Orange Empire Railway Museum

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Orange Empire Railway Museum
Museum entrance
Museum entrance
Route of the Orange Empire Railway Museum
Route
Route length: Three-rail track : 0.8 km
standard gauge track : 2.4 km
Gauge : 1067 mm and 1435 mm

The Orange Empire Railway Museum (OERM, Vehicle Keeper Marking OERX) is a railway museum with its own railway museum in the 2201 South A Street in Perris , California .

history

The museum was founded in Pinacate Station in 1956 as the Orange Empire Trolley Museum . The collection focuses on Southern California's railroad history. It mainly houses vehicles from the Pacific Electric Railway , many of which were rescued from junk yards after passenger traffic ceased.

On weekends, usually either two historic narrow-gauge trams with a track width of 1,067 mm (3 ft 6 inches) from the Los Angeles Railway or standard gauge of the Pacific Electric Railway trams, with a 1435 mm (4 feet 8½ inches) of 0, 8 km (½ mile) long circuit with a three- rail track . On the 2.4 km (1½ mile) long standard gauge line, which was once part of the main transcontinental traffic connection, a train occasionally pulled by steam, diesel or electric locomotives with open freight cars converted into passenger cars and at least two cabooses on an earlier Atchison line , Topeka and Santa Fe Railway . The museum railway runs north from the south end of the museum to the junction with the BNSF Railway , which is also where the historic Perris depot on State Route 74 is located. The BNSF branch line is still actively used, but the railway grants OERM trains permission to use the branch line for special events. On some weekends, a Pacific Electric Interurban "Red Car" runs on the main line, but electrification of the line ends one block south of the depot.

Trams and locomotives are selected on a rotating basis. The museum maintains an operational steam locomotive that is heated every third weekend from September to May, as well as for certain events and holidays.

Notable exhibits

  • The Emma Nevada and Chloe narrow-gauge steam locomotives on the Grizzly Flats Railroad owned by Disney animator Ward Kimball .
  • The EMD FP45 diesel locomotive ATSF 98 from 1967 with 3600 HP (2.7 MW), 20-cylinder drive motor and six traction motors was designed for fast passenger traffic at a speed of more than 140 km / h. It is kept in working order and is sometimes used on non-company work trains.
  • The Southern Pacific 3100 is an operational GE U25B diesel locomotive built in 1963 in a red, white and blue color scheme.
  • The Ventura County Railway # 2 is a 1922 Baldwin Locomotive Works 2-6-2 steam locomotive in an operational condition. It was originally coal-fired but was converted for oil operation soon after it was shipped to its original buyer, the Southern Pacific Railroad.

In addition to the rail vehicles, there is a collection of industrial machine tools and hand tools in the workshops. One is a sheet metal scissors by Parker Manufacturing Company in Santa Monica , CA was made. When the company needed scissors after World War II, they had a two-year waiting list to get one. So, the small business chose to design and manufacture their own scissors. Due to delivery bottlenecks in the surrounding foundries, it was made entirely of steel plates, i. H. without the cast parts customary at the time. The design was successful and was requested by other customers who needed machine tools, so Parker diversified into tin snips production . The museum is exhibiting these unique scissors in its Remise No. 4 ( Carhouse # 4 ).

Photo gallery

  • The Emma Nevada

  • The Chloe

  • ATSF 98

  • Pacific Electric 1001

  • A California car

  • Peach basket level crossing signal

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ (untitled) . In: Los Angeles Metropolitan Transit Authority (ed.): The Emblem . 5, No. 4, February 1963, p. 5.
  2. ↑ Michael Broggie: Walt Disney's Railroad Story: The Small-Scale Fascination that Led to a Full-Scale Kingdom, pp. 52-9, 31-70, 81-2, 150, 2nd Edition, The Donning Company Publishers, Virginia Beach , Virginia, 2006. ISBN 1-57864-309-0 .
  3. ^ Dana Amendola: All Aboard: The Wonderful World of Disney Trains , 1st. Edition, Disney Editions, 2015, ISBN 978-1-4231-1714-8 .
  4. ↑ "Santa Monica's New Power Shear," Western Machinery and Steel World, Oct. 1946, Volume 37, No. 10, pp. 108-109, San Francisco, CA.

Coordinates: 33 ° 45 ′ 36 ″  N , 117 ° 14 ′ 0 ″  W.