All about the community of model railroading and rail enthusiasm
May 8, 2014
The Museum of the American Railroad in Frisco, TX, will host one of several community events across the country on Saturday to celebrate Amtrak’s National Train Day.
The event began in 2008 to recognize the role that passenger and freight railroads play in the U.S. This year’s celebration kicked off in early May with a special event in Los Angeles to commemorate the 75th anniversary of Union Station.
MAR will provide guided tours of select railroad passenger cars at its new facility. Visitors will get a sneak preview of the site, where the museum’s collection of vintage rolling stock and locomotives are on display on two tracks. The site will be open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Admission is $5 for adults and $2.50 for children ages 3-12. Visitors must purchase admission at the Frisco Heritage Museum (6455 Page St., Frisco, TX 75034), where additional exhibits and presentations will be featured as part of National Train Day.
Presentations will begin at the top of each hour between 10:00 a.m. and 3 p.m. at the nearby Frisco Heritage Museum. The presentations will give an overview of the museum. Guided tours of the site will begin every half hour, beginning at 10:30 a.m.
Visitors are responsible for providing their own transportation between the Frisco Heritage Museum and the Museum of the American Railroad site. Parking for the MAR site is available at the Frisco Discovery Center (8004 Dallas Parkway, Frisco, TX 75034). The MAR site entrance is adjacent to Discovery Center parking.
Other celebrations are scheduled throughout Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, Nebraska, Iowa, Colorado, Kansas, Illinois and Missouri.
In Grand Junction, CO, The Friends of the Grand Junction Depot will greet the California Zephyr’s east- and west-bound trains at 10:11 a.m. and 3:57 p.m., respectively. The group is actively trying to restore the depot, which was built in 1906 to serve the Rio Grande Railroad.
A structural feasibility study – spearheaded by the Friends of the Depot, the City of Grand Junction and Colorado Preservation, Inc. – was completed several years ago. The restoration project would connect the depot to Main Street and downtown through an improved set of street configurations, crosswalks, parking lots and streetscape improvements. Landscape architectural drawings have been prepared by a student at the University of Colorado that show how this could be accomplished.
The City of Longview, TX, will dedicate its 1940-built restored depot. The depot will be open free of charge to the public. Amtrak will have an exhibit train at the depot, and a model train exhibit will be on display.
The depot was built in 1940 to serve the East Texas Region. With eight passenger trains a day passing through Longview, the depot had three passenger platforms for passenger service.
Longview has a rich railroad history and is Amtrak’s fourth busiest station in Texas. Union Pacific operates a yard and crew change point in Longview, where freight trains pass through from Arkansas to the east, Fort Worth to the west and Houston to the south.
Elsewhere, the Tinplate Trackers of Austin, TX, will set up an O Gauge model train layout in the waiting room of the station in Austin. Elsewhere in Texas, celebrations are also planned at Fort Worth’s Intermodal Transportation Center, in San Antonio for the public and passengers to enjoy.
Also, the historic Santa Fe Depot located in Dodge City, KS, will be the site of a celebration from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. The Boot Hill Model Railroad Club will host a model train exhibit, and tours of the depot will be available.
