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Museum of the American Railroad
Dallas Railroad museum 4.jpg
Two steam locomotives sit on display at the Museum of the American Railroad
Former name Southwest Railroad Historical Society, Age Of Steam Railway Museum
Established 1963
Location Frisco, Texas, United States
Type 501(C) Not For Profit
Collections Railway Rolling Stock and Historic Railroad Buildings
Public transit access Frisco Shuttle Busses
Nearest parking Frisco Discovery Center

The Museum of the American Railroad, formerly known as the Age of Steam Railroad Museum, is a railroad museum in Frisco, Texas. The museum has a large collection of steam, diesel, passenger, and freight railroad equipment, and is noted for allowing guests to walk through some of the equipment on guided tours. The President and CEO is Bob LaPrelle who has worked there for over 30 years now. It was established in 1963 for the Texas State Fair as the Southwest Railroad Historical Society.

History

The museum began as a small exhibit at the State Fair of Texas in 1963, and continued as a staple of the annual fair, officially becoming a museum in 1986. It remained at its original site at Fair Park until closing in November 2011. The museum has fully relocated to Frisco, Texas; the move was based on a strategic plan, called Visions 2006, which called for a comprehensive reorganization of the museum, including new facilities, new governance and new programs. The museum's offices and some exhibits are temporarily housed at the Frisco Heritage Museum while construction continues on the museum's new location two blocks south. A new model train layout opened in July 2018 in the Frisco Discovery center next to the Museum's site, the gift shop and ticket sales for the guided tours have since been moved to the new layout from the Heritage museum.

Collection

Frisco 4501
Frisco 4501 in Irving,TX during move to Frisco, TX
Frisco June 2019 28 (Museum of the American Railroad)
The Museum of the American Railroad's Frisco, Texas, location in June 2019

The items in the collection are as follows:

Locomotives

Steam

  • Union Pacific Big Boy 4-8-8-4 #4018 ALCO 1941
  • St. Louis-San Francisco Railway[Frisco RR] 4-8-4 #4501 Baldwin 1942 Pulled Meteor
  • St. Louis-San Francisco Railway[Frisco RR]2-10-0 #1625, ALCO 1918
  • Dallas Union Terminal 0-6-0 #7 Baldwin 1923

Diesel

  • Southern Pacific #2379 Fairbanks Morse H12-44 Built 1956
  • Colorado & Wyoming #1107 Baldwin VO-1000 Built 1943
  • Union Pacific #6913 EMD DDA40X Built 1969
  • United States Army #8000 ALCO RSD-1 Built 1942 (Originally an ALCO RS-1 built for New York, Susquehanna & Western as #231, rebuilt by ALCO as one of the first RSD-1s)
  • Santa Fe #49 EMD F7 Built 1952 (formerly Canadian National #9167, repainted into Santa Fe Red Warbonnet colors in 2006)
  • Santa Fe #97 EMD SDFP45 Built 1967
  • Santa Fe #M-160 Doodlebug Built by J. G. Brill Company in 1931. Re-engined in 1952 by AT&SF with an EMD 6-567B.
  • Santa Fe #2404 EMC NW2, built in July, 1939
  • Santa Fe #2260 Baldwin Locomotive Works DS4-4-1000, built February, 1948
  • Santa Fe #608 Fairbanks-Morse H12-44, built November, 1951
  • Santa Fe #59L American Locomotive Company PA-1 Built 1948, now under restoration. Also known as Delaware and Hudson Railway #16 and Ferrocarriles Nacionales de México #DH-16
  • Santa Fe #2428 Santa Fe CF7
  • Santa Fe #2447 Santa Fe CF7
  • Asarco #10 Whitcomb Locomotive Company 1945 Class 8-DM-67 (21 ½ inch (Hunt) gauge)
  • Southern Pacific #MW8209 EMD F7B 1949 (Originally SP #6151C, renumbered when converted for snow plow service)
  • Vulcan Materials Company Plymouth Locomotive Works Model ML8 1943 (30-ton)

Electric

  • Pennsylvania Railroad #4903 GG1
AT&SF -49
AT&SF #49 at the Museum of the American Railroad in Frisco, TX

