 |
|
FloridaGardenRailwaySociety's
User
Submitted TIPS page
Railroad History – Great Sites and Small Crowds
By Gene Tischer, Florida
SouthWest Division
( 11/2002 )Railroad History – Great Sites and Small Crowds (Unfortunately) Over the past several months, I have had the opportunity to combine business trips with visits to some wonderful railroad museums and historical sites. I want to give just a brief over-view of these sites and encourage readers to visit these facilities when in the area. I am concerned that some of these sites will go the way of many of the railroads they commemorate if we do not support them. I did not run into any big crowds on any visits; in fact, I was often the lone visitor during the time I spent there.
Before you take a trip, go to this Internet site
-- http://www.innvista.com/rail/mususa.htm --
and see if there are any museums or historical sites in the area where you are traveling. This Website lists hundreds of railroad museums and locations and covers every state in the U.S. In addition, most of the museums and places themselves have their own Websites, complete with directions, pictures and the like. Just take a few minutes to do a little “Internet research” and you will enjoy your travels even more. Now, here are some attractions I have recently visited with my ratings
-- 1 (poor) to 5 (a must see) --
1. Maine Narrow Gauge Railroad & Museum, Portland, ME – www.mngrr.rails.net (but no content on Website yet). This museum has a nice collection of 2-foot gauge rolling stock and a few locomotives stored both indoors and out. It also features a short ride on 2’ track – feels like Larry Smith’s Manatee Central on steroids!
Rating: 3.2. Rochester and Geneseo Railroad Museum, Rochester, NY – http://www.rgvrrm.mus.ny.us/tourrgv.html.
This small museum is on the old Erie line outside Rochester, NY. It is very small, not much rolling stock; and, what it does have, is in poor shape. Short rides.
Rating 1.3. Gold Coast Railroad Museum, Miami,
-- http://www.goldcoast-railroad.org --
Rolling stock and engines; many under a huge shed that was built after Hurricane Andrew did a great deal of damage to the museum. It has the “Ferdinand Magellan,” President Franklin Roosevelt’s personal car (with special armor, 3” thick bullet proof glass, etc.), and 3 California Zephyr passenger cars, which you can walk through. It’s located on a WW II blimp site and the enormous concrete frame of one of the blimps’ hanger doors is still intact and worth seeing in its own right.
Rating: 4.4. SteamtownUSA, Scranton PA.
-- http://www.nps.gov/stea/ --
This facility is actually one of our National Parks and it is excellent. There is a lot of interactive and multimedia education; a large roundhouse where young people are taught how to restore full size steam locomotives (there was a NYC Pacific under restoration when I was there) and rides. It also has one of the few remaining “big boys” (4-8-8-4) (I believe there are only two left) No. 4012. Unfortunately, you cannot get in the cab.
Rating: 5.5. B&O Railroad Museum, Baltimore, MD
-- http://www.borail.org --
The B&O museum is the only RR museum that is part of the Smithsonian Institution based in Washington, DC. It has several outstanding features. Its roundhouse is spectacular, designed by an architect who always dreamed of designing a cathedral; but realized that was never going to happen so he decided that the B&O roundhouse would be his cathedral. The interior has sunlight beaming in from dozens of windows in a cathedral-like dome which itself is one-third taller than necessary. It houses a wonderful collection of old steam and diesel engines going back to the very beginning of the railroad industry in our country. There is a model railroad that has operated continuously since its construction in 1954. While the scenery was state-of-the-art in 1954, it is interesting to behold how far our scenic skills and materials have come since then; to the point where anyone of us could do as good a job, or better, than the best artists did in that year. There is a large collection of rolling stock and engines outside, including the only remaining Alleghany (2-6-6-6), which has cab access. The firebox could hold a dinner party of 8. This coming summer, June 27 to July 6, the museum is celebrating the B&O’s 175th birthday with reenactments of the 1927 Fair of the Iron Horse, using some of the same engines used in 1927. This will be a dandy affair. Rating: 5.6. Colorado Railroad Museum, Golden CO
-- http://www.crrm.org --
This museum has a well written, and well laid out, historical section with displays of interesting artifacts. It has a collection of 70 cars and engines, most of them 3 foot gauge. It has a new roundhouse and an unusual turntable – one with 4 tracks to handle both standard and narrow gauge cars. (It may also be of interest to note that the museum is right across the road from the Coors Brewery!)
Rating: 47. California State Railroad Museum, Sacramento, CA
-- http://www.csrmf.org/default.asp --
This is the most beautiful railroad museum I have visited. It is new, obviously well supported financially, and the displays of steam locomotives are spotless – more like models than the real thing. It is located in Old Sacramento, about 4 blocks from where the Central Pacific began its track laying east to meet the Union Pacific for the transcontinental RR. It has the only cab forward engine left (4-8-8-4) and not only is there cab access, but there is a volunteer guide in the cab who explains all the controls. Furthermore, the controls still work and you can sit in the engineer’s seat and dream. If I had been lucky enough to be a steam locomotive engineer, this is the engine I would have wanted to operate. All the pleasure of steam engine, with the engineer’s view as if you were in a diesel.
Rating 5.8. Golden Spike National Historic Site, Brigham City, UT
-- http://www.nps.gov/gosp/ --
This desolate location, at Promontory Point, (60 miles NW of Salt Lake City) is where Congress declared the Central Pacific and the Union Pacific would meet and nail the last spike that connected the Atlantic and Pacific oceans by rail. There is a nice staffed national park pavilion here and they re-enact the final spike event of May 10, 1869 throughout the summer with reproductions of the CP’s Jupiter and UP’s 119 (both 4-4-0s). Last month I had been in Sacramento, standing at the very spot where the Central Pacific started east; and this month I was in Utah, looking west back down that track and thinking about how great was the accomplishment that May day. The Central Pacific had come 690 miles from Sacramento, up and over the Sierra mountains, across deserts to join its track with the Union Pacific’s that stretched back east 1,087 miles to Omaha. I was in awe of the work this project took to complete. In fact, the title to Stephen Ambrose’s new book detailing this project, which I had just read, sums up the accomplishment perfectly –
it is titled: Nothing Else Like it in the World.
Rating: 5.9. Utah State Railroad Museum, Ogden, UT. This museum is in the Union Station, which has been nicely restored. It has an excellent model railroad display that depicts the history of railroading in Utah, including the transcontinental RR. Outside displays of rolling stock and several engines includes a UP steam turbine engine.
Rating: 4.I have enjoyed my visits to these museums and historic locations and I hope you plan your trips to take advantage of these, or similar, facilities also. If we do not support the efforts being made to keep the history of our railroads alive, it will surely die and our country will lose a wonderful part of its colorful history.
Gene Tischer
