The General Fund
The ability to showcase our artifacts and host our visitors is critical to the mission of the museum. This is part of our core activity – to educate the public about the history that we preserve. Purchasing the electricity needed to operate the cars, buying the parts and supplies for the volunteers to maintain the track and equipment, and providing the funding for a myriad of other mundane details – these are all supported by the General Fund.
Can you help us keep the museum running like it should?
Thank you for your support!
Car House Four is moving to the next stage of building and construction!
Preserving history is fundamental and for the Western Railway Museum that means preserving large railway cars in addition to other smaller artifacts. The Car House Four project will open a new chapter for the museum by providing state-of-the-art protection, preserving our collection for the enjoyment of future generations. By replacing the existing Car House One, which is reaching the end of its practical lifespan, this project will also make way for the future Electric Railway Hall display facility.
On July 27, 2023, the Board took the momentous step of approving contracts for the largest element of the Car House Four project – the steel building and concrete foundation! Once the steel building supplier completes the final design drawings, which in turn must be approved by the County for a building permit, we will be in good stead to construct this phase starting next spring! Even with this giant leap forward in the project, we still need your help with making it a functional facility – from electrical lighting to special doors for the tracks to fire sprinklers to track and overhead wire.
Won't you consider helping us bring this important project to completion? Your valuable support will allow Car House Four to begin preserving our artifacts soon. Your support of this project, as a member, volunteer, and donor are critical to preserving our historic collection with the best possible care in a state-of-the-art facility.
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Thank you for your past and future support. Together, we can continue to make the Western Railway Museum the leader in historic railway preservation.
Archive Expansion
The Candelaria Fund of Little River, CA has awarded a grant of $200,000 towards the building of an addition to the Bay Area Electric Railway Archives at the Western Railway Museum.
The new structure, which will double the temperature and humidity controlled storage space, will be added to the existing archives and will be an important part of preserving the history and stories of electric railroads in the western US.
Curator Allan Fisher believes this gift, when matched by other donors and friends of the museum, will allow construction to start later on this year. “Donations to our archives have continued to grow each year, and we are quickly running out of space for these wonderful collections.” Currently the archives has over one million items, including negatives, slides, movies, drawings, employee timetables, documents and other ephemera which have been given since the first donation to the archives in the mid 1980s. Last year 80 donations were received, and over 30 volunteer archivists have able to catalog 200,000 items (100,000 of which have been digitized to date).
We are extremely grateful to the Candelaria Fund for recognizing the importance of helping to preserve rail history and provide a world class facility for present and future researchers.
The lead architect for this project is Rob Henley A1A of A2R of Vacaville, California.
Long time volunteer Ron Hook has donated $75,000 towards an extension to our nearly-full archives building! Our historic archives is quickly overgrowing its current space, so he is encouraging everyone to collectively match his donation so a new extension can be built ASAP!
Rapid Transit History Center
When the San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District opened in 1972, it was the newest, most innovative and technically advanced system in the world. BART pioneered the use of central computer control and on-board electronic propulsion as well as featuring the lightest weight car per passenger ever built. The technical innovations involved in the BART system were revolutionary at the time.
When Western Railway Museum learned that BART would be replacing their original fleet of transit vehicles, a proposal was submitted to acquire 3 BART cars for display. We are thrilled to report that, in 2024, Western Railway Museum will receive 3 BART cars generously gifted by BART! This donation will include a 3 car train consisting of A car 1164, B car 1834, and C car 329, which will be displayed in the Loring C Jensen Car House to celebrate 50 years of BART history. These 3 cars are the only cars out of 669 original BART cars that will be preserved at a museum. All three of these BART cars saw regular service until 2023.. Combined, they have traveled 15 million miles.
This acquisition emphasizes that the Western Railway Museum is the ideal place to preserve and interpret both BART equipment and history. All display options that the museum has so diligently been working to achieve are dependent upon fundraising success. These 3 cars have been set aside for our museum on BART property and will be transported to the museum in June of 2024. We now need to raise $24,000 to move these historic cars the last 70 miles from Hayward to Rio Vista Junction.
Please consider a donation today to help preserve the history of BART in the Bay Area.
Destination Molena
Stretching over 22 miles long, the Western Railway Museum considers the historic Sacramento Northern main line to be the largest artifact in our collection. Restoration and preservation of this artifact has been a focus of volunteer efforts since the line was acquired almost 30 years ago. These efforts have paid off with over five miles of high-quality track and overhead wire electrification where the museum operates today. The Destination Molena project will allow the operation to continue even farther to the south from the current terminus.
Right now the focus of the volunteer crews is on repairing the wooden trestle at Birds Landing. Over 100 years old, this bridge is getting much needed attention replacing deteriorated timbers and correcting other deficiencies. The volunteer crews are working regularly on weekends, and are closing in on the home stretch of this element of the work. Further work will be needed for tie replacement, rail joint rehabilitation, drainage, and erecting the overhead line poles and wire.
The hardworking volunteers of the Western Railway Museum have made great progress repairing the railroad track and setting poles for the overhead wire electrification. Thanks to your continued support, Destination Molena is continuing right on track. As of October 2023, more poles are on order and other parts have been purchased to construct the overhead wire system.
The museum is fortunate to have skilled volunteers who can perform many of these tasks, but it takes money to provide the materials and equipment to do the work. Can you help restore and preserve our largest artifact? Please donate today to the Destination Molena fund.
Current Fundraising Campaigns
At the Western Railway Museum, all our volunteers strive to make our museum the finest example of historic preservation and interpretation in America. Generous support from members and friends are key to all museum activities and programs. Thanks to your help and support, we can do it!
Car House Four
The Car House Four project will provide state-of-the-art protection to our railway artifacts. This project will replace our Car House One, which is reaching the end of its practical lifespan, with a new facility that will greatly enhance the preservation of our artifacts. Planning for the new facility is progressing and will soon allow construction to begin. Please consider a donation to allow this important project to go forward!
Rapid Transit History Center
During the development of the San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District over 50 years ago, many innovative technologies were incorporated into this ground-breaking mass-transit system. Now that the original fleet of cars is being replaced, the Western Railway Museum will be preserving three BART trains that will showcase the innovations of the transit system developed for the Bay Area. Please help us preserve this important technological link that has shaped the last 50 years of development in the Bay Area.
Destination Molena
Ever since the Western Railway Museum acquired the historic Sacramento Northern Railway in Solano County almost 30 years ago, volunteers have been working steadily to restore the track, bridges and overhead wire system for operation of museum trains. This phase will extend operations to the historic site of Molena to the south of the museum. Please help by providing the resources our volunteers need to continue this work.
Archive Expansion
The Candelaria Fund of Little River, CA has awarded a grant of $200,000 towards the building of an addition to the Bay Area Electric Railway Archives at the Western Railway Museum. The new structure, which will double the temperature and humidity controlled storage space, will be added to the existing archives and will be an important part of preserving the history and stories of electric railroads in the western US.
The General Fund
There is nothing more exciting or satisfying than contributing to a major museum project and seeing it to completion. Yet once the job is finished and the excitement is over, it is the general fund that provides the resources to cover maintenance and keeps the lights on. Your donation will help keep us doing what we do best!
