Tucson May 2019 31 (Southern Arizona Transportation Museum)

The Southern Arizona Transportation Museum is a

railroad museum A railway museum is a museum that explores the history of all aspects of rail related transportation, including: locomotives (steam, diesel, and electric), railway cars, trams, and railway signalling equipment. They may also operate historic equ ...

Tucson , "(at the) base of the black ill , nicknames = "The Old Pueblo", "Optics Valley", "America's biggest small town" , image_map = , mapsize = 260px , map_caption = Interactive map ...

Arizona Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...

. It is located in the former records vault building at the former Southern Pacific Depot, which was renovated by the City of Tucson in 2004. The museum does not charge for admission. Guided tours of the facility are available for a small fee, by appointment only. The museum offers community events, downtown historic walking tours (October–March), railroad safety education, an oral history program and an active collections department preserving artifacts pertaining to transportation in southern Arizona.

Features

Southern Pacific 1673

Southern Pacific locomotive #1673 is on display at the museum. The

2-6-0 Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, represents the wheel arrangement of two leading wheels on one axle, usually in a leading truck, six powered and coupled driving wheels on three axles and no trailing wheels. ...

M-4b Mogul locomotive was built for the Southern Pacific Railroad by

Schenectady Locomotive Works The Schenectady Locomotive Works built railroad locomotives from its founding in 1848 through its merger into American Locomotive Company (ALCO) in 1901. After the 1901 merger, ALCO made the Schenectady plant its headquarters in Schenectady, New ...

Schenectady, New York Schenectady () is a city in Schenectady County, New York, United States, of which it is the county seat. As of the 2020 census, the city's population of 67,047 made it the state's ninth-largest city by population. The city is in eastern New Y ...

in November 1900. The locomotive is listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

Depot

The depot lobby is currently used as a waiting room for passengers using

Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, doing business as Amtrak () , is the national passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates inter-city rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous U.S. States and nine cities in Canada ...

trains, and the rest of the depot and buildings are leased to various businesses.

Silver Spike Festival

Every year in March, the Southern Arizona Transportation Museum, located in downtown Tucson, holds the Silver Spike Festival. The festival commemorates the arrival of the train to Tucson, in March, 1880. The 2014 event, had such notable guests as Mayor Jonathan Rothschild and Arizona Daily Star newspaper columnist David Leighton. The event also included a reenactment by descendants of some of the early pioneers (i.e.

Estevan Ochoa Estevan Ochoa (March 17, 1831 – October 27, 1888) was a Mexican-born American businessman and politician who participated in the creation of the Arizona Territory. Biography Ochoa was born to Jesus Ochoa in Chihuahua, Mexico on March 17, 183 ...

, P.R. Tully, and Robert Leatherwood) of Tucson and music from the 4th United States Cavalry Regiment Band.

References

External links