Railroad Scavenger Hunt
The Railroad Museum’s scavenger hunt is a fun game that takes you all over the Museum to learn the answers
to questions about railroading history and the Railroad Museum. We will help you by giving you hints about
where to find some of the answers. Your group leader will be given the answers. The Railroad Museum’s ticket
office by our free parking lot is the best place to start your hunt! Now you are ready to make tracks through the
Museum!
########################QUESTIONS###############################
THE RAIL YARD
1.) There is a black steam locomotive #1 on the Museum’s mock turntable. It was originally
operated by Texas’ Waco, Beaumont, Trinity and Sabine Railroad.
What company built this locomotive and when?
______________________________________
__________________________________________
2.) Around the corner from the steam locomotive is a steam farm tractor.
What company made this tractor? _____________________________________________________
3.) How does a hand car operate and what is it used for? ______________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
4.) There are three dining cars here at the Museum. Can you name them?
a.) _______________________ b.) ________________________ c.) ________________________
5.) What are the numbers on three steam locomotives here at the Museum?
a.) _______________________ b.) ________________________ c.) ________________________
6.) What year was the “Anacapa” private business car built? Name one of the distinguished
passengers who rode on the Anacapa.
_______________________________________
________________________________________
7.) What type of car is the Robert E. Lee? When was the Robert E. Lee built and by who?
___________________________
___________________________ __________________________
Page 2
8.) What are the numbers on the Center for Transportation and Commerce blue center cab
locomotive and the Missouri Pacific caboose that are used for the Museum’s train rides?
________________________________________
_________________________________________
9.) What is the name of the sole surviving train car that travelled to all 48 states from 1947 to 1949?
Name one of the documents that were carried aboard this train.
________________________________________
_________________________________________
10.)
The Museum has recently restored the Illinois Central Post Office car. How did a moving
train pick up mail? Name the movie this car was used in.
_______________________________________
_________________________________________
11.)
At the west end of the rail yard you will find the Denver & Rio Grande Western Flat car
(D&RGW). In February 1931, this car was one of the flat cars used to carry the raw granite that
was used to construct the tomb of the unknown soldiers. What year was this flat car built?
____________________________________________________________________________________
THE DEPOT BUILDING ALSO KNOWN AS THE “PEOPLE”S GALLERY
12.)
What are the names of the three displays which light up and/or make noise?
__________________________ ___________________________ __________________________
13.)
In front of the original ticket office, notice the indentations in the marble floor. What do
you think caused these indentations? What is the date on the calendar located inside the ticket
booth? _____________________________________
______________________________________
14.)
What is a “Harvey Girl”? ______________________________________________________
15.)
What date did Hurricane Ike hit Galveston Island? What category was this storm?
________________________________
16.)
____________________________________________
During Ike, which car floated off its’ trucks, through the fence and came to rest in the
adjacent parking lot to the Shearn Moody Plaza? ___________________________________
17.)
How many wheels does the Museum’s Velocipede have and how was it operated?
______________________________________
18.)
______________________________________
Who is working in the News stand/Gift Shop today? ________________________________
BONUS QUESTION:
19.)
In the theatre building is a model train layout. What happens when you press the button
on the wall?
We hope you enjoyed your Scavenger Hunt!
Railroad Scavenger Hunt Answers
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1.)
Baldwin Locomotive Company built the WBT&S steam locomotive in 1920. Due to
the poor design and the many derailments of this locomotive, it was also known as the
Wobbly, Bobbly, Turn-over & Stop. (The WBTS-Waco, Beaumont, Trinity & Sabine
operated this loco.)
2.)
The Museum’s steam tractor was made by Case.
3.)
A hand car is operated by pumping up and down on the double-handed device attached
to the crank shaft turns the wheels. The Hand cars were used to transport maintenance
workers to where they were needed to work on the rails without the need to tie up a
locomotive.
4.)
