Galveston Railroad Museum Train Show, October 6 - 7, 2012

For the first time in many years, we were invited to set up our layout at the Galveston Railroad Museum. This event's purpose was to re-invite the general audience to the museum now that it has been restored after the damage sustained from Hurricane Ike (September 2008).

We were set up outside the building, however, it was a covered area. On Saturday it was quite warm at 83F and we were in direct sunshine. This photo, however, was taken on Sunday morning when a cold front had moved in overnight, with a temperature of 60F and 30mph gusts of wind. We had taken the skirting down because it was just being ripped by the wind.

The layout's trees were barely hanging in there. We only set up a couple of the low-profile structures on the layout, because the larger ones were just being blown over. Jerry is trying out various structures on the other side to see if they will stand up to the scale hurricane-force winds. He eventually succeeded later on in the day when the wind died down a bit.

As you can see in this photo, our freight yard (left side) is completely empty. Earlier in the morning Bob had put two of his box cars in the yard. One rolled down the spur you see in the foreground and fouled the main line. Minutes later, the other box car was literally blown off of the layout and fell to the ground. A handful of parts broke off the car; nothing that a little time on the RIP track won't fix. We had to take our flexible, curved backdrops down due to the heavy winds.

Peter (left) and Bob appear to be having a great time! Turn-out was fairly good on Saturday. On Sunday the early turn-out was virtually non-existent due to church and the cold weather. However, during lunch time the sun started coming out and warming things back up. We saw a decent turn-out in the afternoon.

Several times throughout both days, the museum was offering train rides in a caboose pulled by a GE 80-tonner. The switcher was built by GE in 1952, and is ex-U.S. Air Force #1673.

Both diesel and steam engines are on display in the museum's yard. This photo is of the H20-44 switcher built by Fairbanks-Morse in 1954. The engine was never owned by the Union Pacific (it is actually ex-SWPT #410, ex-ACY #505, ex N&W RR), but was so painted due to the UP's presence in the Galveston area.

Both restored...

...and unrestored equipment is available for viewing. Restored passenger cars can be walked through, and some unrestored ones are available as well.