The California Museum of Science and Industry (now the California Science Center) had an O scale railroad exhibit that ran for quite a while. It was created by several modelers and run by the Troxel Brothers who had a model railroad store in Los Angeles. It modeled Southern California points of interest. The railroads of focus were Santa Fe (ATSF), Union Pacific and Southern Pacific. They did make it into Amtrak. The museum funded the maintenance by charging 10 cents to see the exhibit upstairs in one of the pavilions. It was an around-the-room diorama approximately three feet deep with the trains in the foreground and forced perspective into about 1/64 in the background with cars moving along the highway (a lot like Route 66). They took it down in the late 1980's as I recall and didn't replace it. I've also included an article about the exhibit.
