In 1989, Vadim Vadimovich Mironov met Anatoly Fyodorovich Gusev, the owner of the Yaroslavl cooperative "Decor". They decided to acquire a narrow-gauge railway and create a museum based on it. Vadim Mironov and his wife Kira financed expeditions to search for exhibits.

The museum was founded in 1991, separating from the cooperative "Decor". Initially, it was a private collection with limited access for visitors, but it offered the opportunity to organize trips on retro trains along the Pereslavl railway.

Since 1998, the museum has been open for free visits, and since 2006, an entrance fee has been introduced. The number of visitors reaches eight hundred people a day.

From 2002 to 2004, the museum repeatedly held steam locomotive festivals for the general public. In 2002-2003, it provided regular passenger service between the village of Kupanskoye and the city of Pereslavl. As of 2006, the museum owned 2 kilometers of railway track.

In 2008, the museum received 480,000 rubles from the V. Potanin Charitable Foundation "A Changing Museum in a Changing World". These funds were used for road repairs, installation of road signs and markers made in the mid-20th century style, as well as for placing corresponding posters. A parking lot with a guardhouse was arranged at the entrance to the village.

By early 2009, it was the only railway museum in Russia specializing exclusively in narrow-gauge technology and vehicles.

In 2010, 200 meters of track were restored, and the rail and sleeper grid was completely replaced. In 2011, work continued, and to date, a section of track about a kilometer long is operational. In 2012, further restoration work was planned, including the replacement of the rail-sleeper grid and track structures, construction of new canopies for exhibits, and restoration of exhibits.