The birthplace of the Big Boy Steam Dream

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 3, 2024, and concluding on Memorial Day, Monday, May 27, 2024. 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.

Friday, November 8, 2024 – Rail Meeting 7:30pm On Zoom

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

Illinois Terminal Railroad Presented by Harvey Laner

This program, produced by Harvey Laner is a detailed look at one of America’s great interurban rail systems.

Illinois Terminal grew out of William B. McKinley’s, 1900 purchase of the Danville Street Railway & Light Company to transport coal to his power plant there. In four short years, McKinley acquired additional utility companies with street railway operations, connected them with rail lines and in May of 1904 put the developing system under the control of a new entity, the Illinois Traction System.

As America entered the Depression decade, the McKinley Lines had evolved into a decidedly different railroad than the Illinois Traction System of ten years earlier. McKinley’s scattered collection of little traction lines had been fused together into a whole new entity. It became increasingly evident that no other interurban electric line in the country had made as dramatic a transformation as the Illinois Traction System from a country trolley line to a full-service railroad—complete with a new name, Illinois Terminal—that offered competitive freight service, intercity passenger runs and big-city suburban services.

Through the 1930s, the financial challenges were mounting as the automobile and the improving roads they travelled brought increased competition and lower ridership. Though the war brought increased ridership, the post war years into the 1950s were increasingly difficult. In 1954 ten area railroads banded together and purchased the Illinois Terminal which led to a series of events that saw the final interurban passenger runs on March 3, 1956, and the closing of the remaining passenger service, the St Louis-Granite City Bridge service on June 22, 1958.

The program draws heavily on the very rare, exceptional quality movie footage of railfan cinematographers William C Janssen, Dr Howard Blackburn and Ray Vecchi, with footage dating back to the mid-to-late 1930s. There is also a cameo appearance of movie footage filmed by Harvey Laner in 1957 in the final days of St. Louis-Granite City Bridge Car service. Special thanks go to Dale Jenkins, President of the Illinois Traction Society who provided invaluable support in the production of this program.

How to join our meeting:

  • 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 Standard Time).
  • Meeting begins at 7:30 pm, on Friday, November 8, 2024. (Using international time, that’s at 03:30 UTC on Saturday.)

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

Future Monthly Meeting Dates and Topics

Friday
November 8, 2024
Illinois Terminal Railroad

Tuesday
December 10, 2024
To be announced