Old Sacramento Keeps the Steam in Locomotion

The huge, gleaming black locomotive let off white steam with a loud “fwoooosh” that had children grabbing their ears and gaping in amazement.

Less than a mile from the Capitol, train buffs and history lovers can experience a vanished piece of American technology and culture.

For the second year, the California State Railroad Museum is running steam-powered excursion trains along the Sacramento River every weekend through Labor Day.

“This is the only operation like this in the country that originates in an urban area,” said Walter Gray, the museum archivist who supervises the train program.

There are four or five other regularly scheduled steam train rides throughout California, including the famous Super Skunk between Fort Bragg and Willits in Mendocino County, but most are in more remote areas.

Last year, the train was run from June through Labor Day and gave three-mile, 45-minute rides to 35,000 people, said Ronald Hanshew, director of the museum.

“Nobody had complaints, and lots and lots of people were happy with the experience,” he said. “Many were ecstatic because it is the only way they can ride a train.”

This year, 50,000 riders are expected on a six-mile round trip, south from Old Sacramento through Miller Park. Next year, the railroad may be extended to Land Park, a round trip of 6.6 miles, and ridership could reach 100,000.

Plans call for it to eventually go down the river to Hood in the Sacramento River Delta, a one-way trip of 17 miles. There, it could hook up with revived steam paddle wheel service on the river “to complete the historical connection in Sacramento between those two kinds of steam transportation,” Hanshew said.

The location of a “live steam” ride in Sacramento is appropriate, for it was in the capital that the first West Coast railroad ran. On Aug. 17, 1855, an engine and three platform cars made a trial run from what is now Old Sacramento to 17th Street.

The Sacramento Valley Railroad, which soon had runs all around the valley, was built by engineer Theodore Judah. He then convinced Leland Stanford, Collis Huntington, Charles Crocker and Mark Hopkins, later known as the “Big Four,” to support his vision of a railroad over the Sierra Nevada.

Formed Central Pacific

They formed the Central Pacific Railroad with Judah as chief engineer. He designed the route over the mountains and lobbied for federal support. Central Pacific built the western portion of the transcontinental railroad, as well as a network of trains and steamships all over the state.

The train’s revival in the urban setting of Sacramento “has its advantages and its disadvantages,” Gray said. “It’s more accessible, but we have to be more sensitive to residents.”

Residents around Land Park, located in an old residential area three miles south of the Capitol and containing a zoo, golf course and children’s amusement area, are concerned that the train passengers will contribute to the park’s already crowded conditions.

Concern for Parking

Dale Claypool and Steven Belzer of the Assn. to Preserve Land Park said they like the train but wonder about adding 100,000 persons to the park, particularly if some train riders drive to Land Park, which is already short on parking, to board the train.

“We don’t see ourselves becoming a commuter train to Land Park at all,” Hanshew said. “We see this train as an experience.”

Gray said he does not think any more than 10% of the riders will get off at Land Park.

“We don’t intend to bill Land Park as a destination. . . . We don’t see ourselves as operating a transportation experience. We’re a railroad experience.”

Gray, who has a master’s degree in the history of technology, said steam trains have “become integral to our popular culture” and thus attract people who have never seen them in real operation.

“They have not been part of our culture for a generation, but children know about ‘The Little Engine That Could.’ Ask any 3-year-old child what the sound of a whistle is, and they know,” he said.

Trains’ Appeal

Trains are such an important part of the American culture because “the steam locomotive is the first universal technological experience,” he said. In the 1840s and 1850s, trains came into even remote small towns and “did work heretofore done by animals.”

“For six or seven generations,” Gray said, “the railroad was the only means of large-scale public transportation. The railroad stations became temples of transportation, the portals to faraway places.”

The Old Sacramento is pulled by one of two engines: The oil-burning No. 1269 once owned by Southern Pacific and the coal-burning No. 4466 once run by Union Pacific. Both were switch engines used to move trains in train yards in the 1920s, Hanshew said.

The 45-minute train ride costs $3 for adults and $2 for children. The state, through the Railroad Museum, provides the equipment and some staff, but most of the operation is run by two volunteer groups, the museum Docent Assn. and the Friends of the California State Railroad Museum.

State money will also be necessary to buy the track right of way to Land Park and to Hood, Hanshew said.