San Luis Obispo Railroad Museum

The San Luis Obispo Railroad Museum is located in the former freight house of the SLO station. A very nice railroad museum with neat local exhibits, like this reconstruction of the freight house agent desk.

A restored caboose and former club/diner/observation car are outside located on a track outside the museum. They also are building a very nice model railroad depicting scenes of the narrow gauge Pacific Coast Railway between Avila and San Luis Obispo, as well as the Southern Pacific through San Luis Obispo between Santa Margarita, CA and Surf, CA. While a good part of the layout is under construction, multiple scenes on the lower level are (mostly) finished.

I very much liked the Pacific Coast Ry scenes around Avila. The backdrop paintings are exceptionally well done.

PCRy train on the wharf at Avila Beach

Pilings! A lot of work and patience required. 

I spent quite a bit of time chatting with one of the docents there. When I inquired about their plans for operations, he showed me around behind the scenes, and over chatting I completely forgot to take more pictures. Here are two more scenes I photographed on the lower level before I distracted myself.

A nice museum. A nice model railroad. Very nice people. Very much worth a visit, if you are in the San Luis Obispo area.