The California State Railroad Museum Library & Archives staff may refer patrons to other institutions or organizations for assistance. Some of those we most frequently refer researchers to are listed in the file below. Nearly all have a website which may include additional information about each collection, contact information, as well as links to other helpful sites. For some we have indicated a collection of particular interest. Although we attempt to keep this list current, alert the Library & Archives staff to errors or necessary changes.
For more in-depth information on what the CSRM Library & Archives holds, click here.
Research Guides
- CSRM Guide to Railroad Research Institutions – A growing guide created by the California State Railroad Museum Library & Archives that provides names and contact information for railroad research institutions by state, corporation, and historical society.
- The First Transcontinental Railroad – A resource guide to collections at the California State Railroad Museum Library & Archives.
- Guide to Southern Pacific Bulletin – An inventory of Southern Pacific Bulletins by issue and month, with links to digital files.
Indexes
- Railroad History - Published by Railway & Locomotive Historical Society (also includes past issues of Bulletin)
- Trainline - Southern Pacific Historical & Technical Society
Digital Collections & Databases
- California Digital Newspaper Collection – Contains over 1,500,000 pages of California newspapers published from 1846-present.
- California, Railroad Employment Records, 1862-1950 (Ancestry.com) – Includes select employment records from railroad companies operating in California. The CSRM Library & Archives provides free access to the database to in-house patrons.
- California Revealed – Includes a wide range of historical materials contributed by libraries, archives, museums, and historical societies across the state.
- Calisphere – Digital collections from California’s great libraries, archives, and museums.
- HathiTrust Digital Library – A collection of millions of publications digitized from libraries around the world.
- Online Archive of California – Detailed descriptions of primary resource collections maintained by more than 200 contributing California institutions.
- Sacramento History Online – Historic Sacramento Photograph and Document Archives.
- WorldCat – Search for books and other content in libraries around the world.