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Oklahoma Railway Museum 6/21/2008

Chris Parker and I awoke at the Best Western Ardmore Inn and once we departed, drove into the town to find the Amtrak station.

The Pointless Arrow Amtrak sign led us to it.

In front was this buffalo, part of the Spirit of the Buffalo public art project of the Nature Conservancy of Oklahoma. This started in 2004 and Oklahoma artists decorated their blank buffalo canvas, with their creative work showcased throughout the state.

The former Santa Fe station in Ardmore, Oklahoma built in 1916 as a joint facility between the Santa Fe and a long-gone branch of the Rock Island. A bay window on the other side of the building still bears the Rock Island shield instead of the Santa Fe cross. The station was restored by the Ardmore Main Street Authority.

We drove north to Gene Autry and waited for the southbound Amtrak Heartland Flyer then returned to Interstate 35 and stopped in Norman for petrol. After making a wrong turn, although that error did enable us to see the Oklahoma State Capitol and downtown Oklahoma City, we soon made our way to the Oklahoma Railway Museum, our destination.

The Oklahoma Railway Museum is not just a museum. It is a community of passionate railroad fans dedicated to the preservation of America's transportation history.

The story of the Museum starts with the Central Oklahoma Railfan Club. In 1970, these enthusiasts joined the National Railway Historical Society (NRHS) as the Central Oklahoma Chapter. The Central Oklahoma Chapter of the NRHS did not just collect old equipment and artifacts or talk about history. They were active members of the railroad community. Through the late 1980s and early 1990s, they crewed and organized several different trains. These efforts laid the foundation for the Museum as they built relationships with railroads like the Union Pacific and gathered the seed money for the Museum itself.

In 1997, plans for the Museum began in earnest. The chapter made an agreement with the Central Oklahoma Parking and Transportation Authority (COPTA) for use of the old Missouri-Kansas-Texas track between NE 16th Street and NE 36th Street in Oklahoma City. Volunteers restored the track and kept it clean and mowed. In return, COPTA allowed them to hold demonstrations of their equipment there.

In the spring of 1997, the Chapter began working with the Center for Non-Profit Organizations to develop a business plan for the establishment of a railway museum. A five year plan was developed and approved by the members in November 1997. Also, the Chapter began a partnership with the Central Oklahoma Parking and Transportation Authority (COPTA) for use of the old M-K-T tracks from NE 16th Street to NE 36st Street.

In exchange for keeping the right of way clean and mowed, as well as uncovering the track, the group could use the track for demonstrations of their equipment. During the first year, volunteers donated over 890 hours to clean and restore the right of way which included the Oklahoma City school yard siding where equipment was stored. Thus, the ability to operate demonstration trains started. With this work underway, a 3-acre piece of property was located along the line. The Chapter had approached the owners in 1997, but they did not want to sell at that time. They were again contacted in early 1999 and were now ready to sell.

In July 1999, the Chapter at last had property they could call home. It was very overgrown with weeds and trees but now the volunteers were working on Chapter property. The seed money from the Union Pacific trips in 1995 financed the purchase along with help from about eight members who made small loans to the Chapter which were paid back in three years. This allowed the Museum to get started with no real debt on the books.

The property was secured with a fence, a parking lot created, restrooms were built, and the master plan for the Museum began to develop. Members raised $50,000 to improve the site, purchase track materials, acquire a 1905 depot, and to make plans to move the engines, freight and passenger cars, and other smaller artifacts to the site. The Chapter at this time changed its name to the Oklahoma Railway Museum, Ltd. (ORM), the Central Oklahoma Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society (NRHS).

Because the Museum had done so well with the COPTA lease, the Museum approached COPTA in early 2002 to renew the lease, adding an addition ½ mile right-of-way south to the Union Pacific railyard and extending it to the north one mile from NE 36st Street to NE 50th Street, which was the end of the track. Once again, based on the professionalism of the members, COPTA agreed to the new lease with the additional right-of-way length. This allowed the Museum to then clear and re-lay over 1600 feet of rail to tie the Museum track to live rail resulting in a length of operation of 3 miles. Over the Christmas-New Year’s holiday season in 2002, with the rail tied in, the AT&L Railroad and the Union Pacific Railroad moved the stored equipment from Watonga to Oklahoma City and onto the Museum’s tracks. The dream was becoming a reality. Without support and cooperation of COPTA, the ORM would not be located where it is today.

