About the California State Railroad Museum
The California State Railroad Museum is a unit of California State Parks on the Old Sacramento Waterfront, the point where the Central Pacific began building the western half of the first transcontinental railroad. The museum's first facility opened in 1976, and the main Railroad History Museum building was completed in 1981. It now holds 225,000 square feet of exhibit space and draws more than 500,000 visitors a year. The nonprofit California State Railroad Museum Foundation, an official cooperating organization of State Parks, supports both the museum and its sister site, Railtown 1897 State Historic Park in Jamestown, which joined the complex in 1992. The museum became a Smithsonian Affiliate in June 2017.
The collection includes 21 restored locomotives and railroad cars, the oldest dating to 1862. Three are worth seeking out: the Gov. Stanford, a 4-4-0 built by Norris Locomotive Works in 1862; the C.P. Huntington, a 4-2-4T built by Cooke Locomotive Works in 1863; and Southern Pacific 4294, a 4-8-8-2 built by Baldwin in 1944 and the only surviving "cab-forward" locomotive. Galleries also include a Black and African American Experience exhibit, and a series of digital exhibits can be viewed online. From April through October the Sacramento Southern Railroad runs weekend excursion trains from the museum's passenger station, a 40-minute, six-mile round trip along the Sacramento River.
Docent-led tours of about 30 minutes cover the building of the transcontinental railroad; ask at the front desk for the day's schedule. A free Story Time for families runs every Monday at 11 a.m., and group tours are booked through the Group Desk at (916) 323-9274.
Collections and Research Services
The museum's Library & Archives is the California State Park System's only professionally staffed public research library and archives, and one of the foremost collections on railroad history and technology in North America. The non-circulating holdings include archival records, published works, photographs and other graphic material, sound recordings, and original motion picture film and video. The reading room, on the second floor of the Big Four Building, is open by appointment only, Monday through Friday; call (916) 323-8073 or email the library to schedule, and note that an appointment is not confirmed until staff reply.
Researchers who cannot visit can send questions by email: staff provide up to 30 minutes of research per request, usually answered within two to three weeks. Material stored off-site at the California Statewide Museum Collection Center needs one to two weeks' notice and is brought to the reading room on Thursdays. Reproduction orders take three to four weeks and require advance payment; the fee schedule and permission forms are on the library's Forms page, and a Genealogy & Other Resources page points descendants of railroad employees toward other institutions. An online catalog covers both library and archival collections. If you are tracing a railroad ancestor, our guide to free family history research shows how to combine employment records with census and newspaper sources, and finding old photos of your house and neighborhood explains how to search photograph archives like this one.
Planning Your Visit
The museum is open daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., with last admission at 4:30 p.m., and closes only on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day. Admission is $12 for adults, $6 for ages 6-17, and free for children 5 and under and for members; prices can change without notice. Metered street parking in Old Sacramento is not practical for stays over 90 minutes, so use the all-day Old Sacramento Garage or Tower Bridge Garage at either end of the waterfront. Free bus parking is behind the museum, and Amtrak's Sacramento Valley Station is a short walk away. The building is fully accessible, with wheelchair lifts at most exhibits, though some historic passenger cars have narrow stairways; the museum holds KultureCity sensory-inclusive certification and lends sensory bags at the front desk. Check the official site at californiarailroad.museum for excursion schedules and current prices. For more Sacramento Valley history, the Sutter County Museum in Yuba City is a short drive north.
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