Qualla: The Last Five-Cent Fare https://qualla.com/western-railway-museum en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:11 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/9/q/c/3/western-railway-museum-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: The Last Five-Cent Fare https://qualla.com/western-railway-museum The Last Five-Cent Fare: Introduction https://qualla.com/western-railway-museum/ Photo credit LPS.1, CC BY-SA 3.0. Sacramento Northern car number 62 is a Birney streetcar built in 1920. For twenty-seven years it ran local service in Chico, California, rattling through a small city at the top of the Sacramento Valley. When it retired in 1947, it held a distinction no other transit vehicle in California could claim: the last five-cent fare in the state. A nickel to ride from one end of town to the other, the same price it had charged since Warren Harding was president. The car did not go to a scrapyard. It went to a group of San Francisco Bay Area rail fans who had decided, against all reasonable expectation, that they were going to save the electric railroads of the American West -- not as photographs or memories, but as actual rolling stock, on actual rails, carrying actual passengers. They are still at it. The Western Railway Museum in Solano County now holds over 100 pieces of railroad equipment and operates excursion trains on a restored section of the Sacramento Northern Railway's original mainline.

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Image: LPS.1 | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/9/q/c/3/western-railway-museum-wp/9qc3-the-last-five-cent-fare-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full The Last Five-Cent Fare: The Collectors https://qualla.com/western-railway-museum/ Photo credit Klaus Nahr from Germany, CC BY-SA 2.0. The Bay Area Electric Railroad Association began in 1946 as a social club for people who loved electric traction. Not steam -- electric. While other rail enthusiast groups organized excursions on main line railroads, BAERA's members were drawn to the streetcar lines and interurba...

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Image: Klaus Nahr from Germany | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/9/q/c/3/western-railway-museum-wp/9qc3-the-last-five-cent-fare-the-collectors.mp3 0:06 2 full The Last Five-Cent Fare: Rio Vista Junction https://qualla.com/western-railway-museum/ Photo credit Nicholas Kibre, Public domain. By 1960, the constant shuffling of equipment had become untenable. BAERA needed a permanent home, and they found one at Rio Vista Junction, a former station stop along the Sacramento Northern Railway near Suisun, California. The location was inspired: the Sacramento Northern's ri...

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Image: Nicholas Kibre | Public domain

]]> Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/9/q/c/3/western-railway-museum-wp/9qc3-the-last-five-cent-fare-rio-vista-junction.mp3 0:06 3 full The Last Five-Cent Fare: Riding the Mainline https://qualla.com/western-railway-museum/ Photo credit Bill Larkins, CC BY-SA 2.0. What makes this museum unusual is that it is also a railroad. Visitors do not simply look at old trains -- they ride them. BAERA has been reinstalling the overhead electrification southward from Rio Vista Junction, currently reaching Bird's Landing Road, about six miles down the ...

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Image: Bill Larkins | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/9/q/c/3/western-railway-museum-wp/9qc3-the-last-five-cent-fare-riding-the-mainline.mp3 0:06 4 full The Last Five-Cent Fare: A Hundred Pieces of the Electric West https://qualla.com/western-railway-museum/ Photo credit Klaus Nahr from Germany, CC BY-SA 2.0. The collection spans the full range of West Coast electric railroading. Petaluma and Santa Rosa car 63, a combine that once served the wine country north of San Francisco, is maintained in running condition. Peninsular Railway car 52 from San Jose operates regularly. Salt Lake an...

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Image: Klaus Nahr from Germany | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/9/q/c/3/western-railway-museum-wp/9qc3-the-last-five-cent-fare-a-hundred-pieces-of-the-electric-west.mp3 0:06 5 full The Last Five-Cent Fare: The Archive Below the Catenary https://qualla.com/western-railway-museum/ Photo credit Klaus Nahr from Germany, CC BY-SA 2.0. Beyond the rolling stock, BAERA maintains a substantial archive of materials relating to streetcar and interurban lines across California and adjacent states, housed in a climate-controlled space in one of the museum's newer buildings. The archive holds photographs, documents, ma...

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Image: Klaus Nahr from Germany | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/9/q/c/3/western-railway-museum-wp/9qc3-the-last-five-cent-fare-the-archive-below-the-catenary.mp3 0:06 6 full