Between 2000 and the present, the Museum has grown from one operating locomotive to four with more potentially operable if given some work. The passenger car fleet and cabooses can handle over 350 passengers per train. A 7000 square foot shop with two track bays was built, and a 1905 Kansas City, Mexico, and Orient Railway Company Depot was restored in 2005. ORM is handling a growing number of passengers annually, from approximately 150 in 2003 to over 38,000 in 2019.

The efforts of the Museum have been and continue to be supported by many people and organizations including; members of the Chapter, former State Senator Dave Herbert, the BNSF Railway, the Union Pacific Railroad, the A-OK Railroad, Farmrail, the Kiamichi Railroad, Bob Hussey Construction, Bags Inc., COPTA, the City of Oklahoma City, and the many visitors who visit the Museum annually.

The Museum is also a member of the Oklahoma City Community Foundation which allows donations to be made and invested on behalf of the Museum. The Museum is a 501 c Non Profit tax exempt Oklahoma Corporation and, as of this time, has no debt: it operates within its budget on an annual basis. The growing membership, of approximately 200 members, has around 50 active members.

Railroad operations are under the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA), and the Museum is a member of the American Alliance of Museums (AAM), The American Association for State and Local History, (AASLH), the Oklahoma Museum Association (OMA), the Association of Tourist Railroads & Railway Museums (ATRRM), the National Railway Historic Society (NRHS), Frontier Country Tourism Association, and is an associate member of the Adventure District of Oklahoma City.

The opening hours of this museum.

We arrived at the parking lot and met Jim Pasby, one of the volunteeers, who would give us a tour of the grounds.

Next to the parking lot a diesel engine on display.

The brick walkway leads you to the former Oakwood, Texas Depot.

The Oakwood Depot was constructed by the Kansas City, Mexico & Orient railway line in 1905 in Oakwood, Oklahoma Territory. The Santa Fe railway leased the Orient line in 1929 and operated the station until 1958. In later years, it was acquired by the Dewey County Historical Society and moved to a property just west of Watonga, Oklahoma. The Depot was purchased by the Oklahoma Railway Museum, moved to the present location in 2000 and was completely restored, currently consisting of two main rooms: the waiting room/ticket office on the south end and the freight depot on the north end. Inside the former waiting room is the Oklahoma Railway Museum's Gift Shop. The freight depot has been converted into a display room full of railroad artifacts, such as maintenance-of-way equipment, freight scales, signs and more.

A statue of a railroad conductor and the children's play area. From here we walked into the shop building.

Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific wooden caboose 17834, nee Rock Island box car built by the ralroad in 1915 and rebuilt into a caboose in 1943 when the railroad needed more cabooses, so they modified about 200 Class B-2 boxcars in their shops in Illinois. Twenty of these boxcars were given a passenger seating section, baggage section with sliding doors and a crew compartment with a cupola. Many others, like this one, were modified for crew-only use as typical of a caboose.

The center section of the car with the sliding doors was cut out and the remainder of the car spliced back together. Caboose end platforms were added to each end of the car, windows were cut into the walls, and a steel cupola was mounted on the roof. The interior was fitted with crew bunks, a toilet, a conductor's desk, benches, a stove and an icebox.

The car served into the 1970's, when cabooses were generally taken out of service all across the country. John Kilpatrick purchased this caboose during this period and parked it next to his lumber yard in Oklahoma City, where he used the caboose for meetings and parties. In 1978, this caboose was donated by the Kilpatrick family to the Central Oklahoma Railfan Club, the predecessor organization to the Oklahoma Railway Museum. It was moved in 1978-1979 and put on display behind the Kirkpatrick Center, which later became part of the Omniplex, now the Science Museum of Oklahoma.

Chickasaw Railroad RS-3 2, ex. Blacklands Railroad 2, nee Magma Arizona 2 built by American Locomotive Company in 1955. ORM member Jim Terrell purchased both units plus many spare parts and donated them to the Museum in 2005.

The plastic sign on the locomotive commemorating the Oklahoma Centennial. We then walked outside.

Oklahoma Railway Museum coach 115 "Kerr McGee Explorer", ex. Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad 72-seat coach 115 1994, exx. Cedar Rapids and Iowa City 115 1980's, exxx. New Jersey Transit 2407, exxxx. Penn central 108-seat commuter coach 2407, exxxx. Santa Fe coach 2947, nee Santa Fe 3199 51 seat chair/observation car built by the Budd Company in 1938. In November 1960, the Santa Fe converted the car into a standard 44 seat coach by squaring the observation end. This car was purchased by the Oklahoma Centennial Commission and donated to the Museum in 2005.

