New project at the depot

As I've ementioned before, I volunteer at, and serve on the board of, the local rail museum. We are located in the old Kansas City, Mexico, and Orient/Santa Fe depot, which was built in 1909, and have a small museum, gift shop, static display of real equipment, and several model railroad displays.

In the late 1980s a gentleman in Coleman, Texas, who was building a large N Scale layout in his home, decided to move to Argentina. So his layout was crated up, along with all of his building kits, rolling stock, magazines, and modeling tools, and put on a ship to Argentina. I'm not sure if he ever got to Argentina or not, but I do know that at some point he died.

The layout remained in it's crate for the next 20 years, and did travel, by ship, to Argentina and back. A month or so ago, as his will stipulated, it arrived at the San Angelo Santa Fe Depot, and the crate was finally opened. What we found was an unfinished N scale model railroad, about 4X16 feet and cut in half, that was actually in pretty good condition! There were also all the other things mentioned, and it was a bit like going back in time 20 years to look at the old magazines and catalogs, as well as the prices on the kit boxes.

We have set the layout up in one of the upstairs rooms of the depot, and have started small repairs in hopes of getting some of the track working. We were concerned about where the depot was going to come up with the money, and had actually discussed shutting the door to the room for a couple of years, until we had the necessary funds.

Then we got a call from the family. They said that they were interested in seeing the layout finished as a memorial to their father who had started it and who had enjoyed it so much. They expressed a desire to donate a substantial amount of money to the project, and have just done so.

There is a blog, devoted to this layout, which doesn't have much yet, but you may want to check back once in a while to see how the project is coming along. I'll also post any significant developments here.