The California State Railroad Museum is part of the California State Parks system. It is located at 111 I St in Sacramento.

The museum had 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. They worked for years promoting the idea of a railroad museum, eventually donating 30 historic locomotives, wagons and coaches to the California Department of Parks and Recreation to form the nucleus of the museum.

It has a relatively small collection, but one of considerable historic significance in terms of western U.S. railroads, particularly, the Central Pacific and Southern Pacific. I visited in February 2010 when only the main building was open. This meant I did not get to see all the museum’s motive power (some locomotives were locked in the Central Pacific depot).

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The museum building is of somewhat incongruously modern design, given its setting in the Old Sacramento State Historic Park, the historic region of downtown Sacramento, CA.

Since the 1960s, the area has been developed as a tourist attraction, with restoration of its predominantly 19th Century buildings, cobbled streets and historic waterfront.

The museum building opened in 1981.

Before the new building opened, the museum was housed in the Central Pacific Railroad Depot, a recreation of the original building that opened in 1976.

During the Summer season, visitors can explore the depot building, and steam excursions depart from here for Miller Park.

The excursion goes about a mile south along the Sacramento River and back, using the museum’s tourist line, the Sacramento Southern Railroad.

In the museum foyer is Overfair Railway #1915, a 19” gauge Pacific (4-6-2) locomotive.

The Overfair Railway ran five miles through the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco, CA. Five locomotives were built for the railroad based on the Alco designed SP P-6 class. Four of them hauled scale passenger and freight cars specially built for the exposition, but #1915, was never used.

The Overfair locomotives were 17’ long and weighed 12 tons empty. The 12’ long wagontop boiler was 30” in diameter at the smokebox. They operated at 200 psi with 26" drivers and 9" x 10.5" cylinders.

Downgraded from mainline service in 1873, #1 worked as a switcher and fire engine in the Sacramento area until retired in 1895. It was then donated to the Leland Stanford University and, soon after, went on display in the university’s museum.

It is currently on loan to the CSRM by the university.

Fittingly, the first locomotive you encounter in the collection is the first ordered by the Central Pacific Railroad.

#1 “Gov. Stanford” is an American type (4-4-0) locomotive built in 1862 by Richard Norris & Sons of Philadelphia, then one of the largest locomotive manufacturers in the U.S.

Disassembled and shipped around Cape Horn, it arrived in Sacramento in October 1863. Once reassembled, it was named after the railroad’s president, who was also Governor of California. It hauled the CP’s first excursion train, first revenue freight and first scheduled passenger train.

#12 "Genoa" was built by Baldwin for the Virginia & Truckee in 1873 at a cost of $14,000. It is an American type (4-4-0) locomotive, one of the most common types used on U.S. railroads during the 19th century. It is also one of the oldest steam locomotives still operable, and the museum occasionally steams it up for excursions.

From 1870, the Virginia & Truckee connected the Comstock silver mines around Virginia City with quartz reduction mills near Carson City. On the return trip, the railroad carried mining supplies. Two years later, a 31-mile extension north from Carson City to Reno connected to the transcontinental rail, leading to an increase in passenger trains. #12 was ordered to meet this need.

For 35 years, #12 hauled mainly passenger trains, but also freight, the 52 miles between Carson City, Virginia City and Reno, NV, on the Virginia & Truckee. It operated at a boiler pressure of 130 psi with a tractive effort of 11,920 lbs. It weighs 65,000 lbs empty, has 56¾” drivers and 16” x 24” cylinders.

The locomotive was retired in 1908 and, in 1938, sold to Eastern Railroads in New York, from where it began a new career appearing in railroad exhibitions. Two years later it was presented to the Pacific Coast Chapter of the Railway and Locomotive Historical Society and shipped to the Western Pacific Roundhouse in Oakland, CA.

#12 was restored to look like Central Pacific’s #60 "Jupiter" for the 1939-40 New York World Fair and, in 1969, also appeared as "Jupiter" at the re-enactment of the Golden Spike Centennial ceremony at Promontory, UT. (You can see the Promontory NHS site on this website.) That year, it was donated to the State of Nevada and loaned to the CSRM.

After its last wood-fired operation under steam in May 1979, #12 was restored to its 1902 appearance by the museum with a Sunflower smoke stack. It is displayed with Virginia & Truckee combination car #16 on an 1884 Phoenix Bridge Company cast-iron railroad bridge.

VT #13 "Empire" was also built by Baldwin for the Virginia & Truckee in 1873, but at a cost of $15,250. It is a Mogul type (2-6-0) locomotive, purchased to haul freight (as with passenger services, VT’s connection at Reno had greatly increased demand for freight services).