Passenger equipment

Sleepers

Coaches

Lounges

Diners

Other

Transit Equipment

Metra Electric District (Ex-Illinois Central Railroad) "Stream-Liner" Built by St. Louis Car Company(First order #1501-1630, 1971-1972) and Bombardier Transportation (Second order #1631-1666, 1978-1979)

  • 1548
  • 1552
  • 1601
  • 1608
  • 1661
  • And five more

Freight equipment

  • Kansas City Southern single sheathed boxcar #7460
  • Kansas City Southern Lines Boxcar No. 107859
  • Lone Star Producing Company tank car #1817
  • Western Pacific Railroad Boxcar No. 68652
  • Texas & Pacific Railroad Boxcar No. X4446
  • Packers Car Line (Armour & Company) Ice Refrigerator Car PCX 4063
  • Packers Car Line (Armour & Company) Ice Refrigerator Car PCX 4005
  • Genesee & Wyoming Railroad Mechanical Refrigerator Car No. GNWR 1032 

Cabooses

  • Santa Fe Caboose #999311 Built 1949
  • Santa Fe Caboose #1618
  • Cotton Belt drover caboose #2332 Built 1920
  • Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac Railroad #932 Built 1971

Speeders/Handcars

  • Union Pacific Railroad #MT14444M Fairmont Railway Motors Model M-14 Built 1977 (Onan 2 cyl. engine)
  • Track-Work Incorporated (Ex-Chicago Rock Island & Pacific Railroad) #RIMC 915 Fairmont Railway Motors Model S2E Built 1955 (Fairmont 1 cyl. engine)
  • Gifford-Hill & Company #H109 Handcar, Donated 1964

Structures

  • Houston & Texas Central Railroad Depot, ca. 1905
  • Houston & Texas Central Railroad Handcar Shed, Dallas, TX ca. 1905
  • Gulf, Colorado, and Santa Fe Railroad Interlocking Tower 19
    Dallas Railroad museum 2
    Tower 19, Frisco 4501 in Fair Park Dallas, TX

Road vehicles

  • Railway Express Agency Ford 1-ton box truck, 1941

De-accessioned Equipment

TrainTopia

The museum opened a permanent exhibit called TrainTopia – A Railroad Odyssey in Miniature, located in the Frisco Discovery Center adjacent to the museum. This is a massive 2,500-square-foot professionally-built model railroad layout donated to the museum by the Sanders family, and supported by a $300,000 donation from the Ryan Foundation to finance moving the layout and preparing the exhibit space. The scene spans Texas to Arizona, and includes details such as the dramatic rock formations of the Four Corners region near New Mexico, an animated downtown Dallas street scene, the Palo Duro Drive-In Theater complete with a movie playing, West Texas refineries, and working saw mills in Colorado. A custom light show changes the exhibit from day to night. The rolling stock of G scale trains includes hundreds of pieces of locomotives and cars, most finely-crafted by LGB in Germany.

Images for kids

  • Union Pacific EMD DDA40X at Fair Park 09.2006

    Union Pacific EMD DDA40X

  • Union Pacific Big Boy 4-8-8-4 -4018 at Fair Park 09.2006 0

    Union Pacific Big Boy 4-8-8-4 -4018

  • Santa Fe EMD FP45 diesel -97 at Fair Park 09.2006

    Santa Fe EMD FP45 diesel -97

  • Santa Fe Caboose at Fair Park 09.2006 2

    Santa Fe Caboose

  • Santa Fe -M-160 Doodlebug at Fair Park 09.2006

    Santa Fe -M-160 Doodlebug

  • Santa Fe -49 EMD F7 at Fair Park 09.2006 -1

    Santa Fe -49 EMD F7

  • Pennsylvania Railroad -4903 GG1 at Fair Park 09.2006

    Pennsylvania Railroad -4903 GG1

  • Colorado & Wyoming -1107 Baldwin VO-1000 at Fair Park 09.2006

    Colorado & Wyoming -1107 Baldwin VO-1000

  • Lone Star Producing Company tank car -1817 at Fair Park 09.2006 1

    Lone Star Producing Company tank car -1817

  • Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad dining car -438 Fair Park 09.2006

    Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad dining car -438

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