The Museum’s three dining cars are: The Nickel Plate Road (Built by Pullman in
1930), The Southern Diner (Built by Budd in 1949) & The Silver Hours (Built by Budd
in 1940).
5.)
The Museum’s three steam locomotives are: #555 (also known as the Triple Nickel),
Southern Pacific #314 & the WBTS #1.
6.)
The Anacapa Business car was built in 1929. Distinguished passengers included
former Presidents Dwight Eisenhower and Harry Truman. Also passengers John
Palmer Gavit, editor of the Washington Evening Post and American Politician Adlai
Stevenson rode aboard the Anacapa.
7.)
The Robert E. Lee is a sleeping/lounge car. It was built in 1924 by Pullman.
8.)
The Museum’s blue center cab locomotive is #1983 which was chosen to honor the
year that the Museum first opened its doors. The Missouri Pacific (Mo-pac) caboose is
#13895
9.)
The Glen Fee is the sole surviving car of the Freedom Train that travelled to all 48
states from 1947 to 1949. It was meant to remind Americans of the blessings of liberty
very nearly taken for granted in postwar America. The Freedom Train was filled with
dozens of “documents of liberty” including the Declaration of Independence, the bill of
rights, one of the 13 original copies of the Constitution, the Emancipation
Proclamation, the Gettysburg Address, two Jima flag, and the German and Japanese
surrender documents that ended World War II.
10.) A moving train could pick up mail by snagging a pouch through the use of a mail hook.
The Illinois Central Post Office Car was used in the movie, “The Newton Boys”.
~Scavenger Hunt Page 2~
11.) The D&RGW flat car was built in 1909.
12.) a.) Semaphore One of the earliest forms of fixed railway signal is the semaphore. These signals
display their different indications to train drivers by changing the angle of inclination of a pivoted
'arm'. Semaphore signals were patented in the early 1840s by Joseph James Stevens, and soon
became the most widely-used form of mechanical signal. Designs have altered over the intervening
years, and colour light signals have replaced semaphore signals in some countries, but in others they
remain in use.
b.) Wigwag is the nickname given to a type of railroad grade crossing signal named for the
pendulum-like motion it used to signal the approach of a train. Albert Hunt invented it in 1909 out of
the necessity for a safer railroad grade crossing.
c.) A Crossbuck is a sign composed of two slats of wood or metal of equal length, fastened together
on a pole in a saltire formation (resembling the letter X). Crossbucks usually are a traffic sign to
indicate level railroad crossings sometimes supplemented by electrical warnings of flashing lights, a
bell, and/or a gate that descends to block the road and prevent traffic from crossing the tracks.
13.) For over half a century, countless tickets were issued from the original ticket office to
passengers boarding trains bound for destinations across our great land. Standing in front of
these windows, one can feel the indentations in the marble floor, made by thousands of
travelers who departed this station over the years. The date on the calendar hanging in the
ticket booth is December 1979.
14.) In 1878 Fred Harvey started the first of his eating house-hotel establishments along the AT&SF
tracks in Florence, Kansas. The rapid growth of the Harvey House chain soon followed. Fred Harvey is
credited with creating the first restaurant chain in the United States. Harvey and his company also became
leaders in promoting tourism in the American Southwest in the late 19th century. The company, including
the famous waitresses who came to be known as "Harvey Girls", successfully brought new higher standards
of both civility and dining to a region widely regarded in the era as "the Wild West".
15.) Hurricane Ike made landfall on September 13, 2008. It is said that it was a category 2
storm. The Museum sustained over 8 feet of flood water during this storm.
16.) The Union Tank car #83699 dubbed the “Whale Belly” tank car floated of its trucks in
the flood waters and came to rest in the parking lot adjacent to the Museum’s rail yard.
This tank car weighed over 177,000 pounds and was the world’s largest tank car ever made.
17.) The Museum’s velocipede has three wheels and it is operated by pumping the hand and
foot pedals.
18.) The person working the Gift shop today is either Betty, Crystal or Mary.
19.) The trains are activated.