California State Railroad Museum (CSRM) and Railtown 1897 Historic State Park are both units of the California State Parks system. Being similar they utilize the same support organization, CSRM Foundation, and have overlapping administration.

Railtown 1897 is located at the former shops, roundhouse, and yards of the Sierra Railway at Jamestown, California. In 1982 the State of California acquired the Jamestown location and the historic railroad equipment used for motion pictures.

For a number of years a swap of two cars between the operations has been proposed. This was accomplished a few months ago in February.

Sierra Railway coach #3 has been a long-time exhibit at CSRM. It had been preserved, restored, and then gifted to the Museum by the Pacific Coast Chapter (PCC) of the Railway & Locomotive Historical Society (R&LHS). For variety of reasons the PCC thought this coach was not an original coach of the Sierra Railway. but a secondhand car acquired for motion picture use, and so painted it as a Southern Pacific coach. Its true origin was later discovered: it was built new for the new Sierra Railway in 1897 by Jackson & Sharp. It was repainted green without lettering in 2004 for a film shoot in Sacramento (Memoirs of a Geisha) It was transported to Railtown 1897 in Jamestown this last February. Below are a couple of photos appearing in the Railtown blog "Sierra’s #3 car makes triumphant return."





Going the other way was a long-time resident at Railtown, the former Pullman private car "GLEN EYRE" built in 1899. While a Pullman lease private car it was used by George Westinghouse until his death in 1914; Westinghouse's estate was also named "Glen Eyre." Pullman then applied a steel centersill and reinforced ends before selling to the Western Pacific as car #01 (later #103). It was retired in 1942 and setup as a dressing room for woman shop workers during WWII next to the roundhouse at Oroville, Calif. It remained there as ownership of the property changed and eventually sold to Charles Crocker in 1972 who was then President of the Sierra RR. In 2005 the car was donated to the State of California. The car was transfered to CSRM in February 2020 and moved to the Museum's former SP shop building. Hopefully there the car will, in the future, be restored to its original grandeur.

Another photo from the Railtown Blog -- this one of the private car GLEN EYRE:

Did these cars move on their own wheels or were they trucked? Nice to see cooperation between agencies in a state run department.

Chris,

Both cars were trucked. This is mentioned in the blog.

Here is a photo from the blog post:

This is great news, are there other original Sierra Railway coaches at Railtown?

Yes, the two short cars once used on the Angels Camp branch. These were built by W.L. Holman & Co.of San Francisco in 1902. The cars are only 31'-8" over body end sills. The Angeles Camp branch had sharp curves and switchbacks.

Car #5 is the combine and #6 is the coach.

#5 was always on the Sierra but used for a while as a caboose 1935-56.

The coach was sold to the Hetch Hetchy RR c1938. Acquired by the Pacific Coast Chapter of the R&LHS in 1949 and returned to Jamestown for storage and motion picture use. It was donated by PCC to CSRM in 1979. To Railtown 1897 in 1989.

See: A Photographic History of Car No. 6

Oh, there are some cars used for movie and the later tourist operations that were acquired by the Sierra Railroad prior to the sale of the Jamestown facilities and cars to the State of California.

One of the movie cars is a coach carrying #2 that the Sierra acquired c.1930 from the Hetch Hetchy Railroad. The paper trail of this car goes back to 1869 when it was built by Wason as Central Pacific #43. It later was rebuilt with a "bull hose" roof and a continuous belt rail c.1892. Renumbered SP 1133 in 1893. Sold to Ocean Shore RR in 1912 then sold to W. A. Bechtel in 1921 sold to Hetch Hetchy RR in 1921. Purchased by the Sierra for movie work c.1930.

The Hetch Hetchy RR was a connecting line owned by the City of San Francisco and used to haul construction supplies to its dam built in the Hetch Hetchy Valley of Yosemite National Park.

Thanks for that history Brian. So Coach #3 is by far the oldest Sierra Railway coach?
That's a wonderful addition to their collection!

Yes, oldest original passenger car surviving from the Sierra.

Credit for much of the roster information goes to my long-time acquaintance Kyle Wyatt. Kyle retired a few years ago from CSRM and the Park system and has had a long-time interest in 19th century railroads and their equipment. He was a history major and, if I recall correctly, his Masters paper was on the Sierra Ry and the uncompleted PhD was about SP master mechanic Stevens (or is it the other way around).

#3 and Glen Eyre are two very handsome cars. I especially like the "droopy" roof trim ends on #3. Classic.