San Jose Fire Museum

i emailed them on their website to request a tour, as the site instructs.
apparently you can try to drop in on tues or thurs ams, but otherwise you are pretty much out of luck.
this was their response:
Thank you for your interest in the San Jose Fire Museum. Unfortunately we do not currently have a tour schedule.
Our collection is presently housed in a City of San Jose warehouse. We do plan to periodically hold open houses on select weekends next year. We are usually working on equipment on Tues and Thursday mornings. While these are not set Tour days your are more than welcome to try and catch us at the warehouse.
Our goal is to save the historic Old Fire Station #1 on Market St. in downtown San Jose. We hope to purchase or have the city donate the Old Fire Station to the Museum and save it for the citizens of San Jose.
We have and amazing collection of antique fire apparatus, some pieces survived the 1906 earthquake. Our collection not only tells the history of firefighting and the San Jose Fire Department but the history of San Jose and the entire South Bay. We like to say it’s the best collection know one has seen.
Thank you again for your interest. I will add you to our mailing list and notify you when we set up public open house tour dates.
I would encourage you at write your local San Jose Council Member or Mayor Reed and tell them you are supporting the Saving of Old Fire Station One, so once and for all we can have a location to display our world class collection.
Please contact me if you have any questions.
Best regards,
Sean Lovens
San Jose Fire Museum, Liaison

This would be a five-​star review if they had regular open hours. It’s almost like they don’t want you to see the place! There are no posted open hours. You MUST e-​mail to schedule a tour or else, ‘no dice.’ For all of you museum lurkers and San Jose history geeks, this is a ‘must-​see’ location. They have a whopping collection of artifacts including photos and fire helmets from way back when. Items date back to times when San Jose’s streets were unpaved and pumpers were steam powered and pulled by adrenaline-​charged ungulates.
Museum staff say they aspire to acquire an old San Jose fire station and move the collection there. Part of the reason it may be closed most of the time: there’s ongoing work to repair old ladder trucks and fire engines. This work may present safety issues to visitors if they didn’t put tools away before visitors toured. A lot of artifacts are shoehorned into the building and it’s tough to walk around inside unless someone pulls a few fire engines outside first. The facility is hidden inside the city’s maintenance yard and shuffling equipment during business hours may impede city operations.
The obvious jaw-​dropper is the vehicle collection. The web site says they have 27 vehicles. There’s a 1960s ladder truck (not a commercial truck chassis). There’s also a former San Jose engine (Ford C900 chassis? 534ci gasoline V8?) retrieved from Newcastle after it was retired there. There are several chief’s vehicles. There’s a steam-​powered pumper with a three-​wheeled Knox tractor they’re very proud of. Some equipment is in the process of being carefully restored.
Go if you can get in! If you like this stuff, drop by the History Park across the street to see the trolley barn and other relics.