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Tom Cox

City Hall

Train Museum Was to Roll Out of Fair Park By Saturday. That Won't Happen. Now What?


By Robert WilonskyWed., Dec. 28 2011 at 4:31 PM

Comments (20)

Categories: City Hall


museum began breaking down the depot for its move to Frisco last month.

​Just checked the calendar and noticed: The Museum of the American Railroad should be rolled outta Fair Park by ... well, by Saturday, would you look at that. Except, no: Two years after the city sued the train museum, telling it to chugga-chugga thee to those new digs in Frisco or a temporary holding spot so it could free up land for the State Fair of Texas, the trains still sit on city property. The museum closed up shop in mid-November in anticipation of its move, but that's more or less the extent of it doings -- save for a release a few days ago concerning a $20,000 donation from Richard and Alice Bass for the Frisco digs.

Messages have been left for Museum of the American Railroad President and CEO Bob LaPrelle, who's now got a Frisco phone number; attorney William Brotherton, who repped the museum in its legal wranglings with City Hall, is out of town till tomorrow. But First Assistant City Attorney Chris Bowers says the city's been told the museum has run into some "unexpected problems" and has asked the city for more time.

Which it can do: The settlement agreement between the city and museum, which was not included in public court filings, allows for an extension -- but with penalties.

As in, starting January 1, the museum will have to pay the city $100 for every day the trains stay on the property. But that deal is only good through January 31, 2013. Says the agreement, "In the event that MAR occupies the Subject Property [Fair Park] past January 31, 2012, because of the existence of a force majeure on either the subject property or the Temporary Location, MAR shall pay the City $250.00 per day."

The agreement says the museum has to have "all of the collection" removed from Fair Park by the December 31 move-out date.

There are provisions in the lengthy settlement that would essentially turn over the collection to the city of Dallas if it appears a year from now that the museum has no intention of moving the trains. But that's a long way down the track -- and the museum's website continues to promise that tracks will be installed by "early 2012" to begin moving the collection to Frisco. All Bowers will say on the subject is: "We expect compliance with the agreement." I will post a copy of the settlement here as soon as I get it scanned

I'd wager they're having some difficulty getting a switch cut in to live rail so they can move. From what I've read on the move, it looks as if that's the only thing they're waiting for.

Yeah as long as you think moving stuff where no lubrication of running gear has been done for decades nor any work on any brake systems has been done for just as long it should just go swimmingly well.

I didn't think of that... My appologies for my shortsightedness.

That's the big question because the move was announced at least 3 years ago and they have been in Court for the last 2 years. Now, the site in Frisco required more grading than expected, I live close to Fair Park and can check on how work is going at Fair Park, but Frisco is over 25 miles away, more than that by rail, I do not believe any track has been laid. One would think with 3 years they would have had a better plan.
Tom

These locomotive are all well lubed. I know the men involved in there care until recently. Leave that thought at the door for right now. BNSF is picking up the expenses on the rail end. The problem is the museum director is as greasy as a journal box, and he will say anything to get his way. The City of Frisco isn't going to like him a great deal. The other factor is the new museum site is a sea of mud at the moment.

Google Maps and street view say they have 1 mile of active, installed railroad out to the Class I's. There is a concrete block across the tracks next to a tower near the live rail. From the look of it, it looks like a former mainline. When they located there, they were adjacent to a main line. It appears to have been cut 20+ years ago, and they left in the last 1 mile to, past and parallel to the museum, up to an obvious road crossing. This track would be an excellent place to dock a long passenger train going to the State Fair, say, for the Cotton Bowl games. On Google Street View the track parallel to the museum is occupied by blue-colored TTX flats (circus train)? which is rather odd because both street view and sat view agree there's a large concrete block set on the tracks near the switch to live rail.

I can only find Form 990's up to 2009. It paints a picture roughly like this, and the numbers vary by about 50% year by year. Revenue about 250k. expenses about 250k. 100k/year on Thomas (dear God I hope that's net of costs) and about $50k on the museum at the park. They expend $150/year operating that museum, about $100k of that is salaries.

Ah, the 2007 Form 990 shows "Special events and activities: gross revenue 770k, direct expenses 592k" so yeah that sounds like some sort of expense-heavy special event like Thomas.

Their paper value is about $1 million, mostly equipment, and they seem to have a LOT of cash for a railroad museum - $300k, though in 2009, savings took about a $125k hit from something designated "Fees and Services - Other". It was not in the "Legal" column - and it was not an investment loss ($125k loss would be understandable on a $300k investment in 2009). Google earth's historic sat photo data suggest the equipment population declined noticeably around then, so these may have been moving costs.

On 12/31/01 there were 26 pieces on site comprising 1870 track feet.
On 3/31/11 there were 21 pieces on the site comprising 1550 track feet.

I would imagine they're going to do one big hospital move rather than moving many cars individually. They have materials on hand and a prime contractor.
http://www.museumoftheamericanrailroad. ... fault.aspx

Things could still go wrong but I think it's too soon to compare them with Pemberton. The only thing that worries me is the site -- just from the overheads it seems awful near a creek. On the other hand creeks are usually better neighbors than neighbors.

The Museum of the American Railroad has a live connection with the DGNO and UP, I believe. Either that, or DGNO and BNSF, I can't remember which. The cement block previously mentioned had been removed as of a couple of years ago, and I don't remember hearing anything about the city of Dallas putting it back.



You have no idea. I worked with him firsthand for several years as a volunteer there. He's definitely a snake.

The comment made about the museum's director in these posts are a clear violation of the board's guidelines.

Personal attacks are not allowed.

The tread is locked.

Randy