California State Railroad Museum
The California State Railroad Museum in Old Sacramento is a tribute to the role of the "iron horse" in connecting California to the rest of the nation.
The museum features 21 restored locomotives and railroad cars, some dating back to 1862. There is a full-scale diorama of an 1860s construction site high in the Sierra Nevada, featuring the locomotive Gov. Stanford, as well as a bridge elevated 24 feet (7 m) above the museum floor.
A block from the museum is a reconstructed passenger station and freight depot circa 1867. During the summer, a steam train takes visitors from the depot to Miller Park and back along the Sacramento River using their tourist line, the Sacramento Southern Railroad. The Sacramento Southern Railroad owns the abandoned Southern Pacific Walnut Grove Branch right-of-way that extends south from Sacramento along the eastern bank of the Sacramento River. A few miles of track were rebuilt along the levee near Freeport, California as part of a US Army Corps of Engineers project. The CSRRM hopes to one day have a longer excursion line, perhaps as far as Hood or Walnut Grove, California. At that location the railroad passengers could disembark the train and take a tourist steamboat back up the Sacramento River to Old Sacramento.
The museum has its origins in 1937, when a group of railroad enthusiasts in the San Francisco Bay Area formed the Pacific Coast Chapter of the Railway & Locomotive Historical Society[1]. This organization worked for years to promote the idea of a railroad museum, donating 30 historic locomotives and cars to the California Department of Parks and Recreation to be the nucleus of a State-operated museum in Sacramento. The Museum's first facility, the Central Pacific Railroad Passenger Station, opened in 1976. The Railroad History Museum was completed in 1981. Steam-powered passenger train service on the Sacramento Southern Railroad began in 1984, with the Central Pacific Railroad Freight Depot opening three years later. Railtown 1897 State Historic Park in Jamestown was added to the Museum complex during 1992.
Contents
Notable locomotives
Steam locomotives
- Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe 2925 - Stored, a 4-8-4 type built by Baldwin Locomotive Works in 1944.
- Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe 5021 - Stored, a 2-10-4 type built by Baldwin Locomotive Works in 1944.
- Central Pacific No. 1 Gov. Stanford - Cosmetically restored, a 4-4-0 type built by Norris Locomotive Works in 1862.
- Granite Rock No. 10 - Operational, a USATC S100 Class 0-6-0T built by Porter in *1942.
- Northwestern Pacific 112 - Stored, a 4-6-0 type built by ALCO in 1908. Sole surviving NWP locomotive.
- North Pacific Coast 12 Sonoma - Cosmetically restored, a narrow gauge 4-4-0 type built by Baldwin in 1875. Sole surviving NPC locomotive, and one of only three surviving Baldwin narrow gauge 4-4-0s.
- Central Pacifc No. 3 / Southern Pacific No. 1 C. P. Huntington - Cosmetically restored, a 4-2-4RT type built by Cooke Locomotive Works in 1863.
- Southern Pacific 2467 - Display. Restored to operation by members of the Pacific Locomotive Association in 1999, a 4-6-2 type built by Baldwin Locomotive Works in 1921. On 10-year loan from PLA pending FRA-mandated boiler work.
- Southern Pacific 4294 - Cosmetically restored, a 4-8-8-2 type built by Baldwin Locomotive Works in 1944. Sole surviving "Cab-Forward" locomotive.
- Union Pacific 4466 - Displayed, an 0-6-0 type built by Lima Locomotive Works in 1920 which operated at the museum until 1999.
- Virginia & Truckee 12 Genoa - Baldwin-built 4-4-0 type constructed in 1873. Currently on static display, but in operable condition.
- Virginia & Truckee 13 Empire - Baldwin-built 2-6-0 type constructed in 1873, cosmetically restored to its original appearance. Mirrors placed around the engine provide museum visitors with an amazing panoramic view of all sides of the locomotive at once.
- Virginia & Truckee 21 J.W. Bowker - Baldwin-built 2-4-0 switcher constructed in 1875; sole surviving example of this type. Stored outdoors in the Central Pacific Passenger Depot.
Diesel locomotives
- Amtrak 281 - Operational, an EMD F40PH built in 1979.
- Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe 347C - Operational, an EMD F7 built in 1949. Sole surviving AT&SF F7 locomotive.
- Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe 543 - Stored, an FM H-12-44TS built in 1956. Sole survivor of this type of locomotive.
- Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe 608 - Stored, an FM H-12-44 built in 1951.
- Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe 2260 - Stored, a BLW DS44-1000 built in 1948.
- Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe 9820 - Stored, an ALCO RSD-15 "Alligator" built in 1959.
- Sacramento Northern 402 - Operational, an EMD SW1 built in 1939.
- Southern Pacific 1000 - Stored, and EMD SW1 built in 1939, the first diesel fully-owned by SP.
- Southern Pacific 5208 - Operational, a BLW DRS66-1500 built in 1949.
- Southern Pacific 6051 - Operational, an EMD E9 built in 1954. Sole surviving SP E9.
- Southern Pacific 6402 - Stored, an EMD F7 built in 1952.
- Southern Pacific 6819 - Operational, an EMD SD45T-2 built in 1972.
- Southern Pacific 8799 - Stored, a Krauss-Maffei ML-4000/Camera Car, built in 1964. Sole survivor of this type of locomotive.
- Western Pacific 913 - Operational, an EMD F7 built in 1950.
See also
- California and the railroads
- Heritage railway
- List of heritage railways
- California heritage railways
