Western Railway Museum

The shop crew had another go at getting the Kennicott Corp. 700 running again. After over 30 years the 700 ran on its own power once again! There are still some small problems with the operation of the locomotive but we hope to have the 700 out on the line in the next month or so!

SN caboose 1632 along with SN locomotive 654 will come out of the car barn on Saturday June 19 and Saturday June 26. The cab hop train will be on display at The Western Railway Museum picknick ground car stop with a docent on board for tours. The caboose is restored to it's 1956 appearance. Although our docent was born in 1957 and never worked for the SN he was a locomotive engineer for 40 years and has hauled many cabooses around.

The Museum will be closed due to high temperatures this Thursday. We hope to see you all this weekend!The Museum will be closed due to high temperatures this Thursday. We hope to see you all this weekend!

The Museum will be open tomorrow June 5th! Get your tickets ahead of time here: https://fareharbor.com//book/wrm//242517/calendar/2021/06/

This past Sunday marked another milestone for the Kennicott Copper Co. #700 at the Museum. In the morning the shop crew pulled 700 out into the open and put the pan up for the first time since she last ran in late 80's. We are still having difficulties getting the MG set to remain on as the batteries are no longer serviceable. Our intention is to bypass the MG and install a DC-DC regulator which will take the place of the batteries. The Museum is opening June 5th! Buy your ...tickets ahead of time or by calling out front desk! https://fareharbor.com//book/wrm//242517/calendar/2021/06/

Our shop volunteers have been busy working on 502 getting it ready for display. Plywood is covering the windows to keep animals and weather out of the car while it’s stored in car house 1. This is for its preservation and once our car barn 4 is built we will remove these from the car. We also installed the original headlight and turned it on for this photo.

It's finally happened! We moved the San Diego Electric 502 to the Western Railway Museum. We can't thank our donors and supporters enough for helping us make this happen! We hope you enjoy this little video showing the move to the Museum. 502 will live on as a permanent display for all to see until its turn is up for a full restoration. We can't wait to see you all again so you can meet the new member of our family!

Happy 2021 everyone! We hope this year you all are safe and have a wonderful new year!

Our shop crew has been busy working on several signals that will go into a signal garden. Most recently the crew has finished restoring a former Milwaukee Road style L signal that was built by the Union Switch and Signal company.

Merry Christmas everyone. See you all next year!

The Museum crew has been at work to prepare the San Diego Electric PCC 502 to the museum. We are working closely with the trucking company to move the car to the museum. Check out our blog for more. https://www.wrm.org//it/177-san-diego-electric-railway-502

The Boeing 1258 was in the shop again yesterday getting some more TLC. The crew is hard at work getting the car prepped for streetcar service once again at the museum. Stay tuned for more future updates on the 1258 project.

Our young volunteers continue to make progress on signal restoration at the museum. We see here Alex testing the bell on the Griswold rotating stop sign crossing signal. It's likely been 50+ years since the bell was last turned on. The goal is to one day display all our signals together to teach the history of railroad safety.

The Western Railway Museum needs your help during these uncertain times. Your donation to the Museum's General Fund helps us pay our utility bills, maintain our buildings and grounds, perform track and overhead lines maintenance, and continue car maintenance and restoration in our shop. Donating to the General Fund also helps us prepare the Museum for reopening by making our buildings and grounds safe for our visitors and volunteers. Would you please consider a donation to help keep the Museum moving?

Our younger volunteers were busy this weekend restoring a Union Switch & Signal railroad crossing signal. This signal will eventually be put in an interactive signal garden.

We know watching the Bart cars that you've grown up with get shredded into scrap maybe hard but the museum is making plans to display a Bart Train. We want to tell the story of the Bay Area Rapid Transit System since its an important part of electric railway history. Keep an eye out for an official announcement soon!

Here is a great photo submitted by one of our viewers. We see our very own Muni 1258 out on the J Church Line. Our volunteers will be working on the 1258 more this year to get it ready for passengers to ride once again. We'll have more on that soon! If you have historic photos of cars now in the museum's collection and you'd like to share them send us a message.

We made our goal on GoFundMe to save the San Diego Electric 502! But that doesn't mean we aren't taking anymore donations on our GoFundMe! All extra donations will go into further preservation and restoration of the 502! https://charity.gofundme.com//campa/san-diego-electric-502

We did it! We reached our goal to save the San Diego Electric Railway 502! Thank you to all our donors and supporters for helping us raise $14,000 on the GoFundMe! You're all truly awesome for helping the museum out in such a difficult time. We will keep you posted on the progress of 502's journey to the museum.

20 ex-San Diego PCC cars we're sold to the El Paso City Lines in 1950. The first car on it's roster was 1500. This car was formally numbered 502 on the San Diego Electric Railway. Now the Western Railway Museum is on a mission to save this historic artifact. We need your help to raise the final amount on our GoFundMe! https://charity.gofundme.com//campa/san-diego-electric-502

The museum may be closed for our visitors and volunteers safety, but this doesn't mean we aren't here taking care of our historic streetcars. Volunteers Alex and Ryan this weekend returned our San Diego Trolley 1018 back to service. Like all new cars that come to the collection, there is a bit of a learning curve to maintaining them. Fortunately, the fix for 1018 was simple. The museum is fortunate to have a great collection of San Diego heritage. We hope that with the arrival of PCC 502, that this will give us a more complete story of electric railway history of San Diego. You can help us bring the 502 to the museum by donating to our gofundme here: https://charity.gofundme.com//campa/san-diego-electric-502

We are only $2,600 away to reaching our goal to save the San Diego Electric PCC 502. If we don't raise the remaining funds by the end of this month, the 502 is at risk of spending another winter in the snow. You can help by donating to our GoFundMe here: https://charity.gofundme.com//campa/san-diego-electric-502

We are so close to reaching our goal to save the San Diego Electric 502! We are only 20% away to reaching our goal! Your donation will help save the 502 before we run out of time with the rainy season on its way! You can donate here: https://charity.gofundme.com//campa/san-diego-electric-502

We have raised just over $11,000 to save the San Diego Electric Railway 502! We hope to bring it to the museum for permanent display and someday a full restoration! We only need $3,000 to reach our goal! Thank you to all our supporters so far! Donate here: https://charity.gofundme.com//campa/san-diego-electric-502

We are only $5,000 away from reaching our goal of saving the San Diego Electric 502! If we reach our goal this month we could see 502 at the museum this year and avoid the rainy season! To help modernize the streetcar system in San Diego, 28 PCC streamline cars were purchased in 1936. Here we see two of these PCC cars awaiting to depart from the Santa Fe Depot. Car 502 was the first to arrive on the system in 1937. Now we are trying to save this car and put it on permanent display here at the museum. Please consider donating out our GoFundMe page here: https://charity.gofundme.com//campa/san-diego-electric-502