The city of Dallas this week sued the museum to force them to leave the site they hve occupied for over 40 years. The museum announced they were moving to Frisco, Tx, a suburb, over two years ago while at the same time rejecting an offer from Dallas for improved facilities. Appartently the move isn't going all that easily and the city wants them out by 8/1/2010, which the museum was unwilling to accept. The museum has no lease and occupy the land as a tenant at will and has not paid any rent. While the city may take a PR hit they have a strong legal position. I'd say the moral of this story is don't make your landlord mad when they can basically evict you anytime they want
Tom Cox
Dallas, Texas

In response to the Dallas News article in today's paper, I sent the writer, Mr. Bush, the following information:

Mr. Bush,

After reading your article on the Age of Steam, I must tell of my experience with the Museum and the City in past occurrences.

In the early 1980's, I was employed by the City of Dallas in the Housing Department. I was known as a train/transit aficionado and knew several employees in the Transportation Department. One day, I received a call from the Assistant Director of the Parks Department asking if I would meet with him concerning the Age Of Steam Museum. We met in the cafeteria on the seventh floor of City Hall. He wished to discuss with me the idea of moving the Museum to another location. He then proceeded to lay out a plan to move the Museum to a lot directly south of Union Station with the idea that the Museum and Union Station would be co-attractions for each other.

After hearing the plan, I told him that, in my opinion, it would not work for the following reasons:
1. The Museum received free rent and utilities from Fair Park.
2. The largest attraction for visitors occurred during the Fair and produced the majority of the Museum's income.
3. The lot south of Union Station was not large enough to contain all the artifacts present at Fair Park.
4, The logistics of moving the equipment would be horrendous as the track connection to the Museum had been removed.
5. The weight of the locomotives would prohibit movement by truck as the "Big Boy" locomotive weighed about one million pounds and that was without it's tender.
6. Parking was provided by Fair Park at no cost to the visitors except at Fair time. Parking downtown was not available if the lot south of Union Station was utilized by the Museum. Was the Parks Department willing to supply the utilities and parking as was available at Fair Park? The Museum could not afford to supply all of the necessary parking and utilities needed within the current annual income.

After hearing me out, the Assistant Director decided that the move would not be feasible and that plan died. He did mention that an alternate plan was considered in moving the Museum to the east side of Fair Park along with the DAR/Daughters of Texas log cabin. Nothing came from that idea either.

It is not unusual for City Hall to create grand ideas that lack planning in all facets, and also in removal of anything "old." Mr. Leppert's comment is typical of the mentality of the City. There are many other opinions that may not be heard but have a just right to be heard. I, for one, believe Mr. Leppert is wrong and the Museum is a valuable educational unit for teaching our past without removal of all physical evidence except what is printed in books.

Harry Nicholls
214-941-9705

The mayor, Tom Leppert, has been spouting off about the need to improve the schools and the children's education. Yet, as most of the leaders in Dallas, past and present, are quick to destroy anything that has History as it's background, going so far as to a partial destruction of a downtown building when the preservationists objected to the removal for another skyscraper. Today, the downtown has many vacant buildings, including major office, and a hotel. Mr Leppert has forgotten about history as a valid educational tool.

Divorce is never easy, Dallas has now advised the museum they will need to start utility service in their own name, the city had been paying the museum's utilities. Last Saturday they had a dinner in the diner event and it was visited by code enforcement. Result one citiation for improperly handling foood and wine service stopped.
Tom

It's sad Age Of Steam is getting the boot from the City Of Dallas. I hope UP & BNSF can help from move their bigger pieces to their new home. -_-

A little revisionist history here. The museum played Dallas and Frisco against each other and got a great deal from Frisco. Fair enough. Once you accepted the offer you really needed to have a plan in place and a SERIOUS fund raising plan to make a move like this (a jar at the door for the move doesn't qualify). While the City of Dallas is doing some petty stuff the museum had to expect their relationship would deteriorate once they announced the move. They remind me of the hapless New Jersey Nets, who announced they are moving to Brooklyn and are now complaining how they are being treated by the Izod arena the place they are vacating.

Recent story posted on this situation:

http://blogs.dallasobserver.com/unfairp ... r_temp.php

Has anyone heard any news about the goings on with the "Age of Steam" and the more to Frisco Texas?

I have seen the Grand park vision that is to be built in Frisco, its one expensive looking proposition and I'm just wondering how that has been effected, or halted, in the wake of the current economic troubled times.

The real moral of this story should be "If it ain't spelled out clearly in a legal and binding written agreement, then it ain't legal and binding." Both MAR and Dallas screwed up by not securing such an agreement, and MAR compounded the problem by stating that it was moving out and not having the funds in place to do so. Both parties share the blame for this mess.

Loco112: There are links to some recent posts in the "Related Content" section. Looks like the city's going forward with the lawsuit, although one of the museum's lawyers said that a "tentative deal" was in place; guess that wasn't true at all (big surprise there).