2021 Railroad Festival at the Museum

For a complete Festival schedule (including events at other venues at other dates and times), click here.

Parking is very limited at the Museum. Additional free parking is available about four blocks south of the Museum along South Street at the Unitarian Church, 2201 Lawton Avenue (see an aerial view). A narrow entrance-only driveway is off Lawton and the main parking lot in/out driveway is off Meadow. It's a 10-minute walk.

Some COVID-related limitations remain.

This schedule is subject to change so please check back as the Festival approaches.

Saturday, October 2, 2021

10:00 AM

Live Presentation, "Open Car Loads" by Bob Chaparro. A look at loads modelers can duplicate with an emphasis on general service flat cars and gondolas in the steam and transition eras. Prototype practices are explored through photos and diagrams. Examples of accurately modeled loads and common modeling errors also are covered.

 

11:00 AM

1. Railroad BBQ Co., food and beverage through lunch time.
2. Video Presentation: Davenport 2-6-2 Restoration, by Karl Hovanitz, by far our most popular Parlor Car Chat about a fully restored WWI locomotive right here in SLO County at Norgrove Railway.
 

 

1:00 PM

Video Presentation: The Circus Train. The greatest video on earth... Don't miss this! Kelly Ballagh brings a jam-packed talk about everything you were curious about regarding circus trains. Kelly was a Circus Clown for the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus. He lived on both the red and blue unit trains for seven years. What's the pie car? Where do these specialized cars come from? What's it like to live on a small town on rails, over 1-mile long? Why are the animal cars upfront on the train? There will be plenty of Circus Train stories, too. (68 minutes)