A Guide to the Best of Southern California : EXCURSIONS : Riding the Rails

In 1912, $3.50 bought a ticket for an Orange Empire trolley trip from 6th and Main in downtown Los Angeles to San Bernardino. Today, the Orange Empire Railway Museum’s collection of more than 150 streetcars and rail vehicles provides an opportunity to experience the early days of electric- and steam-railway transportation.

Be sure to look for the Los Angeles Railway No. 1201, which covered the Civic Center route in the 1920s. Working weekends, the museum’s hundreds of volunteers labored for five years to restore it to prime condition.

Three huge barns on the museum grounds house additional gems from the past, including an 1875 wooden horsecar; a Kyoto, Japan, city streetcar from the 1890s (American parts were shipped to Japan for assembly), and a funeral streetcar, complete with stained-glass windows, from the early 1900s.

Admission to the museum is free. On weekends and some holidays, visitors can hop aboard an electric trolley for a ride around the grounds. Unlimited-ride passes are $5 for adults, $3 for children ages 6 to 11, and free for those 5 years and younger.

Orange Empire Railway Museum, 2210 South A Street, Perris; (714) 657-2605.