Western Pacific Railroad Museum
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WP FP7 805-A from the Western Pacific Railroad Museum, on display in Sparks, Nevada in 2004. This locomotive once pulled the California Zephyr passenger train.
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| Reporting mark | FRRX |
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| Locale | Northern California |
| Dates of operation | 1984–Present |
| Track gauge | 4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge |
| Headquarters | Portola, California |
The Western Pacific Railroad Museum (WPRM) in Portola, California, formerly known as the Portola Railroad Museum before January 1, 2006, is a heritage railroad that preserves and operates historic American railroad equipment. The museum's mission is to preserve the history of the Western Pacific Railroad and is operated by the Feather River Rail Society (reporting mark FRRX), founded in 1983. It is located at a former Western Pacific locomotive facility, adjacent to the Union Pacific's former Western Pacific mainline through the Feather River Canyon.
The museum holds in its collection thirty-three diesel locomotives, one electric locomotive, one steam locomotive (under restoration and on display), eighteen passenger cars (including four from the famous California Zephyr train), numerous freight and maintenance cars and sixteen cabooses. They offer excursions and a "Run A Locomotive" program during the summer. The WPRM has one of the larger collections of early diesel era locomotives and freight cars in North America. The museum is often considered to have one of the most complete and historic collections of equipment and materials from a single railroad family. The WPRM is a "hands-on" museum that allows visitors to board and explore locomotives and cars in their collection.
Among the significant pieces in the WPRM collection are Western Pacific 805-A, an FP7 model passenger locomotive that pulled the California Zephyr;Southern Pacific EMD GP9 #2873, nicknamed "the Kodachrome" by the volunteers due to it being painted with the Kodachrome scheme from the failed SP/SF merger; WP 2001, the first GP20 model locomotive (an early turbocharged diesel);WP 501, an early switch engine and the first diesel purchased by the Western Pacific; Western Pacific 0-6-0 steam locomotive 165, an oil burning switch engine built by ALCO in 1919; WP 37, a 200-ton rail-mounted crane, two track clearing snowplows (one wedge type and one rotary); and several rare, early 20th Century freight cars. Also located at the site are the Portola Diesel Shop built in 1953 and an interlocking tower from Oakland, California, currently stored unrebuilt. The Western Pacific Hospital, built in 1911 and one of the few remaining railroad hospitals in the country, was part of the museum until it was destroyed in an arson fire on September 7, 2011. The WPRM prides itself on maintaining several of their road diesels in mainline operating condition and is well known for making occasional movements on Class I railroads using their own historic motive power.
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Wikipedia