My suggestions are out of print. But I have seen them at train shows from time to time:
The Wonderful Train Ride - Its a story about two children who ride a train from New York City to Los Angeles.
The story is dated, but my kids still enjoyed having it read to them. I guess you'd probably want to tell the kids that the story was about things long ago.
I think you can read the story at the site I linked. And the site seems to have some other nice stuff for kids.
The Big Book of Real Trains - I have had at least three different editions of this book. The oldest one, which came from my wife's family, did not include diesels. There is also an edition with a diesel and a few additional cars. I found it interesting that while all the original drawing were in color, the new ones were black and white. Finally, I had a "library edition" with a more substantial cover. I think it was the version with the diesel.
Check out the links.
My kids also enjoyed having The Boxcar Children series read to them. (Trains were only marginally involved). We went through the first 19 books that were written by the original author.
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