#13 weighs 70,000 lbs, operated at a boiler pressure of 130 psi and had a tractive effort of 14,600 lbs. It has 48” drivers, more suited to hauling freight than VT #12’s larger drivers.

It has 16” x 24” cylinders.

In 1910, #13 was converted from a wood to oil burner, and its number was changed to #15 (perhaps because engine crews thought #13 unlucky). With declining business on the VT, the locomotive was retired in 1918 and then sold to the Pacific Portland Cement Company, Gerlach, NV, in 1924. There, it operated as switcher #501 until 1931. In 1938, it was donated to the Pacific Coast Chapter of the Railway & Locomotive Historical Society and moved to the San Francisco Bay Area.

In 1976, #13 moved to the newly built Central Pacific Railroad Passenger Station. Two years later, a total restoration was carried out by the museum based on period photographs and original drawings. It went on display at the new museum building when it opened in 1981.

Also on display is the Southern Pacific’s first locomotive, named for the company’s then vice-president. It was originally purchased by the Central Pacific in 1863 as #3 from Danforth, Cooke & Co., Patterson, NJ.

It was transferred to the Southern Pacific in 1871, when it was renumbered #1.

The “C. P. Huntington” is the only surviving example of a 4-2-4 locomotive in the U.S. It is also the oldest locomotive owned by the museum, and features on the museum’s logo. It weighs 43,500 lbs, has 54” drivers and 11” x 15” cylinders. A coal burner, it operated at a boiler pressure of 110 psi and had a tractive effort of 3,570 lbs.

As #3, the locomotive began service on the Central Pacific in 1864 and, as well as hauling passenger trains,  helped construct the transcontinental railroad. After transferring to the Southern Pacific, it operated as a light construction engine between San Jose and Hollister, CA, then in Oakland, before ending its career as a weed burner, clearing track.

However, from 1894, it increasingly became a symbol of the Southern Pacific Railroad, making numerous appearances at station openings and railroad exhibitions, including the 1915 San Francisco Panama-Pacific International Exposition, the 1934 Chicago Railroad Fair and the 1969 Sacramento Gold Spike Centennial Celebration.

It was donated to the State of California in 1964 and went on display at the old state fairgrounds on Stockton Boulevard, Sacramento. Then, in 1979 it moved to the Central Pacific Railroad Passenger Station in Old Sacramento.

The locomotive has been restored to its 1914 appearance, when it was refurbished for display at the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition.  

#1 is a narrow gauge (36”) oil burning Mogul type (2-6-0) locomotive built by Baldwin in 1879. It was built for the Utah Northern, but also operated on the Golconda & Adelaide and the Nevada Central hauling freight and passenger trains, as well as on the Nevada Short Line Railway. This was a 12.6 mi railroad between Oreana (also known as Nenzel) and the silver mining area of Rochester, NV.

#1 weighs 54,000 lbs, has 40” drivers, 12” x 18” cylinders and had a tractive effort of 4,900 lbs. It last steamed at the 1939-40 Golden Gate International Exposition in San Francisco in the daily re-enactments of the 1869 Golden Spike ceremony.

This 0-6-0 is recorded as one of 30 S-51 switchers built by Lima in 1920 for the Union Pacific (Order 1011 / Nos. 5988-6017).

#4466 weighs 160,000 lbs, and has 51” drivers and 21” x 26” cylinders. It is a coal burner, operating at a boiler pressure of 180 psi with a tractive effort of 34,400 lbs. It worked most of its life in Cheyenne, WY, and Grand Island, NE.

#4460 was gifted to the museum by the Pacific Coast Chapter of the Railway & Locomotive Historical Society in 1978. For many years it hauled the museum’s steam excursions.

#4466 is typical of thousands of 0-6-0 switchers that worked railroad yards in the U.S. right up to the end of steam (Lima’s last order for 0-6-0s was in 1943, when it supplied 37 to the U.S. War Department). The wooden running boards on the front of the locomotive and rear of the tender provided a place for switchmen to stand. As locomotives like #4466 ran backwards as well as forwards, the tender is sloped to the rear (called “swallow tailed”) to give the crew a better line of sight when reversing.

#2467 is one of 15 heavy Pacific type locomotives (4-6-2) built by Baldwin in 1921 for the Southern Pacific. During the next decade, it regularly hauled passenger trains on the Ogden, UT - Sparks, NV division, part of the railroad's "Overland Route" (you can find a set of engravings of the route on the books and manuals page of this website). In the 1930s, it worked on routes in California.

#2467 is an oil burner, weighing 300,000 lbs. It operated at a boiler pressure of 210 psi, with a tractive effort of 45,800 lbs. Its drivers are 73" and the cylinders are 25" x 30".

