The San Luis Obispo Railroad Museum will host the 2015 Central Coast Railroad Festival from October 1-4. The Central Coast Railroad Festival is a broad based festival that spotlights numerous types of railroading in the heart of the California Central Coast.
The Festival focuses on rail history, exhibits, programs, music, safety education, art displays, rail excursions, and model railroading of all types. Activities will take place at numerous railroad, historical and educational locations throughout the County. The Railroad Festival is designed to please both casual train buffs and avid rail fans as well as delight tourists and locals of all ages. Most Festival activities will be free and all will be fun and very family friendly.
Major 2015 Festival venues in San Luis Obispo include the SLO Railroad Museum, the SLO downtown Library, the History Center of SLO County and the SLO Thursday Night Farmers’ Market. There are also festival program partners around the region. The only venue that charges a small admission fee is the SLO Railroad Museum. SLORRM attendees will receive free admission during the festival if they show an Amtrak Pacific Surfliner or Coast Starlight ticket receipt from anytime during the festival week.
The 2015 Festival will again offer a wide variety of programs, activities and displays. Numerous railroad story times for children will take place at area libraries during September. Many children’s activities will also be offered at the Railroad Museum on Saturday and Sunday.
A Friday night adult rail excursion to Pomar Junction Winery will feature a ride on Amtrak’s Coast Starlight. Various walking and biking tours will be offered as will programs on local railroads, railroad history and area history. The Festival will take part in Arts Obispo’s Art After Dark on Friday night with displays at the SLO Library and the History Center.
The staff from the Model Railroads of Southern California has again organized a great model train layout tour featuring 30 different layouts from Paso Robles to Lompoc. These layouts will feature most model scales and will focus on club and museum layouts as well as individuals› home and garden layouts. The majority of the garden railroad layouts are located in the Santa Maria and Paso Robles areas.
Major club layouts can be viewed at the SLO Railroad Museum, SLO Library (large N-Scale modular layout from the Orange County “N”Gineers) and at the Oceano Depot (HO and N-Scale layouts from the San Luis Obispo Model Railroad Assoc.) Other large layouts will be featured at Central Valley Model Works in Oceano, Central Coast Trains in Atascadero and at the Lompoc Valley Model Railroad and Historical Society. A detailed schedule with layout descriptions and driving directions can be downloaded from the schedule page at CCRRF.com.
