Major & Ongoing Projects
Discover the latest restoration projects at the California State Railroad Museum.
Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe No. 1010
With your help, Santa Fe No. 1010 will steam again! No. 1010 has a reputation for speed, being one of the locomotives that pulled the record-setting Scott Special in 1905. The special blazed from Los Angeles to Chicago in a mere 44 hours and 54 minutes. The 1010 handled the train between Needles, Calif., and Seligman, Ariz.
Now, you have a chance to help No. 1010 return to steam. Imagine this record-setting iron horse on a Sacramento Southern Railroad excursion train, or even as the star of THE POLAR EXPRESS™ Train Ride in Old Sacramento.
Several donors have stepped up with a matching fund totaling $300,000, about half the amount needed to restore No. 1010 to full operation. In the words of one donor: “My hope is that the donation I have pledged will help encourage others to join in and make this locomotive run again. … I hope to spark the imaginations of children, younger people, and adults when they see and experience the pulse of AT&SF 1010 alive and under power.”
No. 1010 was built in 1901 by the Baldwin Locomotive Works in Philadelphia. After its star turn on the Scott Special, 1010 earned its keep handling less-famous passenger and freight trains on the Santa Fe. It is believed to have been last steamed up in the mid-1950s.
Longtime fans of the California State Railroad Museum may remember No. 1010 for its role in the pageant at the Museum’s grand opening in May 1981, moving in and out of the Museum roundhouse on compressed air.
Granite Rock #10
If you’ve ridden a steam-powered Sacramento Southern Railroad excursion train since 1999, you were more than likely riding behind small-but-mighty Granite Rock 10, the star of the Museum’s steam show for nearly three decades now. Your contributions help keep this little engine that can on the rails.
Granite Rock 10 is a World War II veteran. This 0-6-0 tank engine was built in August 1942 by the H.K. Porter Co. of Pittsburgh, Pa., for the U.S. Army Transportation Corps. As U.S. Army 5001, the locomotive served at the Army depot in Tracy, Calif.
In 1947, the Army sold the locomotive to the Granite Rock Co. of Logan, Calif., near Watsonville. As Granite Rock 10, it shuffled hopper cars full of granite from the Logan-area quarry. In 1960, with diesel locomotives taking over the work, No. 10 was put out to pasture—literally. For the next 30-plus years, it sat in the Granite Rock yard, awaiting its fate.
That fate turned out to be a third life at the California State Railroad Museum. Granite Rock. Co. donated the 10 to the Museum in 1995 and underwrote its restoration to operation in 1997. A second restoration, from 2011 to 2015, was carried out by the California State Railroad Museum; the most recent work, spanning 2020 to 2025, served to correct a cylinder issue and rework the valve bushings, helping to ensure the locomotive remains serviceable for years to come.
Southern Pacific #6819
One of the features of the legendary railroad over Donner Pass—a crucial segment of the Central Pacific’s half of the Transcontinental Railroad—is its many tunnels. One bore at the summit, constructed in 1924 as part of a line expansion, is nearly two miles long. As diesels took over from steam in the 1950s, Southern Pacific discovered over time that its diesels tended to overheat in the tunnels, thanks to the radiator cooling fans at the top of the locomotive pulling in hotter air. A solution was needed.
Enter the Electro-Motive Division of General Motors with a design that quickly became known as the “tunnel motor.” EMD moved the radiator cooling fan intakes from the top to the bottom of the locomotive body, where they would draw cooler air. SP bought many of these “tunnel motors” during the 1970s and, with them, was able to keep freight moving over Theodore Judah’s railroad with minimal issues.
One such locomotive is now in the Museum’s collection. Southern Pacific No. 6819 is an SD45T-2 tunnel motor built in EMD’s plant in La Grange, Ill., in 1972. The SP put the locomotive through its refurbishment program at the Sacramento shops in 1987 to extend its service life. The 6819 remained in service for SP and Union Pacific, which took over SP in 1996, until December 2001, when UP donated the locomotive to the Museum.
The Foundation has restored No. 6819 to service, with the locomotive pulling its first revenue trains during the 2024 run of the Polar Express. The 6819 serves as a prime example of how innovation in locomotive construction enabled American railroads to keep freight moving.
Santa Fe #347C
Next to the steam locomotive, perhaps the most legendary American railroad locomotive is the streamlined red-and-silver Santa Fe “Warbonnet” passenger diesel, thanks in no small part to Lionel making it a prominent part of its post-World War II catalog.
Only one of these legendary locomotives remains in all its glory, and it belongs to the California State Railroad Museum. Santa Fe No. 347C stands as a testament to the glory days of the American passenger train, and with your help, it will roar back to life to tell its tale on the trains of the Sacramento Southern.
Electro-Motive Corp. built the locomotive in 1949. In its day, the 347C would have been found on the point of some of Santa Fe’s most prestigious passenger trains, such as the Super Chief and El Capitan (both traveling between Los Angeles and Chicago). As passenger trains faded from prominence in the 1960s and 1970s, so did 347C—until a farsighted Santa Fe executive named Robert Welk ensured that it and other pieces of the Santa Fe’s history came to the California State Railroad Museum in 1986.
Polar Express passengers might recognize the 347C as the locomotive that silently greets them near the entrance to the Central Pacific Passenger Station. Those same passengers, thanks to their support of the Museum and Foundation, may very well soon ride to the North Pole and back behind this very same legend of the rails.
Ongoing Projects
School Trains and Tours
Introducing young people to their history and their heritage is one of the Museum’s most important missions, and the Foundation is proud to support it. Thanks to your contributions, the Foundation is able to fund bus transportation to the Museum for students from underserved schools and communities.
Your contributions also help many of the Sacramento region’s schoolchildren ride the train—in some cases for the first time in their lives. Thanks to the Foundation, school-train rides on the Museum’s operating railroad are free to classes participating in the Museum’s educational programs.
As of the spring of 2023, more than 1,000 students were able to experience the Museum and more than 3,000 were able to ride the Sacramento Southern Railroad.
“We believe the impact the Museum and riding on the trains has on children is worth much more than the costs of providing transportation,” says Tim Schroepfer, the Foundation’s president and CEO.
Museum Lobby Reconstruction
The Museum’s main entrance is getting a makeover, thanks to Foundation members and donors.
The lobby already has a new floor and a more open floor plan, along with a video board keeping Museum visitors up to date on the latest exhibits, events and programs. Above that is a more-than-life-size portrait of the City of San Francisco, once a premier Oakland-Chicago passenger train, rolling past the Southern Pacific station in Berkeley, Calif.
In the next phase, a new counter where Museum tickets and Foundation memberships will be sold will be installed under the video board, replacing the smaller desk to the right of the doors.