The interior of OKRX 115.

Oklahoma Railway Museum dining car 142 "OCU Star Express", ex. Midwest Travel "Soonerland II", exx. Amtrak 8037, nee Santa Fe 1492 built by the Budd Company in 1942. It was part of the Super Chief in the 1940's, the Chief in the 1950's and finally the Texas Chief in the 1960’s. When Howard Thornton of Midwest Travel acquired the car, it was used for several excursions around Watonga, Oklahoma, in the 1990's. The Oklahoma Centennial Commission funded the last refurbishment in 2006 and Museum member Harry Currie donated this car to the ORM in 2011.

The interior of OKRX 142.

Oklahoma Railway Museum 52-seat coach 113 "Oklahoman", ex. Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad 72-seat coach in 2001, exx. Cedar Rapids and Iowa City 113 1980's, exxx. New Jersey Transit coach 2413, exxxx. Penn Central 108-seat commuter coach 2413, nee Santa Fe 3105 built by the Budd Company in 1938 and was part of the first El Capitan trainset.

Santa Fe FP45 90, ex. Santa Fe 5990, exx. Santa Fe 5940 1970, nee Santa Fe 100 built by Electro-Motive Division in 1967. The first of its class, it and its sister, 102, had the honour of leading the record-breaking inaugural run of the westbound Super C, a high-priority, 79 mile-per-hour freight train from Chicago to Los Angeles in January 1968. Following this grand entrance, 100 settled down to pulling Santa Fe's finest passenger trains. The Santa Fe remained committed to first class passenger trains, ven while other railroads were decreasing or completely abandoning passenger service.

With the coming of Amtrak in 1971, the FP45's were reassigned to freight duties for the remainder of their careers, other than occasional use pulling business and special trains. Sometime in late 1971 or early 1972, the 5940's shed their flashy red and silver "warbonnet" for Santa Fe's more mundane blue and yellow freight scheme. Within a few years, they were repainted again into the blue and yellow "warbonnet" scheme. The units clocked up 2-3 million miles each in this service.

By 1981, the FP45s were worn out and Santa Fe began extensively rebuilding them in their San Bernardino, CA shops. This locomotive was rebuilt in September 1981 then eight years later, it was decided that all new locomotives would be delivered in the red and silver "warbonnet" paint, called the "Super Fleet". The FP45's were repainted into a version of the paint scheme in which they were originally delivered, and were briefly given their original numbers before being renumbered again as No. 90 to 98.

Number 90 was the last of its kind in active service on the ATSF's successor, the BNSF railroad. It was donated to the ORM by the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway in December 1999. Of the nine units built, six are now in various museums. This unit is on long-term static display.

Oklahoma Railway Museum coach 1505, ex. Union Pacific 1505, nee Union Pacific platform observation/café/lounge car 819 built by Pullman Car Company in 1915. It was remodelled in 1932 and 1941. Eventually, the car was put into maintenance-of-way service on the Denver wreck train. It was donated to the ORM in 1987 and is stored at Owanda siding.

View at the south end of the yard.

Burlington Northern F9A 814, ex. St. Louis-San Francisco 814, nee Northern Pacific 7003-D built by Electro-Motive Division in 1954. It was donated to the museum in 1982.

Oklahoma Gas and Electric 0-6-0ST 5, nee United States Army Corps of Engineers 5006 built by H.K. Porter in 1942. Oklahoma Gas and Electric used it at the Horseshoe Lake power plant in Harrah for switching coal cars.

The museum's excursion train.

Oklahoma Railway Museum 45 ton switcher 301, ex. Vulcan Chemical Company 301 2000, exxx. Dodge City, Ford and Bucklin Railroad 1, nee United States Army 1202 built by General Electric in 1941. It served the Army at Fort Leavenworth. It was donated to the Museum by Dan Rohrback and Vulcan Chemical Company in 2000.

Oklahoma Railway Museum combine 7721 "Klingensmith", ex. Dodge City, Ford and Bucklin 136, nee Chicago and North Western 7721 built by American Car & Foundry Company in 1929. It was built with 33 double seats and was able to seat a total of 70 riders. Handholds were provided to allow standing riders as well. The car was taken out of service sometime after 1939 and eventually sold to the Dodge City, Ford & Bucklin Railroad. It was repainted in a blue and white colour scheme and several others were later purchased by the Guthrie Arts Council and moved to Guthrie, Oklahoma.

The ORM purchased this car in January 2004 from the Guthrie Arts Council and repainted it into its green-and-yellow CNW paint scheme, returning the car to its original number as well.

