Newest articles on The Sacramento Press tagged as "railroad museum"

Small Train Holiday

2011-11-26T03:05:01Z

There’s something about toy trains that captures the imagination of adults and children alike. This year’s “Small Train Holiday” at the California State Railroad Museum is drawing a steady stream of wide-eyed admirers to its special displays of toy and model trains over Thanksgiving weekend.

Grown-ups and kids clustered around the working train displays run by avid toy train operators. Joe Montgomery’s train layout includes treasured trains from his youth. When he was a boy, his father traded several bushels of corn to a store-owner so that his son could have a pre-1950s Marx electric train. Montgomery played with the set for years until called into the armed services, and now he comes every year to the Small Train Holiday to share his love of trains.

Eight-year-old Nathan is a budding engineer, with a very practical bent. He constructed an entire Santa’s village out of Legos, complete with working trains, Santa’s workshop and a lunchroom and bathroom for the elves. Nathan, his grandma and mother were happy to point out the set’s features and to challenge folks to find the 15 Santas hidden in the layouts hosted by the Sacramento Lego Fan Club.

David Thomsen of the Toy Train Operating Society added movement to his village scene with sledders, skiers and a chugging train filled with miniature gift boxes. Another operator’s layout mesmerized children as they watched conveyor belts unload barrels of broccoli and brussels sprouts and load up on logs.

The event also included storytelling with Mrs. Claus, handcar rides, photos with Santa, a 1957 short film set to instrumental music titled “Toccata for Toy Trains” and a scavenger hunt.

Museum director Paul Hammond says the museum has been offering Small Train Holiday for about 15 years. This year’s event runs through Saturday.

Ghost Tour

2010-10-26T01:09:57Z

Do you like history? How about ghosts? And puns? What about historically significant (and knowledgeable) pun-loving phantasms?

I, for one, am a glutton for punishment. In this case, incorporeal punishment.

I received all that I wanted and more on Friday night at the Old Sacramento Ghost Tour.

Put on by The Historic Old Sacramento Foundation, the Ghost Tour is an hour-long guided stroll around Old Sac that begins and ends at the Eagle Theater.

I arrived at the theater about 10 minutes before the tour was to begin and joined the crowd that was already milling about. Holding court on the theater steps with the rapt attention of a young family was a gentleman who looked eerily similar to the ghost of Charles Crocker, whom I had met on the Old City Cemetery Tour a few months earlier. He assured me that any resemblance was merely coincidental.

At 6:30 we adjourned into the theater itself, past a trio of exceedingly pleasant poltergeists seated in the lobby. One of them was kind enough to point out that the beautiful wooden bar, which he'd caught me admiring, was an original Gold Rush-era piece.

Once we were all seated in the venue, the Charles Crocker doppelganger came rushing up the aisle toward the stage, hollering for what I soon ascertained was his assistant.

It turned out that our friend sold cemetery plots in the New Helvetia Cemetery, and as he frantically informed his mortician/assistant, the New Helvetia Cemetery had just flooded. His assistant looked at him, nonplussed.

"Well, it's not like anyone's going to drown," he offered.

True enough, but it seems that, in order to save a buck, these two hucksters had been burying folks in shallow graves.

In watertight wooden boxes, in very shallow graves.

"It seems our clients have deserted us," the plot seller lamented to the mortician. The formerly (if superficially) interred had taken leave of their plots and been set adrift all over the city. It didn't take long, of course, for our unscrupulous saleswraiths to realize that this cloud had a silver lining. Uninhabited plots are far easier to sell, you see.

The flood took place in January of 1850, and many of the bodies were never recovered.

And thus, the stage was set for the tour. We took a cue from Snagglepuss and exited stage left. On our way out, an exceedingly patient young blond girl provided some further comic relief when she exclaimed to her mother, "That wasn't too long!" To her credit, she took the knowledge that the tour hadn't started yet quite well for a wee one who thinks that she’s done with something.

Outside the theater we met our young tour guide, Ashley. The ghost tour tour guide has to be equal parts historian and straight (wo)man, and belying her youth, she performed admirably on both counts. It's not easy being Bud Abbott to an ethereal Lou Costello, or Larry Appleton to a banshee Balki Bartokomous, but Ashley pulled it off.

Along the way we learned a lot about the colorful, if tragic, history of Old Sac and met myriad specters, many of whom had found their way there from the inconsiderable depths of their not-so-final resting places at New Helvetia Cemetery.

