AUBURN — All are welcome to catch the train as Senior College and the Auburn Public Library host a Primetime Adventure aboard the Transcontinental Railroad at 2 p.m. Tuesday, April 2.

Alan Elze will narrate a history of the Transcontinental Railroad beginning with its formation in 1862 to its completion in 1869. From the time of Lewis & Clark and the discovery of gold in California, there had been ideas of a transcontinental railroad.

In 1862, the Pacific Railroad Act chartered the Central Pacific and the Union Pacific Railroad Companies, and tasked them with building a transcontinental railroad that would link the United States from east to west.

Over the next seven years, the two companies would race toward each other from Sacramento, Calif., on one side and Omaha, Neb., on the other, struggling against great risks before they met at Promontory, Utah, on May 10, 1869.

On June 4, 1876, the first Transcontinental Express pulled in to the Central Pacific Railroad Station at San Francisco. It had been only 83 hours earlier that the Express had left the station in New York City and in an historic and triumphant journey from coast to coast had reduced a typical overland trek of six months to a mere three and a half days.

Elze has a MA in American history and museum science from the University of Rhode Island. He has taught a variety of courses at Senior College and is chairman of the Senior College board of directors.