Petaluma Trolley
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Community Activities

Youth and Railroads
"Railroads bring out the child in all of us.", Mary Neal, General Manager of the Foundry Wharf, Petaluma, CA.

Kids love trains, even adult kids. Today, young people are being educated to the need for ecological awareness and action. Many of them are turned off by the costs of the automotive society. Trains are part of the alternatives. This trolley is a fairly harmless example and could be a good stepping stone in making the rather considerable leap in thinking which would allow trains a place in our future.

I would like to see young people involved in this railroad from the start. They can walk the weed grown tracks. We could get the little work car, Speeder Club to bring their cars to town; 15 or 20 of them, and give the kids rides on those same weed-grown tracks. We could put the kids on a bus, take them to the Western Railway Museum over on Highway 12 toward Rio Vista.

There they could ride another original Petaluma and Santa Rosa electric car, the Holman Passenger Combination No. 63. This spectacular 100 year-old car runs on the Museum tracks every weekend, year round. The Museum phone number is (707) 374-2978.

Retired Folk and Historic Railroads

It has been our experience that historic railway projects are a great boon to retired folk, and visa versa. This is an endeavor where life experience and the perspective that comes with time are very important.

I have noticed that many of the organizers, officers, operational trainers, supervisors, conductors and train operators at the Western Railway Museum are retired from other work. The maintenance and restoration shop crews also have retirees well represented. There are great joys to be found aboard the historic cars. None know these joys better than the people who rode, worked or wanted to work on the railroads in their heyday.
©1998 Petaluma Trolley Project, Living History Railway Museum. A California Public Benefit, TaxExempt,
501(C)(3), Nonprofit Corporation. PO BOX 261, Petaluma, CA 94952 • Phone 707-778-7878