(rshsdepot) Temple, Texas

["James Dent" <james.dent_@_itochu.com>]

-From Railway Preservation News...

Temple Railroad & Heritage Museum and Santa Fe No. 3423

(Previously) RyPN reported on the restoration of the large Gulf, Colorado &
Santa Fe (a subsidiary of the AT&SF) Depot in Temple, Texas, and the
movement of the Railroad & Heritage Museum (formerly the Railroad & Pioneer
Museum) to that location,....  At that time, the restoration of the Depot
was under way, and the R&HM was just beginning the process of moving their
equipment from their long time site at the corner of 31st and Avenue H.
Also located at the previous site was the small, wooden GC&SF Moody Depot,
itself transplanted years ago.

Since then, Mary Irving, Director of the R&HM has a great deal of progress
to report.  A dedication ceremony for the restored depot, Amtrak station,
and soon to be museum was held on  July 8, 2000.  The building was then
re-closed to allow for construction of the new museum exhibit galleries,
which opened on August 26, 2000, just in time for the Texas Train Festival.
Relocation of the museum's rolling stock also began in August.  Among the
equipment to be moved was former Santa Fe 4-6-2 (Pacific) No. 3423.

Historic locomotive No. 3423 was given to the City of Temple by the ATSF
Railway in 1955, and has rested at the 31st and Avenue H site since that
time.  Relocation of the locomotive was the most difficult task, and it was
the last to be moved on September 20, 2000.  Previously, A & D Housemovers
of Georgetown, Texas had moved the tender and all of the other rail
equipment to the new site.  The locomotive was escorted by the Temple
Police, Street, Signal and Parks & Leisure Services departments on the
route:  east on Avenue H to 1st Street, then north on 1st to Avenue A, west
on Avenue A to 9th Street and south on 9th into the depot parking lot.  The
trip took a little over 3 hours, with many Temple residents watching this
odd sight as the train traveled down city streets.

All of the museum's artifacts are now at the new location except for the
Moody GCSF Depot itself. It will be moved within the next few weeks to the
parking lot adjacent (west) to the large depot. A house moving company will
cut the structure in half for the move, and reassemble it onsite.

(Hume Kading via Mary Irving)

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