Donating Your Collection

Library & Archives

The Museum's collections are almost entirely the result of individual gifts during OERM’s more than 55 years of existence. Our archives are located at our main museum site in Perris, California, along with our large collection of historic railcars and locomotives. As the number of collections placed in the Museum’s care has grown, we’ve begun the process of constructing a new library and archives building to better preserve these collections and to make them more accessible.

The Museum’s Collection Policy defines five “focus companies”; the major railroads and transit companies which served Southern California; the Pacific Electric, Los Angeles Railway, Santa Fe , Southern Pacific and Union Pacific railroads, as well as predecessor and related companies. We specialize in materials relating to the Southern California operations of these companies, with our largest holdings being materials from the “Red Cars” of the Pacific Electric and the “Yellow Cars” of the Los Angeles Railway.

If you have materials which you think might be a good fit with our collection, please contact us. You spent a lifetime assembling your collection, and it deserves a home where it will be appreciated and shared with the world. Too often heirs have no idea how to deal with these types of collections, and all too often they end up scattered without recognition of their value as a whole, or even disposed of without any understanding of their importance.

Our archives are also a major source of information for the restoration of our historic collection of railcars and locomotives, and so your materials may even contain that vital piece of information we need to complete one of our restoration or exhibit projects.

Your donation may also provide a valuable tax deduction, and we encourage you to speak to your tax advisor about the benefits of a donation to the OERM archives. If you have any questions about how OERM’s archives can serve as a future home for your collection please contact the Education and Exhibits Chair.

Future Giving

Donors contemplating future gifts of collections, estate planning and/or naming the Museum in their will as the ultimate beneficiary of their living legacy are encouraged to contact the Chair, Education & Exhibits to determine the Museum's extent of interest in the items which they have.