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288 DAYSSan Francisco · 1915 ⌕
Gazetteer › Marina & North Gardens
Getting around · Marina & North Gardens

Overfair Railway

A miniature steam railroad of "Lilliputian locomotives" running from the Machinery Palace along the Marina to the race track; its locomotives survive.

A miniature train at the Exposition, probably the Overfair Railway
A miniature train at the Exposition, probably the Overfair RailwayMilton McFarland Painter Sr., 1915 (Mississippi Department of Archives and History) · Restored

Todd calls the Overfair Railroad "another very fine venture in the field of intramural transportation." It was a miniature steam line with "complete Lilliputian locomotives" and single-seat cars. Its terminus was beyond the Southern Pacific Building near the Zone entrance. From the southwest corner of the Machinery Palace it ran around the east side of that building to the Marina, curved around the Yacht Harbor and ran out to the Race Track and Polo Field. On fireworks nights it sometimes stopped near the California Building so riders could watch the show from their seats.

It was not a money-maker. It took in just over $22,000, and Todd suspected "some misfortune of location" kept it from doing as well as it deserved. Its creator, L. M. MacDermot of Oakland, stored the equipment on his estate after the fair.

At a glance

  • Receipts over $22,000 for the season (Todd vol. 2).
  • MacDermot's four miniature steam locomotives were bought at auction by Al Smith and run again from the 1980s on the Swanton Pacific Railroad (Wikipedia).
  • Passenger cars originally built for the Overfair Railway run on the Billy Jones Wildcat Railroad (Wikipedia).
The Overfair Railway
The Overfair RailwayTodd, vol. II · Public domain (published 1921, United States) · Restored

Afterward

Closed with the fair. Its locomotives survive, most of them on the Swanton Pacific Railroad near Davenport, where the 2020 CZU Lightning Complex fire damaged the line and three of the engines, and one on display in the lobby of the California State Railroad Museum in Sacramento; several cars went to the Billy Jones Wildcat Railroad (Wikipedia).

Sources