Nearby Railroad News and Events

Truckee Railroad Museum Grand Opening - May 8, 2010 - The Grand Opening of the Truckee Railroad Museum was held on a picture perfect day. See some of the festivity.

See the UP 844 in Truckee - Feb. 12, 2009 - On April 17th, 2009 see the UP 844 heritage steam engine in Truckee. Read more.

Tour the Califronia Museum - Feb. 7, 2009 - As part of the development of the Truckee Railroad Museum, the team has been visiting other museums to gain as much insight into museum design as possible. The California Museum, located in downtown Sacramento, was one of 26 Sacramento area museums open to the public on Museum Day. Held once a year, the museums open their doors for free as a promotion to the community.

New historical society in the area - Jan 3, 2009 - A new historical society has incorporated focused on the history of the Donner Summit area. Read a brief intro and visit their website.

TDRS caboose gets prototypical paint scheme - October 20, 2008 - In preparation for housing the TDRS interim museum, the ex Southern Pacific caboose received a paint job representing it's heritage colors.

Heritage diesel locomotive caught in Truckee - August 31, 2008 - In July of 2005, the Union Pacific railroad unveiled a series of diesels to celebrate the railroads that have merged with the UP to form the major network that it is today. See one of these locomotives captured in Truckee.

Rotary Snow Plow Delivered! - Truckee Railroad Museum is proud to announce the delivery of a rotary snow plow. This type of snow plow was developed in the 1880's, and first used over Donner Pass in 1883!

Maintenance of Way in Roseville - One of the maintenace chores of a railroad is to grind the track to assure proper profile and smoothness. This process creates a high opportunity for fire. Cars are added to the track grinding train to assure those fires don't take hold.

Cabooses return to Truckee - May 21st, 2008 - A former Southern Pacific caboose has come back to Truckee. After being phased out by the railroads in the 80's, cabooses have disappeared from the Truckee landscape. Truckee Donner Railroad Society has aquired one, and it has been moved to the museum site.

Unidentified RR object - See the unusual HI-Rail semi truck in the yard in Roseville. The Hi-Rail railroad wheels keep the semi tractor on the track, and the semi's rubber wheels provide the traction.

Uplifting news - May 2nd, 2008 - A 10 ton Brownhoist crane has been moved to the TDRS Museum site. Circa 1904, the crane has led an eventful 100+ year life. Originally built with steam power, this unit has been converted to an internal combustion engine.

50 years since trains crossed Bay Bridge - April 20th, 2008 - Trains, buses and trucks used to be the only vehicles allowed on the lower deck of the San Francisco Bay Bridge. Autos used to run both directions on the top deck. It is the Golden Anniversary of the final run of trains across the lower deck. In 1971 the system was replaced with the Bay Area Rapid Transit system. BART has a 3.6 mile twin section tube (costing $176 million) running under the bay. The track gauge is 5 foot 6 inches, instead of 4 foot 8-1/2 inch standard gauge. The system runs on 1000 Volts DC on a third rail, with each car having 4-150HP electric motors.

Slow times yield full yards - April 14th, 2008 - With the slowing of the US economy, the transportation industry has slowed as well. This leaves many freight cars parked with no paying load. It leads to yards that are full, and cuts of cars left on remote sidings.

UP runs the Centennial - April 8th, 2008 - UP 6936 is the last operating Centennial engine. They were brought out in 1969 by UP to celebrate the anniversary of the Transcontinental line. They were designed to be the equivalent of two SD-35's on one chassis, and are an awesome sight and sound. There is one sitting at Portola dead.

UP runs heritage steam - September 5th, 2005 - Union Pacific had a special run to their only remaining operational Challenger locomotive. Union Pacific at one time owned 105 Challenger locomotives. Built between 1936 and 1943, the Challengers were nearly 122 feet long and weighed more than one million pounds. Articulated like their big brother, the Big Boy, the Challengers had a 4-6-6-4 wheel arrangement. They operated over most of the Union Pacific system, primarily in freight service, but a few were assigned to passenger trains operating through mountain territory to California and Oregon.

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