The story of the railroad is the story of all people,  of all skin colors and ethnicities and identities. To encourage community engagement and feedback, we've created a temporary exhibit. This exhibit features the topics, stories and themes that are part of the Museum’s collection related to Black and African Americans, and it asks questions from the public.

Learn about the Chinese workers who built the western portion of the nation’s first Transcontinental Railroad. Marginalized by history, the Chinese workers were more than a nameless group of laborers. Using only hand tools, Chinese workers comprised ninety percent of the labor force that built a railroad over the Sierra Nevada, all while facing extreme prejudice from white workers.

Explore the life of Anna Judah through the research and journey of Guest Curator Christine Pifer-Foote. The search for Anna Judah's artwork became a personal journey which revealed Anna Judah as a woman who lived in her own right. Anna was a talented artist and she made a significant contribution to the Transcontinental Railroad through her art. We continue to tell her story.

Found throughout the Museum, this exhibit highlights a group whose stories have remained in the shadows for far too long – women. Women crossed lines and blazed a trail for future generations. They championed change not only for the railroad industry but for society as well. These are some of their stories.

Accomplished railroad photographers and writers Lucius Beebe and Charles Clegg were not only partners in business but also in love. In 1948, they purchased The Gold Coast passenger car where they lived as a family with their dog, Mr. T-Bone Towser. The Gold Coast illustrates Beebe and Clegg’s professional and personal relationship and offers a glimpse at twentieth-century LGBTQ+ history.

The exhibit introduces museum guests to the magic of toy trains and the joys of collecting, and helps illustrate the place of toy trains and scale models in American popular culture. Featuring part of the world-class Thomas W. Sefton collection, there are 1,000 vintage toy trains and a magnificent operating toy train layout of 3,300 square feet.

In partnership with the National Model Railroad Association, this exhibit features a superb collection of model layouts and scale trains. Visitors are inspired to discover more about the history and significance of model railroading. It celebrates the world of model railroading, the joy it provides as a hobby, and how anyone can participate.

After the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad in 1869, many Californians turned to farming the fertile Delta. Ice-cooled railroad cars transported locally grown fruit and produce. Examine the critical role the railroad played in transporting the Central Valley’s agricultural bounty to the surrounding region, state, and nation. Graduate students of the Public History Program at CSU Sacramento created the exhibit.