Thank you all for the interest in the railroad collection at Stuhr Museum. Here is a summary of what we are planning to do that a few of you have requested. I hope it answers some questions and dispells the fears.
First and foremost our decisions and plans are based on our mission statement: “to preserve and portray the inspiring era of the pioneer town builders who created the first communities in Nebraska.” Our primary focus is town building and we talk about the development by interpreting representative communities on our grounds. We currently have a Pawnee earth-lodge, an 1860’s road ranch, a paper town, an 1890’s farmstead and two 1890’s townships, one served by the railroad and one that isn’t. We are not a railroad museum by our mission statement; however, the railroad did play an important roll in the later developments.
Our primary focus for the next 2-3 years will be developing the railroad environment in Railroad Town; our 1890’s railroad based community. Previous research has found that most successful prairie towns had three basic elements: an elevator, a lumberyard, and the railroad. There was even a formula to determine the size elevator a town needed based on the amount of cultivated land that surrounded it. Our town has the railroad but no lumberyard or elevator. We do have a flourmill, which were located sporadically across the plains.
Looking at the plat maps of communities in Hall and surrounding counties we began to develop a list of railroad features that these communities contained. They are; a depot, a passing siding, and a house track, stock pens, a section house, and possibly a water tank. In most towns the elevators and lumberyards were located on either the siding or house track, but in some towns they were on spur tracks, adding to the trackage.
We are beginning the process of using this information to redesign the railroad exhibit in town using the narrow gauge equipment for rolling stock. Our first step is having the area surveyed topographically so we know what space we have to work with. Explaining the choice to use the narrow gauge equipment for interpretation can be a simple or complicated choice depending on your stance. The most obvious reason is that we have it and should do something with it, but the common retort is that narrow gauge was not widely used in Nebraska or any of the plains states. The driving fact that supports the choice is that the narrow gauge equipment does represent the timeframe and it also fits the size of our exhibits. The area available for the railroad is too small to allow any additional development using standard gauge trackage, the town is simply too short. The sharper turning radius and shorter switch leads of narrow gauge allow us to make the most of the space.
The question of an operating railroad exhibit is currently outside the scope of our plans. It is our hope that we will be able to properly address the question of an operating train at Stuhr Museum. There is no aspect of the railroad: locomotive, cars, track, or support structure that is in safe operating condition. The project is, as a whole, larger than we are able consider given other museum and community priorities. The goal of our current plans is to lay the foundation that could support an operating railroad in the future.
We are working with our architects to renovate our existing enginehouse into a restoration carshop. Once that shop is completed we will begin restoration of the narrow gauge equipment to operable condition for display and interpretive use in Railroad Town. Three pieces of standard gauge equipment will be restored and moved outside of Railroad Town to a new accessible display area. The remaining pieces will be deaccessed and removed from town. The most important project will be developing the railroad section of the museums interpretive plan, tying the railroad back to the museums mission statement.
Which is really why we're here.
Paul
