Ok so maybe buy one or two but to buy a train of 10 former (Metra) IC-Highliners for a Texas railroad museum, does not make sense to me.
https://www.historictrains.org/news/blog-post-title-one-d5g96
EDIT: It was not a quick way to get a modern consist for fantrip rides, with electrical wiring, HVAC, cab control, etc. included, cheaply, as I had thought. RyPN mentioned the acquisition around the time they bought the cars, but the link mentioned there is dead. There have been attempts to adapt Chicago ‘bilevel’ gallery cars to excursion service, iirc.
Recently, several of the ex-Constitution Liners (which started life as SPV2000s) were made for what is now a North Pole Express-type operation – these were Amfleet-level stainless cars for something like $250 each, not really needing that much fixing up to be serviceable.
Note also the name of the museum: Museum of the American Railroad, that obviously means they aren’t just a museum about railroading in Texas, they just happen to be located in Texas.
I was thinking about that as well but most of their collection outside this item that is taking a lot of track space. Their collection is almost 100% Texas railroads or will be after restoration. Thats why it was a surprise to me. This is also their first electric powered piece and they have no plans to string overhead wire. They speak about the cars being immersion classrooms which I do not understand yet.
My theory is they bought them for their indoor space until they can get the main museum building built which is going to set them back at least $250-300 million, it will take them sometime to raise that money unless the city contributes to it…which is also a possibility. The City of Frisco is increasingly very wealthy from sales tax revenues off their various event attractions including the Dallas Cowboys as well as their extensive retail areas.
When did they get rid of GG1 4903?
I wonder if they have that unit in storage somewhere. I have not spotted it in their outdoor collection at least but I believe they have more than what is stored outside at the Frisco site. It might be there and I just missed it.
I hope they acquire a running track like Illinois Railway Museum in Union. It would be sad to see all the Equipment just sit there on static display when some of it is in runnable condition. Perhaps they’ll work that out later with BNSF or DART.
I wonder if they have that unit in storage somewhere. I have not spotted it in their outdoor collection at least but I believe they have more than what is stored outside at the Frisco site. It might be there and I just missed it.
I hope they acquire a running track like Illinois Railway Museum in Union. It would be sad to see all the Equipment just sit there on static display when some of it is in runnable condition. Perhaps they’ll work that out later with BNSF or DART. So far BNSF has been unusually supportive of the museum, I think because it is located in FRISCO now which was named after a predecessor railroad. However, BNSF has donated a lot so far. I think they even waived track construction charges for installation of the switch to the former FRISCO mainline. They have the round tail obs to the former AT&SF Texas Chief (including Texas Chief drumhead) and from the outside it looks like in pristine condition.
The fact that it’s called Museum of the American Railroad, even though it’s Texas-centric is not completely surprising. I’ll put it this way: many Texans wear large hats.
Buying ten Metra cars? Puzzling. They can’t run them without catenary. The classroom thing must be it.
250-300 million bucks!?! Are there any online artist’s conceptions of what they’re planning? Must be awfully grand. But then nothing’s too big for Texas, right?
I am guessing on the price based on the size. Truth is I do not even think they know. There used to be artists conceptions of it online but I only see one remaining which makes it look small but basically they are building a UNION STATION sized building replica of what a good sized city would have, plus a 6 stall round house and turntable. It is a fairly large headhouse. With the tracks in the back of the headhouse as in a typical terminal layout with platforms between the tracks.
Wow, that’s ambitious!
I think CMStP&P has the definitive story:
https://www.historictrains.org/news/09m25t8iffk95sufceifi4u4lliqx4
Note that ‘stream’ is an acronym for ‘science, technology, railroading, engineering, arts, and mathematics’.
Oh thanks I did not see that link…as you can see their website is rather chaotic and it is hit or miss finding items now. Their old website structure was a lot better via navigation. If you happen upon the artists rendering links of the proposed grounds, post those. They were very comprehensive.
Well yes but also look at the railroad themed hotel being built in Grapevine at the tourist railroad destination there. Here is the deal in North Texas…
Municipalities get like 2-3 cents of the state sales tax. So that motivates them to build or attact these huge retail or entertainment complexes to maximize their skim so to speak. So you have Grapevine (a short drive from DFW Airport basically) going along the theme of the old west and offering the Steam train to Fort Worth, Wineries, large railroad themed hotel, shopping district, etc. Just look at some of the other offerings around that area:
Grapevine Mills Outlet mall (fairly massive):
https://www.simon.com/mall/grapevine-mills
Grapevine Gaylord Texan Hotel (massive Hotel about the size of Opryland Hotel in Nashville)…there is a 1/4 scale replica of the San Antonio SP Depot in this Hotels Atrium (exterior only replica) that you can walk into and explore…no kidding. They call it sunshine depot or something (after the SP Daylight logo with the Sun).
https://www.marriott.com/hotels/travel/dalgt-gaylord-texan-resort-and-convention-center/
Just two examples but basically all around North Texas you have the suburbs competeing with each other on Convention Centers, Shopping Malls, Event Venues, Parks and Recreation activities, Stadiums, etc. All trying to get their share of the skim on the Sales Tax. Where I live in Allen, they blew $60 million on the high school stadium, another $30-40 million on a damn Event Center to host an Ice Hockey team, 2-3 fairly large malls, Marriott Convention Center, Public Natitorium complex with a rive
http://metrari.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=1281260
BNSF has adapted a number of bi-level commuter cars into its Executive fleet.
Does the museum have other cars HEP equipped ? If so they will have the problem of the METRA cars having a different rotational direction. Modification will not take long ?
I don’t think the idea is to actually operate any of them. Two are being ‘preserved’ in their service state; the others are being converted into classroom space (probably with permanent shore connection or even rewiring to ‘grid’ AC). I’m assuming you’re referring to the phase of the HEP; this does not seem to be difficult to arrange when hard-connecting to external power.
Here’s an explanation from the museum about why they bought the cars, including a lengthy video detailing their history.