California State Railroad Museum, Sacramento

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The California Railroad Museum is a world class museum that depicts how the railroad resulted in the development of the Western United States. The museum which was opened in 1976 consists of six new and reconstructed buildings. The exhibits include 21 beautifully restored locomotives and cars whose history spans over a full century. Aside from the locomotives and cars there are exhibits featuring a Pullman sleeping car, a railroad post office, and even a dining car. You can easily spend 3 to 4 hours to tour everything the museum has to offer.

The California Railroad Museum also hosts many functions because of its gigantic size. I have attended statewide and national events that have used the museum.

On September 29 and 30 of 2012 the California Railroad Museum will be holding an event to commerate Union Pacific's 150th anniversary. I will be bringing my camera to this event and will post some of the special exhibits that are being brought to town for this event.

Hours: The Museum is open daily (except Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day) from 10 a.m to 5 p.m.

Admission
$9 adults; $4 youths ages 6-17; children ages 5 and under are free.

Many train buffs go to Sacramento just to visit the California State Railroad Museum. Its extensive collection of locomotives, railroad cars, and related memorabilia probably makes it the best museum of its kind in North America. Visiting the museum is an excellent way to learn about a bygone era--when the railroad was king.

The museum is located at Old Sacramento. It is open even on Saturdays and Sundays. Adult admission fee is $6.

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This is a great museum with a good display of the railroad history of California and the western US in general. It has a number of old cars and engines, steam and diesel, including old Central Pacfic engines. It's fun for kids, too.

Visitors can go inside several engines and cars, including dining, sleeping, and mail cars. There are displays on model trains and an interactive model train set.

The location of the museum itself makes sense historically. Not only is Sacramento the state capitol, but it was the home of the Central Pacific Railroad, the western California-Utah branch of the Trans-Continental Railroad, and it was the home of the Big Four businessmen who controlled the Central Pacific and were among the most influential people who pushed for the creation of a transc-continental railroad. Moreover, the museum is in Old Sacramento near the old CP station.

The California State Railroad Museum is located in Old Sacramento. The museum is a complex of historic facilities and unique attractions, ans is widely regarded as the finest railroad museum in North America.

Opening times are daily, from 10am to 5 pm, except Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day. there is a 'nominal admission fee', whatever that is!

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This is one of the best rail museums in the world. The museum, open year-round, has an impressive collection of locomotives, rolling stock, and railroad memorabilia.

Each weekend, from April to September, train rides take visitors from Old Sacramento through the surrounding countryside. You get onboard at the nearby Pacific Railroad Depot.

Inside the Rail Road Museum there is old model trains. Real Trains one of the orginal "Lady" train from the movie. Really nice and Big 3 stories I think to see everything. A actual set up of a dining car with china.

It's located in "Old Town" Sacramento. We went up in may of 2002 to see Thomas The Tank Engine. The weather was perfect and we walked every where. We stayed across from the Sacramento Capital Building. The food was way expensive. So plan to bring your Credit Card.

A range of lavishly restored 1860s locomotives, with “cow-catcher” front grilles and bulbous smokestacks. The old passenger station and freight depot, a block south, now serve as the summer depot for a refurbished steam train, which makes a seven-mile, 45-minute round-trip along the river.

And here in the Railroad Museum, in the shop, I met for the first time Rosie the Riveter. On posters and stickers. She is the symbol and the nickname of the women, who worked in the wartime industry in WW2.
Her poster 'We Can Do It!' was made by J.Howard Miller. Rosie has her own website http://www.rosietheriveter.org and a memorial in Richmond, CA.

I like Rosie. She remembers me of the Dutch women, who worked hard in 1940-45 to give food to their family and try to keep the house warm. Not especially in the war industry, but to 'keep the home fires burning'. In a way she reminds me of my own mother.

The California State Railroad Museum
The California State Railroad Museum is a great place to visit. They have many engines and railcars spanning a long period of California history. Rail travel was key to the openning up of the West and Sacramento was a major rail hub, the western terminus of the transcontinental line. The Museum has interesting exhibits on the history of railroading.