About the Museum > Museum History
Museum History
Since 2008, the Transportation Museum has been a unique, one-day event for toddlers, adults, and everyone in between. Each year, visitors are treated to interactive and educational exhibits related to all kinds of transportation, from the Transcontinental Railroad and projects to solve Bay Area traffic to programming miniature robots and solving an Amtrak-themed escape room.
Museum History
As a young child, museum director Andrew Mancini loved transportation of all kinds, especially trains. In fact, at the age of five, he had memorized all of the stations on the CalTrain line and knew all of the train engine numbers.
As a way to share his love for, and knowledge of, transportation with friends, family, and neighbors, Andrew created The Transportation Museum at the age of five. The museum, like those in subsequent years, occurred on a single day during the summer at Andrew's house. Early exhibits included displays of the schedules of every Bay Area transit route, organized on the family sofa; learning about the R.M.S. Titanic by allowing guests to send their own Morse code messages; and slot car racing at the "Grapefruit 500," a track set up on the cover of the hot tub in Andrew's backyard.
In 2013, Andrew wrote hand-written, personalized letters to transit agencies in the 40 largest cities in the U.S. and each transit agency in California and Nevada. Over 75 percent of these organizations wrote back, sending in not just the schedules and maps that were requested, but also fun items — chapstick, Yo-Yo toys, and rain ponchos — branded with their logo, forming the foundation of what is today the museum collection.
About the Museum > Museum History
About the Museum > Frequently Asked Questions
Museum History
Frequently Asked Questions
We'll admit that The Transportation Museum isn't your typical museum! It's a one-day event held annually featuring interactive and educational exhibits related to all kinds of transportation, from historical displays (like the Pony Express or the Transcontinental Railroad) to those looking toward the future (solving Bay Area traffic and traveling to Mars). If it's your first time visiting the museum or you're interested in a refresher on what to expect, read answers to common guest questions.
What are the exhibits like?
Each of the museum exhibits are different, but each year's museum brings between 10 to 12 brand-new exhibits to the public. Each exhibit combines both educational components and interactive activities, so every display can be enjoyed by both kids and adults. For example, in the Float Your Boat exhibit at the museum in 2016, guests learned the science behind how boats float and discovered what buoyancy and water displacement is. Then, guests worked to build a boat out of LEGOs that could carry cargo containers while remaining afloat. In an exhibit at the museum in 2019, visitors programmed miniature robots through a San Francisco-themed obstacle course to learn, hands-on, how self-driving cars function. These two exhibits are just a couple of examples of the educational and interactive combination present at each of the museum's displays.
Since 2008, the Transportation Museum has been a unique, one-day event for toddlers, adults, and everyone in between. Each year, visitors are treated to interactive and educational exhibits related to all kinds of transportation, from the Transcontinental Railroad and projects to solve Bay Area traffic to programming miniature robots and solving an Amtrak-themed escape room.
Museum History
As a young child, museum director Andrew Mancini loved transportation of all kinds, especially trains. In fact, at the age of five, he had memorized all of the stations on the CalTrain line and knew all of the train engine numbers.
As a way to share his love for, and knowledge of, transportation with friends, family, and neighbors, Andrew created The Transportation Museum at the age of five. The museum, like those in subsequent years, occurred on a single day during the summer at Andrew's house. Early exhibits included displays of the schedules of every Bay Area transit route, organized on the family sofa; learning about the R.M.S. Titanic by allowing guests to send their own Morse code messages; and slot car racing at the "Grapefruit 500," a track set up on the cover of the hot tub in Andrew's backyard.
In 2013, Andrew wrote hand-written, personalized letters to transit agencies in the 40 largest cities in the U.S. and each transit agency in California and Nevada. Over 75 percent of these organizations wrote back, sending in not just the schedules and maps that were requested, but also fun items — chapstick, Yo-Yo toys, and rain ponchos — branded with their logo, forming the foundation of what is today the museum collection.
Exhibits > Featured Exhibits > London Underground
London Underground—Transportation Museum 2014
Everything at the 7th Annual Transportation Museum was London-themed, including the museum's main exhibit. Guests learned about the Tube system, CCTV cameras, audio recordings, and built tunnels out of sand.
Building Tunnels
Guests shoveled sand into a box and then began to dig a hole through the side of the box with a metal PVC pipe. Stopping occasionally to empty out their pipe, guests kept digging a straight line through the box. When they reached the other side, they would insert a train car and then could see from the back of the box the tunnel they had built.
45% of the London Underground system is made up of tunnels. There are 113 miles of underground track.
CCTV Cameras
In the London Underground system, there are 15,216 CCTV Cameras, which film the average Londoner 30-40 times per trip. At the museum, there was only one camera, and guests could make silly faces while learning more about the subway's many cameras. The station with the most CCTV Cameras is Kings Cross St. Pancras, with 408! Click here to read some more facts about CCTV Cameras and their history.
Like London
When I visited London in 2013, I loved the city, particularly the Underground. This museum exhibit tried to recreate the feeling of being on the subway. In the background, commonly-heard phrases like "Mind the Gap" played on recordings. For travelers like me who had experience the London Underground before, this exhibit was a way to relive that—without the smelliness and tightness of a Tube train!
Games
In addition to building a tunnel, guests could play London Underground-themed games. In Spoof Tube Announcements,
guests were challenged to guess which announcements were real and fake. In British to English Words, guests matched English words with British words that were provided. London's Travelers was a game I invented, where players had to get from one stop to another in as little stops as possible.
Like the London Underground?
I do, and I love the London Board Game! As a player, your goal is to get through London, stopping at 6 specific stops along the way, and then return to your starting station before anyone else does. It's a fun game for everyone, even if you haven't memorized all your stops, because the game comes with a giant map board. To learn more about the game and purchase it, click here.
