Earlier this month, the Golden Gate Railroad Museum and the NWP’s owner, the North Coast Railroad Authority, made an agreement to move the museum’s collection of historic Southern Pacific equipment to Sonoma, about 45 miles north of San Francisco.
Among the highlights of the Golden Gate Railroad Museum’s collection is SP 4-6-2 No. 2472, a Baldwin built in 1921. It was first restored in the late 1980s and early 1990s and in recent years has been found operating on the Niles Canyon Railway.
David Hensarling tells Trains News Wire that the museum has been looking for a more permanent home and that the group is excited about the future. “This move will let us continue our mission of preserving the history of passenger railroading in the Bay Area,” Hensarling says.
Hensarling says the museum hopes to move the equipment – most of which is at Niles Canyon – to Sonoma in the first half of 2017. After that, the group will turn its attention to building a restoration facility.
NWP’s Jonathan Kathrein says the railroad is excited about hosting the museum. “This is just a wonderful opportunity for everyone involved,” he says.
Aside from No. 2472, the Golden Gate Railroad Museum has a wide array of ex-SP equipment, including a GP9, two F7s, a Fairbanks-Morse H-12-44 and numerous passenger cars. For more information, visit www.ggrm.org.
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@Andrew Horta; The Niles Canyon Railway is a separate entity from the Golden Gate Museum. The only thing that will change for them is they’ll have more yard space and not be able to run 2472 on their line, but they do have their own steam engines to run.
True. No rails to Sonoma itself. That might mean “Sonoma COUNTY” and not the city.
Hopefully the collection will not be parked in the open, unattended in Schellville Yard, where vandals and copper thieves will reduce it all to junk in no time at all.
then what will become of Niles railway?
Hopefully they will be able to put their equipment in a secure location one would hate to see all their hard work succumb to vandals.
Wonder if 2472 will move under steam? It may be unlikely since UP owns the line they run on.
The article is interesting considering that the only rail in Sonoma is either park sized or Proto48,
nearest live rail connection is some miles away.