Work in Progress
12/20/01
It's about two years since our big move into the Union Pacific "crew building" and much has happened. Most of the interior damage from the bad roof is repaired.
The museum section has grown handsomely with donations from local folks and merchants. Recently, the Wells Fargo Bank donated all of the interior railroad motif decor from a closed branch. This includes a 44 foot mural depicting an old time station with a mixed freight & passenger train. This is sure going to look nice on that big blank 60 foot wall on our South end. The donation included old RR artifacts such as stamps and postcards, one cancelled on RPO train #9 in 1910 and artistic maps of the railroads progress Westward.
The The circa 1920 Pocatello roundhouse replica is progressing well.
In addition to the HO modular railroad, an "intense" N-guage layout
is under construction in a former storeroom. A G-guage layout is using
about six by 50 feet of space on the West wall of the main layout room.
10/29/00
It's nearly a year later since the big move into the Union Pacific "crew" building No.59. In cooperation with the UP we have repaired the roof and now the snowmelt and rainwater stays on the outside. The interior damage is only partially repaired. The UP continues to use one quarter of the building for training purposes and we have allocated another quarter for a collection and display of Railroad artifacts. We have cleaned and painted it, and thanks to a generous donation from Wall-2-Wall Carpet, the museum area is fully carpeted. We recently found a bargain on ten glass display cabinets from a retailer closing shop in the Mall and the members have populated some of them with private collections. The once bare walls are adorned with photos from the Aurthur Petersen collection. We expect to appeal to the local public for more artifacts soon. The seventy plus HO scale modules from the razed Pocatello Mall were set up in a new configuration in the remaining half of the building. Our first major effort to depict bits of Pocatello's Railroad History on the layout starts with the very large roundhouse that had up to 53 stalls in 1929. The benchwork is in place and the design nearly firm for a replica circa 1914 when it was a somewhat smaller and more reasonable to model. Members have been doing historical research down to the details of the brick and mortor work and the rivets in the turntable. Only the 100 foot turntable remains today, in service to move track maintenance equipment. Recently we have found a few sandstone blocks that were foundation piers for the long gone roundhouse and that confirms some dimensions. Another project in the conceptual stage is the Ramsey transfer that was used to exchange Utah & Northern narrow gauge trucks to the Oregon Short Line standard gauge trucks prior to 1887 when the U&N was converted to standard gauge. There is so much railroad history in our community, that once claimed the largest and most complete railroad hub in the West, we have a challenge deciding just what we can model that will serve our patrons best.
Our historical research is made much easier and enjoyable thanks to local historians:
Thornton Waite, author of Union Pacific: Montana Division, ISBN-9657729-1-8
Paul Karl Link & E. Chilton Phoenix authors of Rocks, Rails & Trails.
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