Golden State Model Railroad Museum, Model railroad museum in Point Richmond, California
The Golden State Model Railroad Museum in Point Richmond is a collection of model trains that recreates railroad scenes from Northern and Central California. The facility features multiple large track layouts at different scales, depicting both historical routes and landscape features from across the state.
The collection started in 1933 as a hobby group for model builders in Oakland and later became a public museum. The group relocated to Point Richmond and constructed the current facility beginning in 1986.
The exhibits show miniature recreations of famous California railroad routes and locations, allowing visitors to see how trains shaped the region's development. These small-scale scenes help people understand the importance of railroads in connecting communities across the state.
The trains operate continuously on the tracks, so you can watch them at any time during your visit. There is plenty of space to walk around, and various viewing platforms offer good views of all the model scenes.
One of the model scenes features trains crossing over each other at a miniature version of the Tehachapi Loop, a real railroad passage in California's mountains where trains navigate steep elevation changes. This detail demonstrates how railroads solve the challenge of traveling through mountainous terrain.
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