Founded in 1952, it has been showing the story of railroads in the western United States with fine and interesting collections of railroad equipment, ranging from luxury lounge cars to day coach passenger service, narrow to standard gauge, and interurban transport to transcontinental travel. Their activities include maintaining equipment exhibited, restoring old railroad cars, building new tracks, operating a caboose train, and so on. The day I visited, November 3rd, was special because a fascinating show was taking place. It was day on which a caboose train was operated, the first Sunday of the month. As I entered the museum site, I heard real train sounds, the whistle blowing, the bell clanging, the engine roaring, all of which came from the caboose train.
Nothing is more realistic and powerful than a real train operation in a railroad museum.
The caboose train set . Each car is in surprisingly good shape. Even utilities on the caboose cars are fully operational including the sewage treatment system. The switcher is one of eleven manufactured by the Electro-Motive Corporation from 1940 to 1943. This one was built in 1942, and first went to the U.S. Navy.