NNG Pueblo Museum to get DOT equipment

The Pueblo Railway Museum will receive three pieces of Department of Transportation equipment that was once used on the test track east of town. Paperwork will be handed over by the end of the month with the vehicles being transported by house movers in the spring to a site near Pueblo Union Depot.
The pieces of equipment were linear induction motor testbeds and were tested during the ``Star Trek'' era at the center in which futuristic concepts were tried. Now the Association of American Railroads operate the test track.
Two pieces of equipment now are housed at the Fred E. Weisbrod Aircraft Museum at Pueblo Memorial Airport. That museum was originally conceived as a transportation museum but quickly found its niche as an aircraft museum. A WWII B29 bomber and a B47 six-engine jet bomber that was never used in warfare.
Since the DOT pieces did not fit into the Weisbord Museum's operational theme they had to go. The Pueblo Locomotive and Rail Historical Society, the original Santa Fe Northern 2912 restoration group started talks to acquire the testbeds and when that organization foundered in 2004 the Pueblo Railway Foundation took over the efforts to acquire the exhibits.