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Editor's
note: One of the highlights of our career in
publishing was a visit to Railfair in Sacramento.
It was held at the California State Railroad Museum
and was certainly an event to remember. We hope
Railfair continues.
http://www.csrmf.org/doc.asp?id=374
The Railroad Technology
Museum at the Southern Pacific Railroad Sacramento
Shops
Momentum Builds with
Completion of Reconstructed Transfer
Table
 California
State Parks, with the support of the California
State Railroad Museum Foundation, continues to make
progress toward placing the Railroad Museum's next
phase in the historic Southern Pacific Sacramento
Shops complex. Located adjacent to downtown
Sacramento, the Shops are one of North America's
most important industrial heritage sites. Proposed
for the site is the Railroad Technology Museum
(RTM), a major expansion of the California State
Railroad Museum.
In late 1999, the Museum secured
a lease from Union Pacific Railroad on the
complex's two main structures, the Boiler Shop and
Erecting Shop. These cavernous structures both date
from the days when steam locomotives were built and
repaired at the Sacramento Shops. Portions of the
massive, brick Erecting Shop date from 1869 and SP
predecessor Central Pacific Railroad (CP). As such,
the Southern Pacific Sacramento Shops include the
only surviving CP structures standing when
America's first transcontinental railroad was
completed.
In early 2000, the Museum
completed moving its restoration facilities into
the former Boiler Shop. In order to fully occupy
the Erecting Shop with full-sized locomotives and
cars, however, reconstruction of the Transfer
Table&emdash;a bridge-like structure that allows
access to the many "work bays" within the Erecting
Shop&emdash;has been essential. Construction of the
Transfer Table began during mid-2001, and it was
completed in spring 2003. This $500,000 project has
been funded through State Parks Deferred
Maintenance allocations and a major fundraising
campaign conducted by the CSRM Foundation in
2000-2001.
The completed Transfer Table now
allows access to the Erecting Shop for the Museum's
collection of historic railroad locomotives and
cars. Stored outside for years, these historic
items&emdash;many awaiting restoration&emdash;are
considered a top priority for conservation by the
Museum. Many of the locomotives and cars will
become exhibits within the new Railroad Technology
Museum, showcasing over a century of technological
development and innovation in the railroad
industry.
Restoration and maintenance
activities for the Museum's collection of
full-sized locomotives and cars have been conducted
since 2000 in the complex's Boiler Shop. In
December 2002, the latest
project&emdash;refurbishment of a 1920s vintage
coach with a Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad
heritage for operation on the Museum's excursion
railroad, the Sacramento Southern&emdash;was
completed at the facility. Construction of the
Transfer Table has also taken place in the
complex's Boiler Shop, given its proximity to
necessary tools and expertise.
Ongoing maintenance of the
Museum's operating steam and diesel locomotives
takes place in the Boiler Shop, along with
maintenance of the Museum's coaches and converted
freight cars which regularly carry school groups in
spring and fall, and families during the summer.
The necessary support systems for the Museum's
operating railroad&emdash;track materials,
specialized machinery, and wayside and at-grade
crossing signals&emdash;are built and maintained
here as well. Also under way is a railcar
conservation project for another State Park,
Colonel Allensworth State Historic Park, attesting
to the Shops' ability to provide skills and tooling
for a variety of activities.
Background
The Railroad Technology
Museum (RTM) was envisioned in the very first
planning documents created to guide development of
the California State Railroad Museum. Planning for
the RTM began in the mid-1980s, following
completion of CSRM's flagship, the 100,000
square-foot Railroad History Museum in Old
Sacramento. Intended to complement that facility,
the RTM would convert a portion of the 44-acre
historic Southern Pacific Sacramento Shops site
into a dynamic cultural attraction.
The ambitious project would
increase the drawing power of Sacramento as a
cultural and tourism destination, and provide a
unique focal point for surrounding Downtown
Railyards and waterfront redevelopment efforts.
Originally envisioned at a waterfront location
south of Old Sacramento, the Railroad Technology
Museum is much better suited for development in the
former Southern Pacific Sacramento Shops. This
adaptive yet historic re-use project would preserve
the very structures that best commemorate and
celebrate the history and technology of railroading
in California.
It would benefit the Museum's
commercial and residential
neighbors&emdash;including Old Sacramento, the
Union Pacific Railroad, and the City and County of
Sacramento&emdash;and help spur redevelopment of
the Railyards in a positive, historically
appropriate manner. The spacious railroad shop
buildings would house CSRM's collection of historic
locomotives and railroad cars, plus formal museum
exhibit galleries interpreting railroad engineering
and technology.
Children would have the
opportunity to explore fundamental physics and
engineering principles through hands-on,
interactive exhibits. Through the use of sectioned
locomotives, scale models, interactive displays,
oral histories, and other interpretive techniques,
the Museum and its staff would educate the public
about steam and diesel locomotion, track structure
design and wheel interface, the importance of the
Shops and its labor force in the development of
Sacramento, and the relevance of railroads in
helping meet the transportation challenges of the
future for California and the United
States.
Another significant aspect of
the Railroad Technology Museum is the opportunity
for the public to regularly view ongoing
restoration work. Previously, this important aspect
of the California State Railroad Museum's work has
been conducted offsite, not accessible to the
public. The ability to watch artisans working "real
time" on steam and diesel locomotives, wooden and
steel railroad cars, and other types of projects
has significant informational and educational
value. The facility could easily support
curriculum-based educational programs for teenagers
and young adults. Vocational educational programs
could be established in conjunction with ongoing
renovation work, offering new skills training and
development.
To this end, the Sacramento City
Council in late 1999 voted unanimously in support
of the concept of locating the Railroad Technology
Museum in the former Southern Pacific Sacramento
Shops. The Railroad Technology Museum portion of
the project is estimated to cost approximately $25
million. Development of other existing structures
within the historic Shops complex are being
discussed with the Union Pacific Railroad and
railyard developers, as well as other cultural
organizations potentially interested in the
site.
Benefiting the
Community
The Railroad Technology Museum
represents a unique opportunity to secure public
stewardship of the oldest (and for a time, largest)
industrial complex west of the Mississippi River,
which for 80 years was also the Central Valley's
largest employer. It would create an urban museum
complex contiguous with the Old Sacramento Historic
District, itself internationally known, and its
location and appeal would help foster surrounding
transit-oriented development.
The Railroad Technology Museum
would benefit the community in numerous ways. As
the region's largest employer for decades, the
Southern Pacific Sacramento Shops fundamentally
influenced the development, concentration, and
growth of many ethnic groups in Sacramento and the
Central Valley. Ethnic diversity and community
pride will be demonstrated through ongoing study
and exhibition focused on the thousands of workers
once employed in the Shops.
The California State Railroad
Museum is uniquely equipped to foster the
preservation and appreciation of California's rich
railroading heritage. The Museum's primary mission
is to preserve key railroad heritage resources, and
make them available to the widest possible
audience. Assisting the Museum (a unit of
California State Parks) in its mission is the
California State Railroad Museum Foundation, a
non-profit organization chartered to raise and
manage funds on behalf of the Museum and to provide
a variety of additional support
services.
Operated by California State
Parks with assistance from the non-profit CSRM
Foundation, the California State Railroad Museum is
open daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. except
Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's Day. Widely
regarded as North America's finest and most-visited
railroad museum, the complex of facilities includes
the 100,000-square foot Museum of Railroad History
plus the reconstructed Central Pacific Railroad
Passenger Station and Freight Depot, 1849 Eagle
Theatre, and Big Four and Dingley Spice Mill
buildings in Old Sacramento State Historic Park.
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