IRM's barns ARE accessible and are open to the public. There is even handicapped access to look in the windows of cars inside the barns. Not all of the stuff in the barns is unrestored; some of it is in use, just not every day. The advantage of having more than 400 pieces of equipment, about half of which is operable, is that you don't have to use the same pieces all the time to operate trains.

The point is that they have done it right. They've even spent a lot of money buying up surrounding farmland to make a buffer zone between theri faciltities and the NIMBY's.