Visited the museum in Sacramento on Saturday (it was only 108 out side). My wife made the comment, “The displays in this museum look like the equipment is alive – not just a line of dead trains like in other museums we have visited.”
dd
Did you see the car that gives you the illusion of moving? I always thought that was cool.
Yes - that is a great example of making the equipment live.
dd
They do run a class act. I havn’t been there in a few years. I’ll have to stop by and check it out. I heard they did some re-modeling.
Yes, the LSRM and the California RR Museum I consider the best in the U.S…
many people make the same comments about the LSRM and NSSR!
I went to the members “Behind the Scenes” tour a couple of months ago. I was quite impressed with their collections in the back shops. What’s on display in the main museum is just a few pieces of their collection, albeit the best looking ones [:)]
The next day, I went to the Railtown 1897 State Historic Park in Jamestown, CA about 110 miles from Sacramento. [wow] What a [8D] cool place !! Kind of a shame to see 3 of their steam engines dead in the roundhouse, but also excellent that they have 1 running !! It’s a bit out of the way, but HIGHLY RECOMMENDED !! [tup]
I didn’t have time to go to Jamestown - that will have to wait until another trip. The CSRR took all day. But thanks for the reccomendation.
dd
It unfortunately is obsessed with Southern Pacific and only has a small part of it’s collection on display…perhaps both issues will change with the expansion.
I liked the mezzanine displays on the Sacramento shops of the SP. An amazing enterprise. Day I was there, one of the docents was a retired SP employee who worked on building reefers there, pre- and post-mechanical variety.
And, of course, the cab-forward displayed is awesome. The interesting thing about that cab was the year-round temperature in triple digits; I guess it was a good place to keep the weight off!
at last some mention of the massive level of support it takes to run a railroad - I really enjoyed that set of displays also
dd
The Yolo Short Line (run by the Sierra RR) out west of SMF runs a nice little excursion train on the weekends. Lots of fun and they serve lunch in a park on the river. We took it about a month ago when I was out there on business and had a great time. That and Western RR Museum, and (!!?) Jelly Bellies factory, can be nice add-ons for the CSRM, which is simply outstanding.