The Galveston Railroad Museum
While the Galveston Railroad Museum tells the story of Galveston's railroad history it also tells the story of Texas's history with the iron horse. Like everything else about the Lone Star State, Texas railroading is big. In terms of route mileage nothing can top Texas and the state has key main lines running every which direction (UP’s Sunset Route running between Los Angeles and New Orleans and BNSF’s Transcon running between Chicago and Los Angeles are just a few). Historically, virtually every well-known Southwestern railroad reached Texas, including some Midwestern carriers like the Rock Island. Today, while the Lone Star State has lost over 35% of its peak trackage it still includes over 10,000 miles of rails and continues to be an important generator of traffic (such as chemicals found predominantly in Houston and East Texas). Today, Texas railroading is mostly the domain of Union Pacific which controls roughly 51% of the trackage in the state, which is interesting considering that the UP never had a presence at all in the Lone Star State until it purchased the MoPac and later, SP. Another 38% is the domain of BNSF leaving a mere 11% in control of shortlines. And, as you can probably guess, Texas railroading features several shortlines. Some of these include the Angelina & Neches River Railroad; Austin Western Railroad; Blacklands Railroad; Border Pacific Railroad; Corpus Christi Terminal; Dallas, Garland & Northeastern Railroad; Fort Worth & Western Railroad; Galveston Railroad; GWI Switching Services; Panhandle Northern Railway; Point Comfort & Northern Railway; Rockdale, Sandow & Southern Railroad; Texas Central Business Lines; Timber Rock Railroad; and the Wichita, Tillman & Jackson Railway.
Not only did the the Moody Foundation help the Galveston Railroad Museum by purchasing the former Santa Fe building and Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe Railway offices, it also helped the museum acquire a collection of rolling stock and locomotives. It's current locomotive fleet includes: * Akron, Canton & Youngstown Railroad Fairbanks-Morse H20-44 #505 * H. G. Bohlssen 2-6-2 #1 * Magma Arizona Railroad 0-6-0 #5 * Southern Pacific 4-6-0 #314 * Southern Pacific EMD F7A #6309 * US Air Force GE 80-tonner #1673 The former Santa Fe building and GC&SF headquarters is now known as the Shearn Moody Plaza and along with the Galveston Railroad Museum's collection includes business and organization offices. The museum is located in the original waiting room and includes exhibits and railroad memorabilia to learn about Texas's history of the railroads. One of these exhibits is an HO-scale model railroad that is about 700 square feet in size. Today the museum has a vast collection of railroad equipment ranging from ten-wheeler steam locomotives to “covered wagons” and rare Fairbanks-Morse diesels (the museum is also home to numerous historic passenger and freight cars). Along with its equipment the museum hosts train shows, other events, and is even home to an operating model layout. If you are also interested in helping the museum do volunteer work they always need it and I am sure would gladly accept your help! Whatever you are into and enjoy related to railroading you are certain to find it at the Galveston Railroad Museum.
You might also be interested in Missouri Pacific Lines from Patrick Dorin, which gives a very well done general history of the railroad (up until its merger with UP), which had extensive operations in Texas, with plenty of photographs to boot. Anyone with an interest in the MoPac will almost surely enjoy the book. If you're interested in perhaps purchasing these books please visit The Railroad Diamond by clicking the tab in the menu to your left marked "TRD Store".
|
