The mission of the Bay Area Electric Railroad Association is to preserve the regional heritage of electric railway transportation as a living resource for the benefit of present and future generations. In 1946, a group of like-minded individuals learned that an old Oakland streetcar that they had chartered for a day's outing was to be scrapped within a week. They immediately and gathered enough money to buy the car on the spot. In this spirit of philanthropy and historic preservation, the Bay Area Electric Railroad Association was created to foster interest in streetcar, interurban, and mainline electric railroad operations, and to preserve these rapidly vanishing pieces of history. During 1993, the Union Pacific Railroad made a gift of 22 miles of right-of-way to our museum. Donations enabled purchase the rails, ties, and associated hardware. This donation was significant, making possible the recreation of an authentic interurban trip, but also because the right-of-way was originally built as an electric interurban line: the Oakland, Antioch, and Eastern (later known as the Sacramento Northern). To date, five miles have been rehabilitated to the original standards, using drawings and schematics preserved in the Museum archives. In 2001, the Museum's new 12,000 sq ft Visitors and Archives Center opened. In 2004, work began on the Loring C. Jensen Memorial Car House, a fully enclosed, publicly accessible artifact storage and display facility. It was completed and officially opened to the public on May 3, 2008. In 2010, two major operational restorations were debuted: San Francisco Municipal Railway PCC Streetcar #1016 made its inaugural run at the Museum on Saturday July 10, 2010. And after a decade in the Western Railway Museum restoration shop, Sacramento Northern interurban #1005 made its debut on Saturday, September 18, 2010. On June 30, 2012 the Western Railway Museum opened a new segment of track for our interpretive ride on the historic Sacramento Northern right-of-way. Visitors can now take a 10-mile round trip ride.
George Bergson is a Canadian railroad worker and photographer who spent his career with the Canadian National Railway primarily in the Pacific Northwest.
Antonio Bertapelle was foreman of the Nothern Pacific's Missoula, Montana coal dock in the 1940's.
The Black Diamond Historical Society was formed by a small group led by Carl and Ann Steiert who decided to honor the nation?s bicentennial by preserving a little bit of America right at home. Many felt a strong concern for the disappearing buildings and artifacts in Black Diamond. Restoration of the railroad depot began following the formation of the Historical Society in 1976. The group obtained the railroad depot from the City of Black Diamond. It was built around the turn of the century to serve as a depot for the Columbia and Puget Sound and later the Pacific Coast Company. After the depot closed in the ?30?s, the building was used as a restaurant, a library, a telephone exchange, an office for the water department and a storage shed for the city maintenance. Eventually work crews completely renovated the structure. The Museum was opened on June 6, 1982, in a gala celebration honoring the one-hundredth birthday of Black Diamond