I just saw on TLEW.ORG that the Toledo Lake Erie & Western Railway and Museum members have purchased the Waterfront Electric Railway Museum property in Grand Rapids Ohio on Feb. 14th, 2014. Sounds like the TLE&W plans to build a 1st Class Museum using the former WER property as the Museums new home base. Click onto TLEW.ORG for all the details.

I wonder if this might signify an abandonment of the plan to rebuild their long bridge over the Grand River and keep the tourist train operation up to the bridge only. Not sure how long that run would be, but a short run is certainly a workable alternative.

Les

Absolutely not, the bridge is on the museums priority list of things to do on the line since it is the number one reason people come to ride the train. The TLE&W Railway and Museum plans to rebuild the line and run the passenger train all the way to their end of line with the NS owned trackage in Waterville from Grand Rapids at some point in the future. The new museum site just gives the museum a first time ever solid home base with work shops and very large car barn to better preserve the equipment and help to rebuild and advance the original rail line operation in coming years. With several new members some with experience along with new ideas and money to help make things happen, the future of the TLE&W looks very promising. We are all hoping for good things to keep on happening on the TLE&W in the future! They know it will not happen over night but the possibilities are endless if they keep a open mind and are not afraid to try new things to keep things happening in a positive way. Keep updated on TLEW.ORG for up coming events and happenings at the museum.

That is just unbelievably awesome news.

The property is at the very west end of the TLE&W track. The bridge and downtown Grand Rapids is 3/4 of a mile east of there.

To give you backstory, the Waterfront Electric Railway (Toledo Angola and Western) operated on the northwest side of Toledo on an old interurban track. The local college wanted to expand and wanted to make a bike path out of the right-of-way, so they either took the property by eminent domain, or made the museum an "offer they couldn't refuse". The compensation was to provide TA&W/WER with enough money to relocate and build improved facilities, but not enough to buy a railroad. They shopped high and low for a site and were in close talks with a number of existing area museums which did have track.

Finally they settled in at the west end of the Toledo Lake Erie & Western, obtained that bit of land on Saylor Lane, and built a shop, a substation building, laid out a wye and some tracks, and built a 3 track x 140 foot carbarn. Never finished the tracks - the switches are not built. There is not track inside the carbarn. I have no idea what the cars sat on. The curves are interurban-tight. I'm not sure what their plan was, my guess is they intended to either electrify the 3/4 mile into Grand Rapids proper, and meet the existing Bluebird train... or restore the 1/2 mile rail west from Saylor Lane.

However, for whatever reason, the TA&W/WER group lost their momentum and ceased to be viable. They had the sense to realize this, and did good succession planning. They gave their collection to the burgeoning Northern Ohio Railway Museum and helped fund a carbarn to house that collection.

When I visited the property in 2011, the carbarn was empty. I could not see inside the shop.

Then the property started getting behind on taxes a little, and was offered on the general market and sat there for at least a year. Lots of people could have used the property. But only one group could use the property well.

It even gives the TLE&W a wye, which they did not have before.

Congratulations!