New home for the Southern Pacific Railroad History Center

A new home for the proposed Southern Pacific Railroad History Center is on the drawing table. "We have identified a 7.6-acre property near Highway 65 and Sunset Boulevard that has premium access, is free of any environmental issues, has no existing development and is properly zoned for our use," said Scott Inman, president and chief executive officer of the nonprofit Southern Pacific Railroad History Center, a group of volunteers proposing to build the history center. While many of the country's first railroads have museums dedicated to their preservation, Southern Pacific Railroad (and predecessor Central Pacific) does not have a dedicated facility celebrating its 158 years as an economic and political power, Inman explained in a 2019 interview. In an effort to fill that gap, a group of committed railroad enthusiasts formed a committee in 2016 to build a world-class history center on two-parcels of land leased from Union Pacific and drawing on support from the city of Rocklin, the Union Pacific Railroad, the Rocklin Historical Society and other sponsoring organizations. Plans for the downtown Rocklin site called for construction of a 35,000-square-foot pre-engineered and steel fabricated building. Featured attractions included a model railroad diorama, exhibits featuring artifacts from Southern Pacific as well as collections currently owned by the sponsoring organizations, a restored passenger car, archives for historic documents and artifacts as well as a gift shop. As the group began surveying the site, Inman said, they discovered that the soil had been contaminated by oil spillages over the years, rendering the roundhouse site unusable. Unwilling to give up on their dream for a history center, the group began the search for a new site, setting their sights on the new location last summer. While the new site is twice the size of the original location and more expensive, it is well worth the extra effort and fundraising, Inman explained. "We plan to make an offer on this property in 2022 once our capital campaign has secured enough funds to acquire it," he said. The property, located in unincorporated Rocklin, faces the former Southern Pacific Valley Mainline that ran between Los Angeles and Portland and is close to the Donner Route and Roseville Yard. Plans for the site are bold and ambitious, Inman acknowledged. The new vision includes plans for a 200-foot by 400-foot auditorium, a museum, displays of rolling stock (including the first and the last of Southern Pacific's passenger cars), exhibits and interpretive displays as well as ample parking for visitors. "With your help, we can and will make this a reality so future generations can appreciate the corporation that was instrumental in achieving our Nation's Manifest Destiny, was very involved in economically developing and settling population in a large part of the Western United States and providing employment and economic sustenance for hundreds of thousands of employees and their families during its existence," Inman said. For more information or to join, visit www.splives.org.