About the Museum > Museum History
Museum History
Since 2008, the Transportation Museum has been a unique, one-day event for toddlers, adults, and everyone in between. Each year, visitors are treated to interactive and educational exhibits related to all kinds of transportation, from the Transcontinental Railroad and projects to solve Bay Area traffic to programming miniature robots and solving an Amtrak-themed escape room.
Museum History
As a young child, museum director Andrew Mancini loved transportation of all kinds, especially trains. In fact, at the age of five, he had memorized all of the stations on the CalTrain line and knew all of the train engine numbers.
As a way to share his love for, and knowledge of, transportation with friends, family, and neighbors, Andrew created The Transportation Museum at the age of five. The museum, like those in subsequent years, occurred on a single day during the summer at Andrew's house. Early exhibits included displays of the schedules of every Bay Area transit route, organized on the family sofa; learning about the R.M.S. Titanic by allowing guests to send their own Morse code messages; and slot car racing at the "Grapefruit 500," a track set up on the cover of the hot tub in Andrew's backyard.
In 2013, Andrew wrote hand-written, personalized letters to transit agencies in the 40 largest cities in the U.S. and each transit agency in California and Nevada. Over 75 percent of these organizations wrote back, sending in not just the schedules and maps that were requested, but also fun items — chapstick, Yo-Yo toys, and rain ponchos — branded with their logo, forming the foundation of what is today the museum collection.
About the Museum > Museum History
About the Museum > Frequently Asked Questions
Museum History
Frequently Asked Questions
We'll admit that The Transportation Museum isn't your typical museum! It's a one-day event held annually featuring interactive and educational exhibits related to all kinds of transportation, from historical displays (like the Pony Express or the Transcontinental Railroad) to those looking toward the future (solving Bay Area traffic and traveling to Mars). If it's your first time visiting the museum or you're interested in a refresher on what to expect, read answers to common guest questions.
What are the exhibits like?
Each of the museum exhibits are different, but each year's museum brings between 10 to 12 brand-new exhibits to the public. Each exhibit combines both educational components and interactive activities, so every display can be enjoyed by both kids and adults. For example, in the Float Your Boat exhibit at the museum in 2016, guests learned the science behind how boats float and discovered what buoyancy and water displacement is. Then, guests worked to build a boat out of LEGOs that could carry cargo containers while remaining afloat. In an exhibit at the museum in 2019, visitors programmed miniature robots through a San Francisco-themed obstacle course to learn, hands-on, how self-driving cars function. These two exhibits are just a couple of examples of the educational and interactive combination present at each of the museum's displays.
Since 2008, the Transportation Museum has been a unique, one-day event for toddlers, adults, and everyone in between. Each year, visitors are treated to interactive and educational exhibits related to all kinds of transportation, from the Transcontinental Railroad and projects to solve Bay Area traffic to programming miniature robots and solving an Amtrak-themed escape room.
Museum History
As a young child, museum director Andrew Mancini loved transportation of all kinds, especially trains. In fact, at the age of five, he had memorized all of the stations on the CalTrain line and knew all of the train engine numbers.
As a way to share his love for, and knowledge of, transportation with friends, family, and neighbors, Andrew created The Transportation Museum at the age of five. The museum, like those in subsequent years, occurred on a single day during the summer at Andrew's house. Early exhibits included displays of the schedules of every Bay Area transit route, organized on the family sofa; learning about the R.M.S. Titanic by allowing guests to send their own Morse code messages; and slot car racing at the "Grapefruit 500," a track set up on the cover of the hot tub in Andrew's backyard.
In 2013, Andrew wrote hand-written, personalized letters to transit agencies in the 40 largest cities in the U.S. and each transit agency in California and Nevada. Over 75 percent of these organizations wrote back, sending in not just the schedules and maps that were requested, but also fun items — chapstick, Yo-Yo toys, and rain ponchos — branded with their logo, forming the foundation of what is today the museum collection.
NEW/FUTURE IDEAS:
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Finish Exhibits Archive (i.e. at least 2012-2014 : use maps, and ideally all the way to 2008)
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Design Online Exhibits: just like the main pages, 1-2 sentences of text + picture + date + link; each online exhibit has a specialty page
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Change Featured Exhibits: could be Space, Highway 50, and/or Pioneers
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Continue Things to Do: make a PDF of fun things to do (by area)
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Continue Things to Do: make PDFs of similar-grouped things: train rides in the area, etc.
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Continue Things to Do: include links to interviews I conducted with the museums over Winter Break 2016
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Other website-related ideas from 5-year plan (look at every year, not just 2018!)
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COLLECTIONS: entire site/program? link to it from website
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Area/section that highlights different transit agencies
WHEN UPDATING SPOTLIGHT:
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Copy page, link old month's exhibit from the Exhibit Archives + make it blue
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Copy page, design new month's Spotlight Exhibit
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When it's time to get rid of the old exhibit and publish it, copy all the work (not the page) on the 2nd copied page (where the new month is) directly to the Spotlight Exhibit page
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Delete 2nd copied page
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Change descriptions (not links!): from the Exhibits page, under Exhibit Archive; from the Home Page (change color as well, on Celebrating 10 Years also);
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Update Page SEO for spotlight; as well as picture on Home page
MAKE MOBILE THESE PAGES:
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About (Subpage): What is the Musuem?
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Frequently Asked Questions
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EXHIBITS
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Spotlight Exhibit
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SF --> LA
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Trip Planning
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London Underground
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Things to Do (just East Bay & South Bay)
BEGIN TM 2018
Yay! July 9, 2018 - WEBSITE FINISHED
WE BEGIN TM 2018 - 11th Annual Transportation Museum!
When is the 13th Annual Transportation Museum coming?
The 13th Annual Transportation Museum will be held in Summer 2021, pending health and safety regulations, at a local school in San Carlos. An exact date has not yet been set. For more information, read this update from Museum Director Andrew Mancini on plans for next year's museum. Updates on the museum, including logistics for the event, will be posted on this website, so check back in the fall for additional details.
In the meantime, if you're still looking to discover more about The Transportation Museum and its history, check out:
11th Annual Transportation Museum
October 2018 — San Carlos, CA
The Transportation Museum Mission
To educate people of all ages about the fascinating world of transportation, in an interactive way.
