Special Events

RailGiants Train Museum Hours

RailGiants is open on selected weekends and during The Los Angeles County Fair

RailGiants Train Museum is open on the second full weekend of each month. Our hours of operation are from 10am until 5pm. RailGiants is located in the Los Angeles County Fairgrounds in Pomona, California. During our open house weekends at RailGiants, visitors can walk around all locomotives and railcars and buy train souvenirs in our RailGiants Store in the depot. By walking up stairways into each giant locomotive, you can see into the cabs where engineers and firemen operated these large engines down the tracks of the nation’s rail network. Visitors are welcome to join us while maintenance and rehabilitation work is in progress and ask our volunteer museum staff members any questions.

Admission to the RailGiants Train Museum is always free. During the Los Angeles County Fair event, RailGiants is part of The County Fair, and there is no additional cost to enter RailGiants after purchasing an admission ticket to The County Fair. Any donation to help maintain our equipment is optional, but always welcome. The excellent conditional of our historic railroad equipment is achieved by the generous donations of past visitors and the help of our volunteer members.

Please note: when the scheduled Sunday falls on Easter, the museum will be closed on that Sunday.

Check the Event Schedule page for our current schedule of days and hours.

If you need to make arrangements to see RailGiants Train Museum on a day when we are not normally open, or for filming for television and motion pictures, please send us a message on our Contact Us page, or call the Museum Depot on 909-623-0190.

Los Angeles County Fair

The Fair is held for 16 days, starting on Friday, May, 5, 2023, and concluding on Memorial Day, Monday, May 29, 2023. RailGiants and the County Fair are closed on some weekdays; check our schedule for specific days. During the County Fair, RailGiants Train Museum is part of the County Fair and is open on every day of the County Fair. However, entry to RailGiants requires purchasing admission to the County Fair. Once inside the County Fair, no additional fees are required to enter RailGiants and see our trains.

Check the Fair's website for complete information regarding fair dates, times, parking, and costs.

Rail Meetings

Join us for monthly for updates, interesting programs about railroads, and visiting with your fellow members. Meetings are held on the second Tuesday or second Friday of each month at 7:30pm. For the most up-to-date information about our schedule of meetings, please refer to our Event Schedule page, or our monthly newsletter, the Observation Platform (O.P.). Any questions, comments, or suggestions about our meetings? Send us a message on our Contact Us page.

Tuesday, April 9, 2024 – Rail Meeting 7:30pm
On Zoom

We moved our Rail Meetings to the internet. See access information below.

Zephyrs on the Zephyr
Presented by Harvey Laner

On July 6th, 2014, private cars Silver Lariat and Silver Rapids were added to the westbound Amtrak California Zephyr at Denver’s Union Station. The cars would be a part of train 5’s consist for the remainder of its trip to Emeryville California across the Bay from San Francisco.

The trip begins with the dramatic climb into the Rockies past the Little Ten and Big Ten curves, then the climb through 33 tunnels that are closer together than any other series of tunnels on any other rail line in the United States.

Entering the Moffat Tunnel the train crosses the Continental Divide at an altitude of 9,239 feet under Rollins Pass. Exiting the tunnel, the train traverses the amazing upper canyons of the Colorado River. Just before arrival in Glenwood Springs, we traverse beautiful Glenwood Canyon for about 18 miles.

The morning of July 7th the train is just west of Salt Lake City. Running 5 hours and 38 minutes late was good news. We would run through the most scenic part of Nevada during daylight.

Nevada is the most mountainous U.S. State. Over 30 of Nevada's mountain peaks exceed 11,000ft. in elevation with the highest point, Boundary Peak reaching 13,140 ft. Just beyond milepost 529, the train enters Palisade Canyon of the Humboldt River offering an opportunity to experience the amazing beauty of this remote part of Nevada. If trains 5 and 6 are on schedule, they traverse this part of the State in the nighttime hours. Being nearly 6 hours late definitely has an advantage. Palisade Canyon, along the Humboldt River is between Battle Mountain and Carlin. The Feather River Route and The Overland Route run parallel through the Canyon on opposite sides of the river. The Humboldt River runs through northern Nevada for approximately 330 miles. It has no outlet to the ocean, but instead empties into the Humboldt Sink.

At Reno, the train passes through the largest public works project ever undertaken in Northern Nevada, the Reno Transportation Rail Access Corridor, or ReTRAC. The ReTRAC project depressed over 2 miles of the Union Pacific mainline track that runs directly through Downtown Reno. Departing Reno, the train make its way into the Sierra Nevada Mountains to the railroad summit of Donner Pass, located in Tunnel 14 at an altitude of 7033 feet. At Roseville we pick up two Union Pacific business cars that are being deadheaded to San Antonio on Amtrak trains 5, 11 and 2. As the sun slowly sets, it’s time to settle in for the last hour of travel before reaching Emeryville and reflect on the two past days of luxury rail travel on the Silver Lariat and Silver Rapids over the route of today’s California Zephyr.

On your computer’s internet browser, go to: RailMeeting.org (that will take you to the Zoom meeting room).
Password: 3450
Doors open at 7:15 pm (Pacific Daylight Time).
Meeting begins at 7:30 pm, on Tuesday, April 9, 2024. (Using international time, that’s at 02:30 UTC on Wednesday.)

We recommend visiting RailMeeting.org before the meeting to download the most recent version of Zoom software.

Future Monthly Meeting Dates and Topics

Tuesday
April 9, 2024
Zephyrs on the Zephyr

Friday
May 10, 2024
Passenger Rail Services Update