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.
Current Events > Transit News > July 2017-December 2017
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Transit News: July 2017-December 2017
Stay updated on the California High-Speed Rail, travel, local transit, strange transit happenings, and more with the Transportation Museum's collection of unique news articles and stories.
On Thursday, December 28, cold weather in Connecticut caused an Amtrak bridge to become stuck, which in turn caused Amtrak trains in the area to be delayed for more than 5 hours. Full The Day Story >
Starting Monday, December 18, Amtrak's Cascades Train will travel along Interstate 5 instead of the Pacific Ocean, which saves 10 minutes but loses the picturesque views. (The train crash occurred on the first day of this new route.) Learn about the route from a News Tribune article >
While an Amtrak engineer's mistake of driving the train much too fast was to blame in the recent Washington state train crash, lack of the Positive Train Control system also contributed to the problem. Read The New York Times Editorial >
The completion of the environmental review, which outlines the precise locations for 500 miles of track throughout the state, is now 3 years delayed, meaning the exact track locations still have not been decided.
How will Southwest's decision to add flights to Hawaii in 2018 affect other U.S. carriers? Will it cause carriers like United and Hawaiian to reduce their prices to better compete with Southweest? Learn More at the Honoloulu Civil Beat >
A stray pit-bull mix snuck on to the BART tracks in Oakland a few weeks ago, but was soon moved to the Oakland Animal Services shelter and named Bart. On October 26, he was adopted by an Oakland family. Read the full NBC Bay Area report >
LOCAL TRANSIT • OCTOBER 17, 2017
Caltrain breaks ground on new South San Francisco station
On Tuesday, October 17, Caltrain broke ground on its $61,000,000 project to move and upgrade the South San Francisco station. The goal of the new platform and underpass is to boost housing and businesses downtown.
On September 1, 1917, the San Francisco Municipal Railway launched its very first bus line. To celebrate this anniversary, the SF Municipal Transportation Agency published a historical article. Read the Article >
An amendment proposed by Alabama representative Mo Brooks to eliminate $1.1 billion in federal subsidies for Amtrak failed on a 128-293 vote. A plan to eliminate Essential Air Service also was rejected. Read Dodge City Daily Globe article >
Amtrak announced recently than the 5 1/2-hour trip aboard the Lincoln Service Amtrak route has now been cut to 4 1/2 hours, with new locomotives capable of achieving speeds of 110 mph. See Chicago Tribune story >
BART cannot afford its practice of handing out free rides to workers, their family, and law enforcement, which in 2016 added up to $3.5 million (17,000 free rides). Now one BART Board Member is asking for this to stop. Read SF Chronicle article >
Amtrak co-CEO Charles "Wick" Moorman announced that trains may begin offering an "economy" seating plan that scrunches seats together, but a little math finds that this plan won't actually increase revenue for Amtrak. Read Newsweek opinion story >