progress: COMMUNITY
C3
CHARLES CITY PRESS | WWW.CHARLESCITYPRESS.COM | FRIDAY, MARCH 21, 2025
American Passenger Train History Museum project continues to chug along Depot renovation slowed by inflation, construction costs
By Andrew Larson alarson@charlescitypress.com All aboard for a fi rst class trip back to a time when trains were (arguably) the classiest way to travel, if not the fastest. The American Passen- ger Train History Museum in Charles City will offer that opportunity and more when it eventually opens. The goal of the museum, lo- cated at 1010 N. Grand Ave., is to refurbish the Milwaukee Road depot in order to make it a gateway leading visitors to fi ve to seven samples of famous passenger trains that they will be able to board, walk through and get a taste of what it was like to ride them back in their heyday.
“The idea will be people will come into the main depot, and look at some displays, buy their tickets for the museum and come into the baggage room which will be a theater and they can watch a movie about the trains they are about to walk out and see and walk through,” said Bob Moen, pres- ident of the American Passen- ger Train History Museum. “We’ll show different fi lms here. There is a fi lm we have in mind that talks about passenger trains and we’re going to try to use a shortened version of that, that just explains the history of passenger trains in the United States and stuff like that,” said Moen. The baggage room will also
Press photo by Andrew Larson American Passenger Train History Museum President Bob Moen shows off the restored interior of a Milwaukee Road passenger car, complete with period appropriate luggage in the overhead area.
be available for guest speakers, lectures and other programs, he said. “You can have meetings in any of these three rooms in the evenings and other times. It will also be available for wed- ding rentals eventually,” Moen said. The museum itself will be trains with historic cars like people would have seen or ridden in during the 1950s or 1960s, all fully restored and brought back to their former glory. “We have sleeping cars, din- ing cars, lounge cars, coaches and dome cars,” Moen said. “When we’re done we’re going to have three trains sitting here that will be about a fi ve-, six-, seven-car sample of what once was a 15-car train. And you’ll be able to see what it was like, and walk through it and sit in it and kids can play with things.” The cars were built from 1940 to 1955 or so, and they operated in the 1940s, ’50s, ’60s and into the ’70s, Moen said. “Some of these cars were in the Amtrak service in the early days of Amtrak.” Trains that will be on display include a Milwaukee Road Hiawatha, a Great Northern Empire Builder, as well as cars from Burlington Zephyrs, Rock Island Rockets and Santa Fe Chiefs. “We’ve been assembling pas- senger cars from three famous trains. We have a silver train,
which could be a Burlington Zephyr, it could be a Rock Is- land Rocket, it can be a Santa Fe Chief,” said Moen. “With the silver train we’re going to be able to display each year a different train. By changing the lounge cars, changing the con fi guration of the train we can give you an idea what that train was like. The silver trains were built by the Budd Company and so they’re pretty similar and they’re all stainless steel con- struction.” The museum’s collection of historic cars isn’t complete, but a few additions are currently on the way. One car represents the transition of the passenger train into a more modern era, and another one is on the op- posite end of the spectrum that predates everything else in the museum. “We have a two-level car that’s going to be coming that shows the transition from the single level cars to two-level cars that Amtrak now uses,” said Moen. “We have recently been do- nated to us a wooden coach built in 1883, which is a hun- dred-and-40-something years old and it was fully restored. The owner came here, saw what we’re doing and he decid- ed he wanted us to have this car because he’s up in years and he thought this would be a good home for it,” Moen said. “We’re hoping to get that car this spring, yet. It’s all original
Honoring the Past,
Press photo by Andrew Larson What used to be the luggage area of the Milwaukee Road depot will eventually be converted into a public restroom for the Char- ley Western Trail.
Progressing for the Future
on the inside. You get in the car and it’s got pot-bellied stoves in the corner and velvet seats from that era. You sit there and swear that Abraham Lincoln is going to come out of the bathroom any minute with his stovepipe hat. It’s that old.” That car will be stored in- doors to protect it from the elements, but the museum will bring it out for special events, Moen said. Another addition to the mu- seum will be more accessible than some other cars, he said. “We’ve also got an Illinois Central Diner Lounge that’s coming. That car has wide doors, which we fi gure we’re going to make that our hand- icap-accessible car, so some- body with a wheelchair can get into one car, because these cars
are too narrow. We can’t adjust the doors,” said Moen. “We found this one car that had holes cut in the side of it for a restaurant that we got, this Illinois Central diner, and we decided that it would be a great car for handicap accessibility so that a person in a wheelchair could get in that car and at least be in one of them. We’d love to get them in all the cars, but the hallways are like 27 inches wide and it just doesn’t work that way.” The museum is a project that could be said to be 30 years in the making, and started with a group of guys who loved trains when they were young, got together and decided to share their passion with the commu- nity.
Museum is open Memorial Day through Labor Day Or by appointments 641-228-3336 clccatt@gmail.com Monday-Saturday 10-4 Sunday 12-4 M se m is open Memorial Da
Annual Brick Dedication – 3rd Saturday in August
National 19th Amendment Society Only museum west of the Mississippi devoted to women’s suffrage www.catt.org Museum and Interpretive Center 2379 Timber Avenue, Charles City, Iowa
Timothy S. Fox, 033&('(')33&('('3&KLHI([HFXWLYH2IÀFHU &KDUOHV&LW\$UHD'HYHORSPHQW&RUSRUDWLRQ 1RUWK0DLQ6WUHHW &KDUOHV&LW\,RZD
Follow us on Facebook to stay in the know on area growth!
Made with FlippingBook Ebook Creator