The City of Hearne, Texas saved the Hearne Depot which once served the Southern Pacific and Missouri Pacific from demolition by the Union Pacific and have created a beautiful museum telling the railroad history of the area.

The will have the Grand Opening Celebration this April 9th, 2011 at the depot.
http://www.hearnetexas.info/HearneDepotApril9GrandOpening.pdf

The depot in Hearne is very unique in that it was neslted into the middle of the MP and SP lines where they crossed at an almost 45 degree angle and the highway. Named trains like the Texas Eagle and the Sunbeam / Hustler once stopped at the depot. In order to save they had move it accross the street away from the mainlines it once served next to what is left of the old cotton presses that were a major employer along with the railroads in the area. Hearne's last major employer is the GATX tank car facility.

On display along with the depot will be classic cars, live music, and the Tinplate Trackers of Austin, TX. The Tinplate Trackers is a modular 3 rail O scale club and we will run classic lionel trains along with modern made scale trains appropriate to the Hearne and Central Texas Area. Our website is http://www.trainweb.org/ttat

Hope to see ya'll there!

Ricky Dolifka

Rickey;

Congratulations on the successful and restoration of this unusual depot.



I take the compress building and it's steam compress are being torn down?

-James

Yes, the compress building and its steam compress are long gone. All that remains of it are the concrete walls and loading docks. The musuem wants to eventually buy that and make a train watching platform out of the rail loading docks and possibly an outdoor music venue from wall and truck loading docks.

I wonder if they could give us some tips on saving the East Brookfield depot...