic Jazz-Era Art Deco style.

Other standout cars include the 1907 Soo-Spokane Train Deluxe, a set of wooden cars (compartment-observation-buffet-library car, palace sleeper, first-class day car and baggage car) showing Edwardian Art Nouveau elegance, and the 1927 executive night car Strathcona, which hosted VIP guests including Queen Elizabeth II, John and Jackie Kennedy, and Sir Winston Churchill. The 1906 Royal Alexandra Hall — the oak-panelled former café of the CPR's grand Royal Alexandra Hotel in Winnipeg, demolished in 1971 and reassembled in Cranbrook, opening here in 2004 — earned its own Heritage Canada Achievement Award in 2007.

For railfans, the appeal is the rare chance to step inside complete, in-situ sets of pre-war Canadian luxury equipment and read their interiors as social documents — from the executives who travelled in the British Columbia car to the Black sleeping-car porters whose labour history the tours now address.

To protect the fragile collection, the railcars can be entered only on guided tours led by the centre's historical interpreters, offered Tuesday to Saturday; general museum admission on its own does not include train access. Three daily tours are offered: the Comparative Tour 1927–1970 (45 minutes), the Trans-Canada Limited 1929 tour (45 minutes), and the Soo-Spokane 1907–1914 tour (20 minutes). A pre-booked private Grand Tour combines all three (about 1 hour 50 minutes), and short Toddler Tours and a wheelchair-friendly Platform Tour are also available.

Beyond the trains, the centre houses model railway rooms (Kootenay- and British Columbia-themed layouts), a paleontology gallery, history galleries on the East Kootenay and Ktunaxa peoples, and the Royal Alexandra Hall event venue. Visitors should note that ongoing construction of a Heritage Railcar Preservation Building has at times limited tour availability, so it is best to phone ahead or check the centre's social media before arriving. Tours are designed for visitors aged 6 and up and start promptly, so plan to arrive 15–20 minutes early.