California State Railroad Museum reopens
The California State Railroad Museum in Sacramento has reopened after being closed for most of the last year, with new measures in place to address the COVID-19 pandemic. KCRA-TV reports the museum is allowed to reopen at 25% of its usual capacity, meaning attendance is currently capped at 125. And high-touch features like an attraction where children can play with toy trains remain closed, “much to the chagrin of every parent who has a 5-year-old,” museum director Ty Smith told the station. The museum is open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily; for more information, visit the museum website.
Illinois Railway Museum to reopen April 11
The Illinois Railway Museum will reopen April 11, and will also be open on Sunday, April 18, and Sunday, April 25, with electric trains in operation. In May, the museum will be open on Saturdays and Sundays, as well as the Monday of Memorial Day weekend. be open on Sundays for the remainder of the month. A schedule is available here. The museum is maintaining health and safety measures instituted in 2020, including capacity limits and advanced ticket purchase. Tickets are available here; additional information on health and safety measures is available here.
UP lantern sells for record $46,200
A Union Pacific railroad lantern sold for $46,200 — about nine times the previous record for a lantern sold at auction — during a sale earlier this month of the Steve Cregut collection of railroad lanterns by Soulis Auctions. Antiques and Arts Weekly reports the auction is the believed to be the only blue-globe UP lantern of its type; blue-globe lanterns are generally the rarest because they did not have a wide range of applications. In all, lanterns from the collection brought the top nine prices achieved at auction, according to LiveAuctioneers.
The lantern was not sold earlier this month, it was sold last month, in March. If you are going to report something at least get the facts correct.
If the person who bought the UP lantern was a married male, I’ll bet his wife said “What do you need another lantern for?”