The Railroad Law Enforcement Collection deals with a number of aspects of crimes associated with rail travel. It begins with the first train robbery in the United States in 1870 and includes material up to 1977. The bulk of the material covers the period between 1870 and 1943. The Western United States is the main focus of the collection, although a number of the crimes covered occurred in Canada.

Copyright has not been assigned to the California State Railroad Museum. All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Senior Curator. Permission for publication is given on behalf of the CSRM as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained by the reader.