What equipment there is to be worked on (as well as other "stuff") is hopefully already limited through a collections policy based on the mission statement of the organization. Should the scope of the mission be a specific time frame, this isn't going to be a problem provided the group has the discipline to only collect what applies to their mission. If there's a very broad based mission, and limited resources, it's pretty much a prescription for failure so staffing won't matter.

One point I would like to make is that regardless of age everyone has different interests. Don’t assume that a young person has no interest in a little narrow gauge teakettle, or an older person has no interest in modern diesels. I for one have more interest in the things that came before my time that I missed out on and much less interest in the things that were around when I grew up. Also, accepting volunteers for who they are and accepting what they are able to do NOT what you would like done is a must. Even sweeping floors and cleaning bathrooms are necessary . And many guests are more interested in how clean the restrooms are than whether a locomotive or car needs paint!

Simply, you're going to need younger folks, as troubleshooting newer gear is going to require windows/unix systems administration skillz.

I didn’t appreciate this fully until we had the kid. If I get teased about it, that’s okay. If your facility is exclusively staff and a few railfans, whatever OSHA allows is good enough, but if you want families to come in, clean bathrooms with baby-changing facilities are a must (and somebody has to check them often, because some parents, especially “upscale” ones, can be absolute pigs about dumping dirty diapers on the floor and so on.) There are people who really like to clean. Take full advantage!

Some other things that help:

Snack machines and a place for kids to refuel. Selling chips and pop in the gift shop is seldom a great idea because the kids will grab shirts and toys while they’re eating. You can tell them not to take opened food outside the designated area, but having snack machines eliminates a lot of whiny cranky afternoon behavior from toddlers. If your facility has a short kid-friendly video you can show in the snack room, so much the better.

Small step-up blocks or stools so kids can get up to look at exhibits, especially model layouts. Parents will often pick them up and hold them over the layout, etc. in not so safe ways, but a good safe step up eliminates that.

Exhibits kids can touch and use. We were just talking about this last night: nothing beats being able to lay hands on something and/or see it working and reacting to your input (another place where young volunteers who grew up with robots and computers can be a huge help.) Even a bucket of large, well-scrubbed old nuts and bolts can be fascinating to kids unfamiliar with tools.

If you have room and your insurance okays it, a small climb-on “locomotive” can keep kids busy while they’re waiting for the train ride or whatever. If you can get deck installing companies to donate their Trex lumber offcuts, so much the better because it stands up to bad weather and won’t splinter. You won’t need a lot of structural strength.

You have to have a vendor do that in most cases. In the case of where I volunteer, it rains a lot and a outside vending machine sure wouldn't last all that long. Nor would you want anything out of one. And never mind that most such machines would outdoors, in places that probably are out of way and easy to vandalize or break into off-hours.Yeahhhh, maybe before COVID, but I wouldn't dream of this right now.

This is a great example of what is wrong with many organizations. "That's a bad idea because of A.. B.. and C..."

In regards to vending machines... you don't need an outside vendor to have a vending machine, vending machines are made to work outdoors (which is why you often see them outdoors), and they shouldn't attract vandals anymore than the brass bells on your locomotives on display.

As for hands-on exhibits, they are still very much a thing at museums. You just clean regularly and provide sanitizer. Easy solution.

Here in the Pacific NW, you do not see vending machines outside much. In other places, it might work better, I'm willing to concede.
And who's going to clean the hands-on display every time a kid touches it, or deal with the parent screaming at you for putting their kid at risk (which I heard several times during the pandemic from "Karen" types)?
This isn't "A B C" when you've already seen what people react to certain things mentioned.
I know people at several museums and all have told me they have removed hands on things for now due to COVID suit fears...

I didn’t mention putting the machines outside because nobody in our area does that any more. The weather’s bad and the thieves are worse, so machines go inside. Unless it’s a high-volume place like a big box store or major, major tourist venue, most places have a volunteer bring supplies from a warehouse club and fill the machines themselves.

As for wiping off displays, anyone who has been around fast food or retail was used to carrying a packet of wipes and/or pocket-size cleaner way before the pandemic. Last time I volunteered, we had a regular raging Karen who always let her kids make a huge mess while they ate, then she changed the baby on the table even though there was a well-equipped bathroom ten feet away where she could have washed her hands afterward. I always used actual scrub rags and a small bucket of heavy-duty cleaner on that.

Most of it is situational awareness. When you walk by a heavily used display, does the button work? If the wipes are in your pocket, you run one over the button and fingerprints around it almost without thinking. I have to lean heavily on handrails to get up or down stairs, so if I happen to have a wipe I’ll grab it and clean while I lean. When you’re washing your hands, those twenty seconds are a quick glance: yep, TP in place, you know the facilities flush, floor not all that bad just yet, turn off the faucet (if it isn’t an automatic one) with the paper towel you used on your clean hands and wipe off the handles, grab the door handle with it and wipe that off as you open the door, drop the paper towel in the trash can that’s nearly always at the door as it closes behind you. It all becomes almost one motion and takes no extra time.

There is one museum with which I have worked that has a soda machine that was donated by a business--up-to-date enough to take dollar bills--and a volunteer whose hobby it has become to grab sodas by the case every time the grocery stores run loss-leader sales with coupons, loyalty club cards, etc., and keep the machine stocked.

That volunteer told me, "I can manage, at the right times, to get these sodas for as cheap as twenty cents a can, and then the back of my car is dragging from the stock I buy then. We sell them for 75 cents each--cheaper than most machines anywhere in town charging a dollar. Aside from the cost of keeping the machine cold, we're tripling the money I donate in sodas. All the volunteers are on to it, and happily buy sodas from it as well."

"I dunno … seems kinda fungible" - Elon Musk, 7:03 AM · May 4, 2022

Well, your original post sure made it sound like you meant away from the souvenirs and such. How big is your operation's indoor space? We have a tiny little former MILW depot which has just enough room for people to line up for tickets, a small display case to look at while waiting, and a very small souvenir area along a segment of a wall. We don't have the room for designated "areas" for anything specific. Nor do many other tourist operations I've been to throughout the years.
A vending machine takes space that we just don't have inside the one structure we have, so outside would be the only option, in a meth-addled region of the state with rain that can last for months at a time.I applaud the fact that your organization has people to keep an eye out for such things and clean behind people. We are lucky to get enough folks for a full crew and a ticket seller. Often, that's all we have (other than the folks who came specifically to do work on equipment who have no interest in anything else).
Again, if you have the resources and staffing for that, I'm happy for you.
Smaller operations just can't count on extra hands for things like that.

Ok, so I think you confuse the idea of NFTs with the current hype around the Ethereum based NFT market.

Regardless, can you imagine how much better it would've been for the preservation world if the Bored Ape guys had chosen a heritage railroad instead of a Yacht Club?

Little bits of PR can go a long way... look at all the recent military vehicle preservation interest that's happened because of World of Tanks and War Thunder. Sure, they're just "stupid video games" until... https://wargaming.com/en/csr-projects