A birthday party for Clover Valley Lumber Co. #4
The Niles Canyon Railway (NCRy) will host a special birthday celebration to commemorate 100 years of service of its restored and operating steam locomotive, Clover Valley Lumber Co. #4 on Saturday March 2, 2024 starting at 10:30AM. The locomotive has served most of its life working in the state of California and has been part of the museum’s collection since 1973; just over one half of its life after being built by the Baldwin Locomotive Works in Philadelphia, PA in March of 1924.
A ceremony will be held at 10:30 AM at the railroad’s restored Sunol railroad station and will include photo/video opportunities of operations of the locomotive and speeches commemorating the history and significance of the locomotive.
Starting around noon, the museum will host a series of short, open to the public rides on its passenger train from Sunol to the museum’s Brightside yard and return. These rides will allow the media and public to experience the #4 in operation. We hope riders will purchase a ticket and return to ride one of the museum’s regularly scheduled weekend train rides between Sunol, CA and Niles (City of Fremont), CA, held typically on the second and third weekend of each month from February through October. We have also added an extra Sunday ride day behind the #4 of March 3rd!
The Niles Canyon Railway is the only museum and tourist railroad that runs on the original and best-preserved alignment of the Transcontinental Railroad now listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The NCRy is operated solely by a group of dedicated volunteers.
The event is open to the public.
Saturday, March 2, 2024
Ceremony 10:30-11:30 AM Free for all to attend
Rides starting around noon and ending at 3:30PM
The short rides for this special day are free on a first come/first served basis, but a donation toward the Niles Canyon Railway’s Steam Department’s ongoing maintenance and restoration efforts is encouraged. The museum is currently restoring the 1901-built Southern Pacific Railroad steam locomotive #1744 to operation via an extensive multi-year restoration effort.
The event will be held at our Sunol Station located at 6 Kilkare Road.
Our Sunol station has parking in our lot with additional parking across the street from the station. The event will take place rain or shine.
Interested media may view our press release available in our Media Center.
Can’t make it on the 2nd, we have plenty of Sundays across March, April and May to ride behind steam and Saturdays with diesel power. Please visit our 2024 Rides Page for more info and to buy your tickets to come ride with us.
Photograph by: Christopher Hauf – Niles Canyon Railway