In general, the apparitions are an affable lot, although they have a lot of issues among themselves. (This is the true story...of eight ghosts…picked to haunt Old Sac…to find out what happens...when ghosts stop being polite...and start getting real…)

All in all, the tour was a real treat – fun, funny and informative. And it's a rare event that is legitimately suitable for the whole family: all ages – 3 to 103. And, of course, any family members who may have passed on are especially welcome.

You have a few more chances to catch the Historic Old Sac Ghost Tours. They are offered on Friday and Saturday, and the hour-long tours begin at 6:30 p.m. and run every half hour until 9:00 p.m. Advanced ticket reservation is required.

All images are the "work" of yours truly. If you wish to lavish praise, feel free to send me an email- lindol@gmail.com

Gold Rush Days returns to Old Sacramento

2010-09-04T00:12:30Z

Old Sacramento’s streets are once again dirt, and about 150 volunteers are dressed in their best 1850s fashion as the area reverts back to its rich history for Labor Day weekend.

Visitors can rumble down the streets in a horse-drawn carriage, refresh themselves at the Stinking Tent Saloon, pan for gold and then gamble away their findings at one of the more lecherous tents in the frontier tent city that sprung up overnight in front of the Sacramento History Museum on First and I streets.

“I think it’s really important for people now to know about the history that was happening right here in that time period,” said Janessa West, public programs coordinator for the Historic Old Sacramento Foundation.

Gold Rush Days in Old Sacramento has been held for the past 11 years, and West said she expects even higher traffic this year than in years past, since the fair is not open like it has been, having had its dates moved up a month.

Volunteer Jan Bullard, who for the weekend is Addie Carter – gambler and hostess of the Stinking Tent Saloon – said visitors to her tent can partake in “games for all ages, music, prestidigitation (that’s sleight of hand to modern folks) and the best sarsaparilla this side of Donner Pass.”

At noon and 3 p.m. Friday, the Sierra Nevada Mormon pioneers fired off a replica of one of the cannons Sutter’s Fort would have mounted.

“We enjoy discussing early California history with the public, from pre-Gold Rush to the discovery of gold,” said Peter Guilbert, commandant of the pioneers.

On Friday, hundreds of schoolchildren attended the event, including 9-year-old Anna Kirchgater Elementary School student Connor Jacobs, who got a crash course in doing laundry pioneer-style.

“I’m learning a lot about history,” Connor said. “My favorite was the train museum.”

Eddie Douglas, father of one of Connor’s classmates, said he thought the school’s field trip to the event was a great way for the students to learn history firsthand.

Volunteer J.D. Borthwick agreed.

“Bringing the 1850s to the 21st century is a wonderful thing,” he said. “This venue has been going for a decade. It’s a fixture of Labor Day in Sacramento.”

The event is free and open from 11 a.m. - 7 p.m. Saturday and Sunday and from 11 a.m. - 4 p.m. Monday.

Prepaid parking is available for $8 at Tower Garage (near Tower Bridge) and nearby Old Sacramento Garage (entrance on I Street).

Brandon Darnell is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

'The Migrant Project" at The Sacramento Railroad Museum

2010-03-12T06:20:07Z

Rick Nahmias’ Photography exhibit, “The Migrant Project,” is currently on display at The Sacramento Railroad Museum.

“The Migrant Project” has toured from gallery to gallery for eight years and was transformed into a book two years ago. However, The Sacramento Railroad Museum might be its most unlikely stop.

Initially, Nahmias sought out the Sacramento Capitol Museum to display the photos to the public. Due to the Capitol being booked, Nahmias and his colleagues had to think outside the box. Nahmias’ colleagues are very committed to his message and his work, which is why he trusted their proposition of the Railroad Museum.

The museum’s old produce car has been converted into “The Migrant Project” gallery, and Nahmias said that he was convinced it would work at first sight. Because of numerous labor issues associated with the railroad’s history, Nahmias said he can see a common ground for the project, but acknowledges a disconnect with museum-goers’ motives.

Nahmias is an artist with an activist edge, and his exhibit presents an agricultural dilemma, what he refers to as a doom-and-gloom scenario. Most railroad enthusiast go the museum to see the mammoth remains of a golden era relics that encapsulate the grandeur of Manifest Destiny and the American Dream. Nahmias’ exhibit brings some politics and forethought to museum, one of the stable staple of Sacramento.

“The Migrant Project” traces Nahmias’ eight trips across 50 cities throughout California’s agricultural heartland spanning a full year. Initially, the project was self-funded, but received outside funding from advocacy groups when he presented his midway progress. Food is Nahmias’ issue, and he said he feels viscerally connected. His agenda is to give people the sight to see the human struggle behind food: to draw a line between the harvesting of a crop and its last stop on a dinner plate.

