Welcome to a Railway
Museum
by
Kaptn Ken
Sinbad as the old Salty Dog, Kaptn Ken
Aarh! now me hearties and landlubbers, t'is the tale from Sinbad's friend, Kaptn Ken, not a real captain you know, but a real fan of the railroad, you bet.
Dressed in a reproduction conductors uniform, the Kaptn
will take you on a tour of a railroad museum in Chandler, Arizona. You will
peek inside old restored railway coaches, you will see a railroad steam
locomotive with steps leading up to the engineers cab, you
may even get to go up in to the cab. There are several
restored coaches to see and some more in the process. There are
several diesel locomotives, a steam crane, a small operating diesel
for yard work, some rolling stock including two cabooses, and a myriad of
railroad memorabilia. At the entrance there is a building with displays and
a gift shop. Location is at Arizona Avenue and Ryan in the south east corner
of Tumbleweed Park, just off the I-202. Admission is by donation. Noon to
4pm Saturday & Sunday, Labor Day through Memorial Day.
"All aboard" Kaptn Ken is a member of the Arizona Railway Museum
This museum is totally maintained and funded by volunteer efforts. All the restoration is done by the members on their own time because they like to see these monuments of an earlier time preserved for the new generation to see and experience the quieter and gentle time of railroad travel. In recent years, there has been some what of a revieval of railroad travel with AMTRAK becoming more popular and many small railroads being restored to operation and available for the public to ride.
The Southern Railway Business coach built in
1879 and reported to be used as a Presidents car on the South Carolina and
Georgia Railroad. It has a six seat lounge, two bedrooms, a dining room,
crew's quarters and a galley.
Alaska RR 4815 Dinning Car, complete with kitchen. Built in 1949 and was used up until 1998. On delivery to the Arizona Railroad Museum it was renamed City of Chandler.
This is another of the restored coaches and every effort was made to reproduce the original furniture and coloring.
This is the Regal Phoenix Lounge coach
Again there was close attention to the original layout and furnishings. At this end is a bar with a counter, shelves and a sink.
This is a passenger coach.
It is completely restored with reupholstered seats,
including head rest knapkins with the Santa Fe insignia. The seats are ajustable
for comfort and can be reversed to face the opposit direction. There are
also ajustable foot rests. This coach was used by the Santa Fe Railroad as
one piece of the El Capitan train running between Chicago and Los Angeles
via Winslow, Flagstaff and Kingman.
Conductors Ticket Punch.
An original punch used by a conductor to punch a travelers ticket
so that the ticket becomes invalid and can not be used for any other trip.
Different conductors had punches with different patterns, this one give a
"V" punch, but the one that Kaptn Ken uses gives a pear shaped hole.
"Tickets please" A "passenger" gets his ticket punched by the conductor, while sitting in the business coach.
Signals Reduced light conditions has its own difficulties, but signalling with a battery powered lamp, a conductor can communicate to the locomotive engineer whether to stop or go ahead.
Steam power.
This is the ladder leading up to the cab of the1908 Baldwin 2-8-0 locomotive that is on display at the museum. As a visitor, you will be able to climb into the cab and see what the engineer had as controls and his view of the rails ahead. The locomotive weighs 217,000 pounds, operated at around 210 pound per square inch of steam, heated by oil from the tender containing 4000 gallons of oil and 12,000 gallons of water. It served on the Southern Pacific Railroad including Yuma, Tucson and Phoenix. It was recorded with the Arizona State Historical Register in 1984.
Steam crane and caboose.
It has not yet been restored but did operate on compressed air at the time of acquisition. There is also a gas powered crane on site.
Arizona Railroad Museum website
This page still under construction, please be patient
Operational railroads in Arizona that are open to the public.
The Grand Canyon Railway The Verde Valley Railroad The Copper Spike Railway Yuma Valley Railroad
Mc Cormick-Stillman Railroad Park Pondarosa Raiload Club and good site for information
If you visit the Museum, please E-Mail
your comments to Kaptn Ken
Thank you for visiting this site
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