Big news from Texas--the Museum of the AMerican Railroad (former Age of Steam Museum) in Fair Park in Dallas is poised to relocate:

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/040308dnmettrainmuseum.25281630.html

Personal opinion--this is a group that really seems committed to evolving into a top-quality, 21st-century railroad museum. I was very impressed with the quality of their passenger car and diesel restorations when I visited duing ARM in 2001--all the more given the inadequacy of their site and physical plant.

They have put a lot of effort into carefully planning for their future

http://www.dallasrailwaymuseum.com/for%20web/visions2006.htm

It is exciting to see some of those plans start to come to fruition.

They recently had a management shake-up, after some of the best and most committed volunteers found they could not work with some of the management. Hopefully, those volunteers will be called back, or find it in their hearts to return, to help restore the collection.

Interesting story - that Dallas appears to somewhat indifferent to the loss.
I've never seen the musuem. I must say the series of 20 photos at the posted link are second so everything - in other words, after seeing the 20 photos by the staff reporter, I still have no clue as to what the park looks like or what it contains, other then a Big Boy. Fortunately there are other places to get a view.

Thanks for posting - I'll certainly support the museum and the city of Frisco when I'm out that way, give or take a hundred or so miles.

/Mitch

Not trying to dig up a dead horse and break out the Louisville Sluggers, but isn't this the museum that had the UP Big Boy that the film company was going to 'restore' for a movie but nothing ever came of it?

The same. A wonderful collection, including a nice variety of western Diesels, a Frisco 4-8-4, the aforementioned Big Boy (4018), and (of all things) one of the GG1's that pulled Senator Robert Kennedy's funeral train. The Museum also boasts nicely restored passenger cars. It's a treat to walk through.

I recall seeing reports that the old Age of Steam museum was located in an area infested with "winos and weirdos"--not the sort of place one would feel comfortable leaving one's car parked or visiting with a family group. Is this story undeserved "bad press" or will the new location be a major improvement in visitor safety?

Gee that description kinda sounds like Sacramento. I mean they even "camp out" on the I St. Bridge. We almost hit someone every trip. Probably is like the places a lot of museums find themselves, unfortunatly. SCC

I'd take that report with a truckload of salt.

The current site is cramped, unusual, and less than ideal, but not unsafe.

It's in Fair Park in Dallas, a large complex of historic buildings built for the 1936 Texas Centennial. The park is also home to three or four other museums, several in brand-new purpose-built buildings.

The problem is that the museum is on a set of yard-style tracks wedged in on the back side of the park's main axis, looking on the backs of the other buildings, surrounded by a chain link fence. It's cramped, its off the beaten path from the rest of the park, and it has no visitor's center or museum building or restoration building or covered storage--you are basically talking about a large collection of very significant cars on yard tracks. But beyond those very real problems, it is not unsecure or unsafe.

Erik, in this case I will have to say you are wrong. My wife and I arrived by cab around 2pm and spent until 5pm wandering about the AOS museum. We were unable to call another cab and wandered out to the street to try and hail one. Suffering catfish! It was like watching the zombies rise from their grave! For about a half-hour we stood riveted while groups of indigents collected and gave us the "once over". We even watched some of them getting a "fix" in a nearby parking lot. Finally, a volunteer from the museum drove back to us and offered us a ride to "a better location". In fact, he took us directly to our hotel.
I don't mind saying, I was terrified, and I have no idea what I'd have done had it gotten dark and we were stranded.

Having never been there, I wonder if some of the problems of the site could have been solved with better design. Maybe not the poverty of the adjacent neighborhood, which is a common problem with urban locations, but the relationship with the rest of Fair Park. It is hard to imagine that there would not be terrific advantages with being co-located with a number of recently built museums. I know very little about their situation, but I wonder what could have been done to both improve the presentation of their facility and increase their visibility within the fairgrounds. The synergistic potential of being located at someplace like Fair Park seems hard to want to walk away from.

Cultural facilities in urban settings generally benefit from their relative adjacency to other attractions, and their accessibility via transit. The big trade offs are that land costs are high, and there is often no room to grow. It is also usually difficult to offer a scenic interpretive train ride in these locations. Off the top of my head, the only other rail museums in urban locations that I can think of CSRM in Sacramento, and the B&O in Baltimore.

I wish them luck in raising funds for a new facility.

Wouldn't be the first or last time, I'm sure.

I don't doubt your experience at all, its just that mine was very different. Time of year? Time of day? Who knows. Maybe its the difference between appraoching it from within Fair Park and leaving the same way, vs. pressing on into the adjacent neighborhood.

The Fair Park area of Dallas leaves a lot to be desired. It is not uncommon to hear gun shots during daylight hours. With that said, it is an area of an attempt at revitalization.

I would say that inside the Fair Park complex, you are probably ok. It is gated and fenced, but admittedly it is in East Dallas and I would not venture outside the grounds in certain directions on foot.

I wasn't around when the museum site was created, but it is my understanding that they started with a donated T&P 600 class loco. Basically it was a siding that grew into a railroad museum.

Apparently the current location is a moot point since they are now moving to a better place. They will probably get a lot of support from their new suburban city sponsors with lots of sales tax dollars to spend. Eventuallly, Frisco will probably be on the greater Dallas transit system as the system is expanded. There is plenty of real estate for them to lay down a first class museum and they will probably wonder why they fought so long and hard to stay at their current location.

The only negative feelings I have about the relocation of a museum that has been so long treated like a red-headed step child is that I am not keen on seeing the original Dallas Union Terminal switch engine, "7 spot" moved out of Dallas County. It would be my opinion that any assets or resources that belong to the people of the City of Dallas/Dallas County should be left in Dallas. Also, moving the Dallas H&TC freight house to Frisco would be an abomination in my eyes.

The question arises of whether the Fair Park site will be completely abandonded or if it will become a satellite location for the MAR. They moved an interlocking tower to the site and I just can't see this item being moved to Frisco anytime soon. Seems some details remain to be filled in. Other than my minor objections, I heartily wish the MAR a prosperous and enjoyable move to their new location where the city actually cares.

How about Gold Coast in Miami, in a big park next to the Miami-Dade County Zoo, both on a former airship base? I'm poised to find out next month how "urban" the Arizona Ry. Museum is in its new location......

I think you mean SUBURBAN sprawl. You are right about this being an issue though. formerly rural museums are increasingly finding themselves surrounded by tract homes. In some ways this could be good, in that you now have a nearby public from which to draw visitors, but in many other ways it is very bad. Not the least of which, is that a rail ride through fields and orchards is nice, but one past backyards is not. CSRM is somewhat fortunate that their 3 mile ride is along a river levee. They had wanted to expand to the south to a really beautiful area in the Sacramento River Delta, but to get there, they would have to traverse about 5 miles of suburban sprawl. I am not sure what stopped their planned extension, but a slow ride past the backyards of a bunch of NIMBYs could not have helped matters.

I believe the Western Railway Museum is involved in trying to preserve some of the open space along their rail line to ensure that they are not hemmed in by acres of ticky-tacky boxes of stucco. Herds of sheep and fields of crops are much nicer to look at.