The Orange Empire Railway Museum in Perris, CA, is open 9 a.m.-to-5 p.m. most days year-round and admission is free. Train rides run Saturdays and Sundays for an additional cost per rider.

Information about the exact Pacific Electric Red Car (AKA, “Blimp”) we rode during our visit to the Orange Empire Railway Museum. One of the original purposes of OERM was to provide a location for Red Car preservation just as its service was coming to a close in the early 1960s (the museum was founded in 1956 at the current Travel Town museum site in Griffith Park, Los Angeles, and relocated to Perris in 1958). You can read more about Red Car history on OERM’s website at: http://www.oerm.org/collection/red-cars-pacific-electric

T and JoePa in front of one of several of the original Pacific Electric Red Cars on display (and sometimes in service) at the Orange Empire Railway Museum.

T hopped on board an old “Blimp” PE Red Car at the Orange Empire Railway Museum.

Per the docent aboard our Red Car tour, it’s rumored that one of Metrolink’s long-term plans is to extend service through this area, which could mean a potential link up with the museum’s rail line via that station. If that were to happen, OERM may look into restoring this old Perris train station (down the line in the distance) so that the Metrolink line and OERM rail line could transfer to each other, creating another way for visitors to get to the museum. The station actually sits on OERM’s “right of way” but the trains currently do not run down to the station due to the city’s existing street traffic restrictions and regulations that require signal updates and other improvements, which are cost-prohibitive at this time.

Old fare box aboard the PE Red Car. The rolling stock at Orange Empire Railway Museum are like  museums in motion all by themselves, with signage placed near any point of interest aboard the engines, cars, and cabooses.

Another collection of old Los Angeles streetcars at the Orange Empire Railway Museum are the “Yellow Cars.” These were in their peak of service throughout Los Angeles from the 1930s through the late 1950s. You can read more about the history of the LA Railway Yellow Cars here: http://www.oerm.org/collection/yellow-cars-la-railway

Yes, T wanted to help drive the Yellow Car. Not today or any other, T, sorry. Have a seat, please!

T looks out as we depart Pinacate Station, named for the former Townsite that settled here just before 1882 when the California Southern Railroad built through the area.

T riding on the Yellow Car during our brief tour around the grounds, buildings, and train yards at the Orange Empire Railway Museum.

T climbed up atop this lookout area inside one of the cabooses he rode in during one of many of our train rides on a visit to the Orange Empire Railway Museum. The caboose was the “office of the train” back in the day and a safety hub for the entire train and its crew. It was a place where records were kept, bills paid, logistics managed, and other items stored long before such items were computerized or relocated to the engine of the train. This upper seat was where a safety worker would sit and be on watch for traffic farther down the tracks than the engineer could see to, which was long before cell phones and other forecasting or other communicating technologies came into use.

The boys up top in the caboose!

View from a caboose! That other car in the way ahead of ours is another caboose and why it’s so tall also.