#2467 retired from service in 1956, but was returned to operation in 1999 by the Pacific Locomotive Association on the Niles Canyon Railway.

It is owned by the City of Oakland, CA. Although operable, #2467 is currently on static display on loan to the museum from the Pacific Locomotive Association. On the left, you can see that the right hand cylinder has been opened up to give the suggestion that the locomotive is undergoing repairs. The female mannequin on the front pilot is intended to add to the effect!

#4294 is the CSRM’s “signature engine”. It is the only surviving example of 20 Southern Pacific articulated 4-8-8-2 cab-forward locomotives built by Baldwin in 1944.

Although singular locomotives, I do not find cab-forwards particularly attractive. Front on, they resemble diesels, and the extended “monkey deck” between the smokebox and tender just looks out of place to me.

It is 127’ long, weighs 657,900 lbs, operated at a boiler pressure of 250 psi, has 63” drivers and two sets of 24” x 32” cylinders. It had a tractive effort of 24,300 lbs.

#4294 was the last steam locomotive delivered to the Southern Pacific.

It was in service from 19 March 1944 to 5 March 1956, hauling both freight and passenger trains in Oregon as well as California, including the Overland Limited (Trains No.27 and No.28) over the Donner Pass between Sacramento, CA, and Sparks, NV.

The last cab-forward revenue service was hauled by AC-10 #4211 from Oakland to Davis and Roseville on 30 November 1956. The last cab forward run over Donner Pass was made by AC-11 #4274 in November 1957.

The cab-forward was developed by the Southern Pacific to deal with problems created by its 39 tunnels and nearly 40 miles of snow sheds in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. These could funnel exhaust fumes back into the cab of conventional locomotives and, after a number of crews nearly asphyxiated, the railroad experimented with running locomotives in reverse. However, this meant the tender blocked the crew's view and put them on the "wrong" sides of the cab to see signals.

Southern Pacific then commissioned Baldwin to build a cab-forward, and the first 15 2-8-8-2s were delivered in 1910. Baldwin eventually built 256 cab-forwards for the company. No other U.S. railroad ordered cab-forwards although some, like the Western Pacific, did consider them, and they soon became a symbol of the Southern Pacific.

#4294 was retired in 1956 and, had it not been for the efforts of the Pacific Coast Chapter of the Railway and Locomotive Historical Society, it would probably have been scrapped along with all of the other cab-forwards, but Southern Pacific was eventually convinced to donate #4294 to the City of Sacramento. It went on outdoor display in 1958 at the Southern Pacific depot next to the C. P. Huntington but construction of the I-5 interchange required that it go into storage in the Southern Pacific’s shops in 1967. It was donated to the museum in 1977 and moved to the newly opened CSRM building in 1981.

#913 is the "A" or lead unit of a 1,500 hp EMD F7 built by the Electro-Motive Division of General Motors in 1950.

2,366 cab-equipped A units and 1,483 cabless booster or "B" units were built between 1949 and 1953. The F7 was the fourth in EMD's line of F-unit locomotives, and was the highest-selling cab unit of all time.

The Western Pacific had four F-7 units (now often referred to by enthusiasts as the “Fab Four”). All four have survived:

#913 - donated to California State Railroad Museum 1981 #917 - donated to Western Railway Museum 1983

#918 - donated to Pacific Locomotive Association 1981

#921 - donated to City of Portola, CA, 1983

A total of 38 A and B units have been preserved in the U.S. and Canada.

For 31 years, #913 hauled freight and passenger trains between Oakland, CA, and Salt Lake City, UT.

Many F7s were in service for decades, rostered on railroads from Alaska to Maine. They also hauled some of the most famous trains in the U.S. such as ATSF's El Capitan and Super Chief, GN's Empire Builder and NP's North Coast Limited. As a result, the design has taken a place in popular imagination as the epitome of streamlined diesel-electric motive power.

Like an increasing number of institutes, the CSRM does not allow camera tripods in the museum (leave yours in your car or expect to check it behind the ticket desk). But, because the displays are mostly indoors, with relatively low lighting, getting good photographs can be somewhat difficult, as many of the photographs on this page demonstrate!

Lucius Beebe’s The Central Pacific & The Southern Pacific Railroads, was published by Howell-North Books in 1963

(click on the cover to search for this book on Bookfinder.com).

Timothy Diebert and Joseph Strapac published The Southern Pacific Steam Locomotive Compendium in 1987 by Shade Tree Books. Arnold Menke published a Compendium Companion

in 2001 by Bisbee (click on the cover to search for each of these books on Bookfinder.com).

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