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Museum Exhibits

1902 Southern Pacific Steam Locomotive

This class M-6 Mogul 2-6-0 #1765 was built in 1902 by the Baldwin Locomotive Works in Philadelphia for the Southern Pacific Railroad. This is generally a freight type locomotive, but 1765 was also equipped for, and sometimes used in light passenger service. This locomotive ran between Los Angeles and San Bernardino and on several Los Angeles local runs, including Seal Beach, El Segundo and Torrance. It was occasionally assigned in helper service over the Soledad Canyon summit to Palmdale.

 

The last major overhaul, including new tires on the drivers, was in 1953. The engine was decommissioned in 1958 and stood in the scrap yard at the National Metals Company on Terminal Island until purchased by the City of Lomita for the museum.

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The locomotive weighs 157,000 pounds empty: 174,000 pounds fully equipped with water in the boiler when in operation and carries 150,000 pounds on its 63 inch drivers. The cylinders are 21 inch bore with a 28 inch piston stroke and operated on about 180 pounds of steam pressure. The engine burned fuel oil.

Stop by the museum, spend time in the locomotive cab and see what the engineers view was like.

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Learn about how this locomotive was brought to the Museum in our special article: The Great Move of 1967.

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Southern Pacific Tender

This class 73-SC-1 "whaleback" or "half-round" tender was built at Southern Pacific's Sacramento shops. The tender holds 7,300 gallons of water. Fuel oil is carried in the forward section of the tank. This tender was not the one originally built for the locomotive but was larger and has a greater capacity for long-distance runs.

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Southern Pacific designed and built many of these tenders, they were seldom used on any other system. The tender weighs 58,900 pounds empty and 145,000 pounds when loaded with water, oil and running equipment.

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1923 Union Oil Tank Car
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1913 Union Pacific
Wooden Boxcar
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1910 Union Pacific Caboose

This class CA-1 caboose was built in 1910 by Bettendorf for the Union Pacific Railroad and was assigned to O.W.R. & N. in Washington State, a subsidiary of Union Pacific. In 1966, instead of scrapping the caboose, the Union Pacific Railroad moved the caboose to Los Angeles, refurbished it and presented it to the Lomita Railroad museum for Christmas.

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The caboose weighs 36,000 pounds and was equipped for long-haul road service. It has a steel center sill and underframe with wood beam trucks and body. The steel sill allowed helper engines to push directly on the caboose, rather than having to cut the helper into the train ahead of the caboose. This would permit the helper to cut off at the summit with out having to stop the train.

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Equipment included bunks for the train crew, stove for cooking and heating, ice box for food storage and washing and drinking water containers. Kerosene lamps were used for lighting.

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1949 Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Caboose

Community Day 2016 was the perfect event to mark the Museum’s 50th anniversary and to celebrate the reopening of the 1949 Santa Fe Caboose exhibit.

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The restoration of the caboose was made possible through donations from the community, the generosity of sponsors, and cooperation between city staff and the Museum Foundation.

Some of the repairs include new paint inside and out, electrical upgrades, remote video security and other enhancements

 

The interior was mostly intact when the caboose arrived at the Museum in 1989. Restoration workers were careful to retain the essence of this period-correct artifact.

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1881 Velocipede

The velocipede hand car on display was built in 1881 for the Maine Central Railroad by Fairbanks Morse and Company. Riders provided the propulsion with the combined use of hands and feet. It was refurbished in 1990.

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Water Tower

The museum's first expansion project was to build a 35 foot tall water tower adjacent to our locomotive. This project was completed in 2001. Water towers were an integral part of the steam railroading era.

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See construction photos in The Story of the Museum.

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