Mount Tamalpais Railway for kids
The Crookedest Railroad in the World. A true story near Mill Valley, CA, told for kids 3-12.
Read along
Choo choo! Right here in downtown Mill Valley, where the bookstore and café are, there used to be a train station! Long ago, a little steam train started here and chugged all the way up to the top of Mount Tam.
The track wiggled back and forth so much, with two hundred and eighty-one curves, that people called it the Crookedest Railroad in the World! But the best part was coming down. People rode down in open cars called gravity cars, with no engine at all!
They just rolled down the mountain, whoosh, around and around the curves, while a brakeman made sure they didn't go too fast. It was like a giant, slow roller coaster, with the whole bay to look at.
Quiz the back seat
What made the gravity cars roll down the mountain?
Show the answer
Gravity!. Gravity! The same thing that makes your ball roll downhill.
3 fun facts
- The Mill Valley and Mount Tamalpais Scenic Railway opened in 1896.
- 281 curves on just over 8 miles of track.
- The train left from where the Depot Bookstore and Cafe is today.
For grown-ups
Written by the Tumbly team, then checked claim by claim against the sources below before it was published; stories that don't pass stay off the app and this site. Narration is pre-recorded, and nothing you do on this page is tied to your kids.
Sources
More stories in Mill Valley
Roads
Town and county names: GeoNames (CC BY 4.0).