Railtown 1897 State Historic Park, Railway museum and California state historic park in Jamestown, United States.
Railtown 1897 is a railway museum and California state park in the Sierra Nevada foothills featuring a collection of historic locomotives and railway cars. The site includes a working roundhouse where visitors can see how locomotives are maintained and turned.
The Sierra Railway was incorporated in 1897 and its Jamestown shops served the West Side Lumber Company mill at Tuolumne and the Pickering Lumber Company at Standard. The roundhouse was built in 1910. The California State Railroad Museum took over the park on July 1, 1992, and the shops are listed on the National Register of Historic Places as the Sierra Railway Shops Historic District.
More than 200 films and television shows such as Back to the Future Part III and High Noon filmed here, using the historic locomotives as sets. This extensive filmmaking history makes the location an important part of California's entertainment legacy.
The park is accessible daily and provides guided tours, train rides, and educational programs about railroad history. Visitors should allow time to walk around the grounds and inspect the locomotives and roundhouse at their own pace.
The Sierra No. 28, a steam locomotive original to the Sierra Railway, appears in the park's collection and was the subject of major repairs funded after locals and enthusiasts kept the park open when California State Parks announced its closure in May 2011. Its boiler and cab carry the number 28 in white.
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