Western Pacific Railroad Museum, Portola, California

The WPRM has over 100 pieces of rolling stock alone in our collection for our visitors to enjoy. Among these are an example of the Mighty "Centennial", a Union Pacific DDA40X locomotive, the largest diesel locomotive ever built at over 98 feet long! Our Western Pacific 2001 ushered in an entirely new era of Diesel Locomotive technology as it was the first turbocharged locomotive in America. The Western Pacific 805-A is the "Belle" of our fleet, as it was built to pull the famous "California Zephyr". Speaking of the Zephyr, the museum has many cars and artifacts of "The most talked about train in America". We also have one of the largest collections of cabooses in the country, and we invite you to ride a few of them to experience for yourself what it's like to be a freight Conductor! Enjoy Railroading in its "native habitat! "

A Gondola is defined as an open top freight car used for carrying commodities not requiring protection from the weather. They load and unload from the top, and carry items such as pipe, steel, poles, woodchips, sugar beets, and machinery, to name a few. Some even have ends that drop down to facilitate loading and unloading.

The Western Pacific Railroad Museum features several gondolas of various vintages and lengths, including WP 6424, one of the first freight cars to feature "Roller Bearing" wheel sets, which are now the industry wide standard and a requirement of modern day railroads.

Gondola Cars of the Western Pacific Railroad Museum

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