Thursday, June 25, 2009

The Sacramento Railroad Museum and Old Town

All right! We are ready to tour the Sacramento Railroad museum! This looks like an amazing facility and is in Old Town Sacramento. This is where the Central Pacific Railroad first got started and is a beautifully restored area.

Many of the cars and exhibits are available for review and inspection. This is the Pullman car which converts into a sleeping car at night. The car looked like new and was set up for use.

One of the great moments in the building of the Central Pacific was the incredible feat of building 10 miles of track in one 12 hour period! The track crew handled over 4.3 MILLION pounds of materials that day to complete that feat. Needless to say, this has not been duplicated since.

This is the first engine used on the Central Pacific ... the C.P. Huntington. Shipped around Cape Horn, this engine was used in the construction of the railroad in 1864. It was fun to see such priceless artifacts.

While railroad history is great, Orinda was ready for lunch. Fortunately, Old Town offered many options, but the hotdog offered all the way with chili was the winner for Orinda! It was fun to eat at the table outside and watch all the folks wander around.

Finally, it was time to head back to Cody who was holding down the coach. We did take a short detour and drove by the impressive State Capitol building. Apparently, things are pretty busy in the capitol these days as the legislature tries to figure out how to keep the state out of bankruptcy! Still, the building is beautiful.

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