Appropriately situated in the city that served as the terminus of the first transcontinental railroad, this distinctive two-story brick museum (1981) celebrates railroading and its decisive role in the development of the West. A passage leading to the main floor documents the great challenges of surveying and building the Central Pacific Railroad over the Sierra Nevada in the 1860s. In the large, open exhibit hall, designed partly in the manner of a 19C roundhouse, are 21 meticulously restored locomotives, including the Central Pacific's Engine No. 1 from the mid-1860s and a cab-forward behemoth from the final years of the steam engine in the 1940s and 1950s. Mingling with the locomotives at a reconstruction of the 1876 depot are numerous railroad cars, including a railway post office, a luxurious private car, and a sleeping car with realistic rocking motions and sound effects. Smaller displays include a rail telegraph office and a country railroad station. The second-floor galleries feature a delightful collection of toy trains.