One of Nahmias’ most-recognized photos at the exhibit is “Tomato Tokens,” a photo of a farm laborer’s callused hands exposing the uncommon currency. One "tomato token" is given to a worker every time he or she presents two 25-pound pails of tomatoes. On the day of the taken photo, tokens were worth 95 cents. Nahmias recalled a moment on one of his last trips across the state when he discoved a migrant farmer hunched over on a beat-up truck tailgate clenching his tomato tokens and vigorously eating a taco before get back to work. Nahmias’ goal is to foster some compassion and educate viewers on the engine that drives California. “The Migrant Project” is in recognition of the 1.1 million California farm laborers.

Nahmias said his overall theme with his bodies of work is “bridging us with them.” Currently, he’s working on his new project, “The Golden States of Grace: Prayers of the Disinherited,” which covers how people find their faith through unorthodox examples from religious groups, such as Zen Buddhists in prison. The collective work of more than 100 photos and personal essays will be presented is his new book, which is due out in September.

“The Migrant Project” is currently on display at The Sacramento Railroad Museum. General admission tickets are $9, and kids' are $4. Admission is free on March 27 in honor of Caesar Chavez and will include a book signing event by Rick Nahmias and forum by the Fair Food Project Organization.

'Some Assembly Required' features vintage toys, brings back memories

2009-11-21T03:16:02Z

A 1950s Lionel train advertisement shows a father, mother, little girl and boy peering into a window display featuring a model train going through a city, over a bridge and into the mountains. The father appears to be the most interested -- head cocked, hand on his chin, ready to help his child build the toy train set.

An adjacent Lionel Train advertisement shows a father sitting on the ground assembling a train set, while his son sits in the background frowning.

California State Railroad Museum's "Some Assembly Required" exhibit, which opened today, featured a somewhat similar scene. Many families were in the museum, but the historical toy exhibit seemed to strike the strongest chord with older men.

Filled with erector sets, trolleys and wind-ups, the exhibit shows vintage toys from the 1870s to the 1960s. The pièce de résistance is a layout, complete with a working Lionel Train set, that looks like the window display of Bullock's department store in 1956 Los Angeles.

For Jeff Hall, a 54-year-old who was born in Los Angeles, the layout brought back a lot of memories.

"I had a Lionel train set and looked forward to putting it around the Christmas tree every year," he said. Hall, the father of four daughters, said he brought home a train set for his children one year, but it wasn't a big hit.

"They were into other things," he said. Two were interested in horses and the other two were more into sports.

It was a similar story for another father, John Curtis, who also grew up putting a train set around the Christmas tree. While his 4-year-old daughter Emily likes riding real trains, Curtis said she doesn't really play with toy trains.

"(Emily) likes to play on the Nintendo DS, she's big on Barbies and she's all about Play-Doh," Curtis said.

Jeff Allen, a CSRM volunteer docent in his 50s, said he played with nearly every toy in the exhibit when he was younger.

"It really gives you an idea of what toys were like. I remember playing with most of these," he said. "When I'm working around these toys, it's like I'm 4 years old."

Allen said he played with toy trains as a kid, and still has two sets of operational model trains. He said that his love of trains led him to become a docent, adding that working at the museum "is a kick" because he can be around trains.

In addition to "Some Assembly Required," the permanent display of toy trains on the third floor is a must-see. The exhibit shows the history of the toy train, nearly every train size available from Z scale (smallest) to G scale (largest), and interactive toy sets and layouts.

In keeping with the holiday spirit, the museum's first floor also features a working toy train chugging around a Christmas tree.

Those who seek an additional holiday-themed train experience can sign up for Santa's Steam Train, Nov. 27-29. The steam train departs from the Central Pacific Railroad Freight Depot adjacent to the museum and riders also have admittance to the museum and the 13th Annual Toy Train Holiday Show.

The annual show, on Thanksgiving weekend, features local hobbyists displaying their toy and model train layouts in the museum. Tickets for Santa's Steam Train are $15, $7 for ages 6-17, free ages 5 and younger. The train departs hourly from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

California State Railroad Museum, 125 I St., is open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily. Museum admission is $9, $4 ages 6-17, free ages 5 and younger. "Some Assembly Required" runs until Feb. 20.

All photographs are of "Some Assembly Required," except for image 5, which shows the Christmas tree display on the first floor.