All train fans, regardless of level of autism, need to visit the Kyoto Railway Museum if they ever visit Japan. It's the most comprehensive museum I've ever been to. Besides having many real locos and rail cars, it has interesting exhibits on rail tech, like the history of pantographs, catenary, tunneling equipment, freight operations, signals, bogeys, etc. It has a working to-scale model of a switch, it has old pantographs that you can operate up and down to touch the contact wire. A stripped down engine so you can see the moving parts. Two pits where you can walk underneath real freight locos. A rooftop where you can watch the adjacent train traffic from Kyoto station (including Shinkansens). A fully stocked round house with several working steam locos and a working round table. And several railcars you can go inside of, like an old sleeper car and dining car as well as several cabs (including a first gen Shinkansen and several of their steam locos). When I visited I got to see them operating and moving one of their steam locos from the roundhouse onto the table and parked outside. Avoid the weekends, it's a big attraction for noisy kids unfortunately.
