Orange Empire Railway Museum Carhouse Seven Construction Update

This rendering of the new building provides a glimpse of what the overall site will look like upon completion of the project. The new carhouse will be the anchor of the planned Railcar Preservation Complex, accompanied by additional outdoor storage tracks and ultimately a new locomotive service facility just out of view to the left. Rendering by Lynn Architectural Illustrators.

Construction is currently underway on a major new facility at Orange Empire Railway Museum (OERM). The new six track, 64,000 square foot building will double the amount of indoor storage space available for the Museum’s historic collection.

OERM’s 88-acre site is broadly divided into both a public area (comprising approximately 47 acres), and a large “support” area that is not open to the public (within which Carhouse Seven is located). Due to its location (and good drainage) the carhouse site had become one of the primary outdoor storage areas. This view, taken in February 2004, gives some sense of the amount of materials that needed to be relocated.  All photos by by OERM staff.

OERM has assembled a nationally recognized collection of historic railway equipment from throughout the Western United States, with special emphasis on the railroads that helped build Los Angeles and Southern California: the Los Angeles Railway, Pacific Electric, Santa Fe, Southern Pacific and Union Pacific. The Museum’s Permanent Collection is comprised of 170 cars and locomotives, and another 60 railcars are on the property as part of the Support Collection.

In this June 2004 view, clearing of the building site is well along. Acquisition of adjacent property in 2003 provided room for many of the parts that needed to be moved. The new property also allowed enough room for the setbacks (or clear “side yards”) required by the building code for a building of this size. A large scale cleanup effort during the summer also saw the scrapping of a great quantity of accumulated non-essential materials. The timely donation of about twenty storage containers also provided an indoor home for many of the relocated parts.

Although the Museum already has five carhouses and other major facilities, only 40% of the collection currently has an indoor home. With almost fifty years gone by since the Museum’s founding in 1956, the deterioration caused by outdoor storage is now reaching a critical point for many of the irreplaceable railcars and locomotives. The Museum has come to the realization that there are simply not enough resources available to continually work on tarps, roof repairs and conservation paint jobs for over 100 pieces of equipment stored outdoors.

Late April 2005, one year after the project groundbreaking, construction begins on the building footings. Earlier in 2005, grading of the site had been completed and the majority of the needed waterline improvements were completed by a contractor. You can, in fact, make out two of the bright yellow fire hydrants at the right side of the photo. Additional waterline work remains, and may be tackled by Museum volunteers depending on workload with other projects.

Construction of the building, along with the track and related roadway, drainage and utility improvements is budgeted at one million dollars. The building itself, complete with sprinklers, makes up about $630,000 of that cost. Costs to extend the Museum’s underground waterline to the building site and provide the requisite number of hydrants added another $130,000, while permits and fees related to obtaining the building permit tallied up to $71,000. Costs for civil engineering, building electrical, construction of the required trackage for the yard and within the building itself, and the costs of related projects such as paving a portion of the Museum’s main parking lot (a condition of approval for the project from the City), are anticipated to bring the costs up to the one million dollar mark by the time the cars are resting inside.

The first concrete pour on 5/6/05.

Museum member Paul Dieges (R) accompanies six of OERM's founding members on an inspection tour of the newly poured foundation. Shown L to R are Ray Ballash, Bill Bauer, Don Brown, Harvey Laner Pat Underwood and Jim Walker.

Prior to the commencement of the project in April of 2004, $600,000 had been set aside by the Board of Directors from a combination of sources. Several bequests were earmarked for the project, including over $200,000 from the estate of Mercedes Glenn. Several significant “seed money” donations had also been received, including one from longtime Museum benefactors Ward and Betty Kimball. Augmenting these gracious gifts was the sale of several pieces of railway rolling stock that were either duplicates or outside of the Museum’s mission statement (three San Francisco streetcars returned there in 2003 and British Columbia Electric Railway interurban car 1225 will be heading back to home rails this summer, see the Brief on July 3, 2004). The rolling stock sales, when completed will provide $289,000 towards the project.

Looking north on 5/22/05 along the center column line. Note the forms ready for the final concrete pour.

The Museum’s goal is to raise the remaining $400,000 by the end of 2006. As of the end of April 2005, donations and pledges total $93,576. With the campaign approximately one-fifth complete, over 23% of the goal has been graciously donated or offered.

Looking west on 5/22/05 from the northeast corner. The Grizzly Flats enginehouse is visible in the distant background.

Additional information on the project is available on the “Cover the Cars” page of the OERM website, which includes regular updates on the project’s progress.

(John Smatlak)