I am traveling through Sacramento and decided to check out the State Railroad Museum. Some of you might remember one of my earlier trips west that I was checking out the transcontinental Railroad sites and Oregon/California Trail sites. Well Sacramento is actually the end point of both of these. The Central Pacific Railroad started its trek east from Sacramento while the Union Pacific started west from Council Bluffs Iowa. As for the Oregon\California Trails, it started west at the Missouri River. North of Salt Lake city the California Trail split off southwest while the Oregon Trail went west.
There is an Old Sacramento downtown by the river front, most of the buildings have that old turn of the century charm. Parts of the road have the old brick and all the sidewalks are wood planks. The area has shops and restaurants, river front park, a real nice area that also includes the State Railroad Museum. Fewer than 45 full-size steam locomotives built prior to 1880 exist in the United States. The Museum has eight of these, including the first locomotive purchased by the Central Pacific, locomotive No. 1, Gov. Stanford. Exhibits include the Chinese that built the railroad east. They also had model railroad exhibits, including different layouts and old trains. Some of the Lionel cars I saw I had as a kid.
