21st Annual Behind-the-Scenes Tour

Presented by the California State Railroad Museum and Railtown 1897 State Historic Park

California State Railroad Museum

and The Rail Splitter and The Railroads:  Lincoln, the Union, and the Golden State.

Since my Secondary Education Teaching Credential includes Social Studies, and the fact that Lincoln spent some years of his life in my home state of Indiana, and since wife, Sue, is from Decatur, IL, some 30 miles from Lincoln's residence while he was in Springfield, IL, the state capitol, we have more than a passing interest in Abraham Lincoln.  I did not, however, know of his intense interest in expanding railroads westward to California, which is the subject of this excellent display in the Museum. (May 9, 2009 - February 15, 2010)

	Lincoln lived in this cabin in southern Indiana.

Lincoln traveled to Washington, DC, in 1847 using Stagecoaches, Riverboats, and Trains.
Shown here is an 1860 presidential campaign poster, showing the frontier origins of splitting fence rails, and taking trips from Illinois to New Orleans on flatboats. Trapped on a flatboat on a trip to New Orleans, he invented this device, right.

California, a free or slave state?
	Enlargement and closeup of front of station below.

Extravagant 'Lincoln Car' built in 1865, never used by him, he felt it was too opulent.
I-Street Bridge

Lincoln's Funeral Train. Lincoln never traveled west of Council Bluffs, IA, but he dreamed of going to California after being President, right.

Other exhibits at the California State Railroad Museum.

At the Gift Shop they have the Southern Pacific china pattern with California Poppies.  And other patterns, right.
Second Floor extensive Toy Train Display.

	The bottom of a train motor showing the center track rollers that act as a ground.
Cab-forward No. 4294 from second floor.	Barry Howard's excellent design of the CSRM allows one to look down from second floor to the giant cab-forward housed on first floor.

	Also on 2nd floor are extensive collections of model trains of all scales.  Dioramas abound, above.

From the 2nd floor, the Western Pacific 913 looks like a model.	The Sleeping Car simulates moving down the tracks as you walk through it.
Displays on the 2nd floor are excellent in their own right.

Another model miniature.	Back to the first floor
A tribute to women in railroads.

	After the Museum, outside in Old Town they were having a Pacific-Rim Festival

We took the van from the Vagabond Inn to the Station, met the Coast Starlight and left Sacramento at 5 pm.  Since it had become an overnight trip rather than a day trip, we contacted the Conductor onboard and made arrangements to move to a Bedroom from San Jose to Los Angeles.  We paid $106 for the upgrade which we felt was reasonable.