RAILFAN GUIDES of the U.S.
Todd's Railfan Guide to
SACRAMENTO CA
In General
Getting Here
Map
Sights
Signals
Fire & Police
Floobydust
USGS Maps
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I-5
the California State Railroad Museum
GPS Coordinates: 38.585195, -121.504365
125 I Street, Sacramento CA 95814
916-445-7387
Hours: 10am-5pm - 7 days a week except holidays
http://www.csrmf.org/
My webpage for the museum is located
here
the Amtrak Sacramento Station (SAC)
GPS Coordinates: 38.584165, -121.500681
401 I Street, Sacramento CA 95814
800-872-7245
Hours: 4am-11pm
The platforms look like a good place to take signal pictures from.
the Regional Transit Light Rail System
The RT Light Rail system has it's own page on my website herethe Placerville & Sacramento Valley Railroad
http://www.psvrr.org/ or, it
redirects you to: http://placervillebranch.blogspot.com/
From Wikipedia: The Sacramento Valley Railroad was the first transit railroad
company in California to file papers of incorporation on August 4, 1852
although it was not the first to become operational. The railroad's gauge
was 5 ft 3 1/2 in
(1,613 mm), (7 inches (180 mm) wider than
4 ft 8 1/2 in
(1,435 mm) standard gauge)
and was laid with 60-pound-per-yard (29.8 kg/m) Welsh iron "pear" rail.
The original plans called for the railroad to run from Sacramento to
Marysville by way of Folsom. These plans never fully materialized as the
railroad was only built from Sacramento to Folsom. On February 22,
1856, the first train operated over the entire 22.9-mile (36.9 km) line. Thus the line is not the oldest working railroad in the state; the
Arcata and Mad River Railroad had been operational since December 15,
1854.
On April 19, 1877, the Sacramento Valley Railroad was consolidated with the Folsom and Placerville Railroad to form the Sacramento and Placerville Railroad. In 1877 the Placerville and Sacramento Valley Railroad was also deeded to the
Sacramento and Placerville Railroad. The new railroad operated over 49.1 miles (79.0 km) of track between Sacramento and Shingle Springs.
The railroad eventually came under the control of the Southern Pacific Railroad (SP); first under SP's subsidiary, theNorthern Railway in 1888, and then ten years later under the SP on April 14,
1898.
Today much of the original route still exists and was the former Placerville Branch of the Southern Pacific. Today it is used by Union Pacific Railroad and extends to the Aerojet facility just west of
Folsom. The Sacramento RTD Gold Line light rail line parallels the route and uses the right of way between Sacramento and Folsom.
Most of SVR's planned route was built by subsequent railroad companies after 1869.
A notable historic section is still in operation today as Niles Canyon Railway that linked Sacramento to the San Francisco Bay Area through Niles CA.
the Capitol Corridor Amtrak Service
From Wikipedia: The Capitol Corridor is a 168-mile (275 km) passenger train route operated by Amtrak in California. Although state-supported, it does not operate under the Amtrak California brand. Capitol Corridor trains operate between San Jose and Sacramento, roughly parallel to Interstate 680 and Interstate 80. One train a day continues through the eastern Sacramento suburbs to Auburn, in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada. The trains are administered by the Capitol Corridor Joint Powers Authority and managed by employees of Bay Area Rapid Transit. Capitol Corridor trains started in 1991.the Sacramento Valley Live Steamers
GPS Coordinates: 38.605344, -121.307116
the Sierra Northern Railway
GPS Coordinates: 38.605344, -121.3071161 .....
None Yet
2 .....
None Yet
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the California State Capitol Building
GPS Coordinates: 38.576653, -121.493668
the....
The 1888 and 1905 maps are courtesy of the University of Texas Library, click here for their index page.
Disclaimers:
I love trains, and I love signals. I am not an expert. "Doing" these guides is one of my hobbies. Hobbies are supposed to be fun - this is something I have fun with while trying to help others. My webpages are an attempt at putting everything I can find of the subject in one convenient place - they contain info I have gathered from all over the place. The better ones have material contributed by other railfans such as yourself to help us all. There are plenty of other good websites to help me in this effort, and they are listed in the links section on my indexa page, or as needed on individual pages. Please help to make this guide better by contributing.
Please Note:
Since the main focus of my two websites is railroad signals, the railfan guides
are oriented towards the signal fan being able to locate them. For those
of you into the modeling aspect of our hobby, my
indexa page has a list of
almost everything railroad oriented I can think of to provide you with at least a few pictures to
help you detail your pike.
If this is a railfan page, every effort has
been made to make sure that the information contained on this map and in this
guide is correct. Once in a while, an error may creep in,
especially if restaurants or gas stations open, close, or change names.
Most of my maps are a result of personal observation after visiting these
locations. I have always felt that a picture is worth a thousand words",
and I feel annotated maps such as the ones I work up do the same justice for the
railfan over a simple text description of the area. Since the main focus
of my website is railroad signals, the railfan guides are oriented towards the
signal fan being able to locate them. Since most of us railheads don't have just
trains as a hobby, I have also tried to point out where other interesting sites
of the area are.... things like fire stations (which many of us are into :-), neat bridges, or other
significant historical or geographical feature. While some may feel they
shouldn't be included, these other things tend to make MY trips a lot more
interesting....
Pictures and maps are worth a
thousand words, especially for railfanning. Text descriptions only
get you so far, especially if you get lost or disoriented. Take
along good maps.... a GPS is OK to get somewhere, but maps are still
better if you get lost! I belong to AAA, which allows you to get
local maps for free when you visit the local branches. ADC puts
out a nice series of county maps for the Washington DC area, but their
state maps do not have the railroads on them. If you can find em,
I like the National Geographic map book of the U.S..... good, clear, and
concise graphics, and they do a really good job of showing you where
tourist type attractions are, although they too lack the railroads.
Other notes about specific areas will show up on that page if known.
By the way, floobydust is
a term I picked up 30-40 years ago from a National Semiconductor data
book, and means miscellaneous and/or other stuff.
Pictures and additional information is always needed if anyone feels
inclined to take 'em, send 'em, and share 'em, or if you have
something to add or correct.... credit is always given! BE NICE!!! Contact info
is here
Beware: If used as a source, ANYTHING from Wikipedia must be treated as being possibly being inaccurate, wrong, or not true.
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NEW 01/01/2014
Last Modified
28-May-2016