The Poway–Midland Railroad Volunteers, Inc. held their first meeting in May 1991. Within months, they had incorporated as a nonprofit and brought a boxcar to the site. A trolley arrived in 1993. Track work finished in June of that year. On July 4, 1993 — the day Old Poway Park was formally dedicated — the first passenger rode behind the speeder, a small maintenance vehicle, around the completed loop. It took another year to qualify for steam: the first locomotive passenger run came in September 1994. By July 1996, a single day had carried 2,500 riders — the record haul that still stands.

The railroad's crown piece is the 1907 Baldwin steam locomotive, a working example of early twentieth-century industrial craftsmanship that requires both mechanical skill and operational certification to run. Alongside it: a 1956 Fairmont speeder, a nimble track maintenance vehicle pressed into service for lighter days; and a 1906 San Francisco cable car, which arrived at the park in October 1997 and brought a piece of urban transit history to the backcountry. The entire collection runs on narrow gauge track — a gauge unusual enough that the railroad's operating manual is largely written by the volunteers themselves. Eleven pieces of equipment total. Each one represents a restoration project that is never quite finished.

The turntable was dedicated on July 4, 2002. The barn expansion followed in 2004. A proper depot — with a ticket office, train shop, and museum — opened in October 2009. By November 2006, total ridership since the railroad's founding had passed 425,000. The railroad also runs an Operation Lifesaver rail safety program that has reached more than 20,000 viewers through 40 to 50 annual presentations. This is not a company running a heritage attraction for revenue. It is a community of enthusiasts — nearly 400 active members — who decided that a 1907 locomotive deserved to keep working, and who have spent decades proving themselves right.