Oklahoma Railway Museum open car, ex. Union Pacific flat car 58259, nee Southern Pacific flat car built in 1953and rebuilt in September 1965. Before being donated to the Museum, this car was used as piggyback trailer unloading ramp in Union Pacific's former Rock Island yard in downtown Oklahoma City. In 2003, it was modified by the Museum into a passenger-riding car, which is wheelchair accessible.

Burlington Northern caboose 10381, nee Great Northern X-21 built by the railroad in 1958. These cabooses were radio-equipped and carried a refrigerator, chemical toilet, a vapour type oil heater and a wash basin, as well as a 65 gallon oil tank and a 15 gallon water tank. The interiors included a small table in each of the four corners, four chairs and a single crew bunk. Built under the cupola are a number of storage lockers, used to store clothes, tools and other items as well as house the caboose's battery. Ascending the metal ladder to the cupola reveals two leather-backed reversible seats, one on each side. As built the cabooses were painted GN caboose red, but some were later repainted into a new sky blue paint scheme.

After 1970, the GN merged with the Northern Pacific and the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroads into the Burlington Northern Railroad. Caboose X-21 was renumbered as 10381 and repainted into a green and yellow scheme similar to the one it carries now. It was retired in 1985 and was eventually donated to the ORM by the Burlington Northern Railroad. It is in good working order and is often used on ORM passenger trains.

The former Oakwood, Oklahoma depot.

The interior of the station.

Oklahoma Railway Museum RS-1 743 2000, ex. Eddie Birch, Jr. and Jim Terrell 243 1986, exx. Sidney and Lowe Railroad 243 1981, exxx. South Hopkins Coal Company Jiggs 243 1974, exxxx. Birmingham Southern 243 1973, exxxxx. Birmingham Rail and Locomotive Chattahoochee Valley 243 1968, exxxxxx. Hyman Michaels 243 1968, nee Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific 743 built by American Locomotive Company in 1943. It was onated to the Oklahoma Railway Museum by Eddie Birch Jr. and Jim Terrell in 2000, repainted to its original appearance as CRI&P 743 and currently on display.

Oklahoma Railway museum conbine 6015, ex. Rock Island maintenance-of-way dormitory car 6150, nee Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railway Express Agency car 6015 built by American Car & Foundry in 1921. It was modernized (streamlined) in 1940 into a baggage-dormitory car for use on the Arizona Limited and the Golden State Limited and was replaced in September 1959 with Pullman-Standard baggage dorms purchased from the New York Central Railroad.

In May 2001, the Capitol Steel Company donated the car to the ORM, which had been stored on their track for several years and was going to be cut up for scrap. It is now used as ORM's party coach for birthdays.

Oklahoma Railway museum baggage car 4119, ex. Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific tool car 96155 1957, nee Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific baggage car 4119 built by American Car & Foundry in 1927. The car was acquired by the museum from the Capital Steel Company and currently houses a model train exhibit.

St. Louis-San Francisco wooden caboose 929, builder and year unknown. The museum uses this caboose for birthday parties.

Interior of the caboose.

Oklahoma Railway Museum wooden caboose 14107, ex. Burlington Northern 11021, exx. Chicago, Burlington and Quincy 14107, nee Burlington and Missouri River Railroad 10 built by Wells and French in 1878. It was retired in 1973 and sold to George Shirk, a former mayor of Oklahoma City, who donated it to the Central Oklahoma Railfan Club in 1981, a predecessor organization to ORM. The caboose was restored in 2005 and is believed to be the oldest Chicago, Burlington and Quincy waycar in existence.

Interior of this caboose.

Oklahoma Railway Museum tourist-sleeper 2568, ex. St. Louis-San Francisco maintenance-of-way bunk and kitchen car in 1950, ex. tourist-sleeper 2568 1943, nee Pullman sleeping car "Arringdale" built by the Pullman Palace Car Company in 1913. It was one of nearly three thousand sleepers built to the same basic design between 1910 and 1923 for Pullman services all across North America.

It was acquired by the musuem in May 2001 from the Capital Steel Company. The car was originally going to be cut up for scrap, but Capitol Steel was happy to donate the car to the Museum on the condition that it be moved as soon as possible. The Museum converted it to a display car in 2002 and it now houses railroad artifacts and displays.

Displays inside the former Pullman sleeper. After that fantastic tour, we thanked Jim and he told us how to get to a few more peices of the museum's collection. Following his directions, we found our prey.

One of the museum's three "auto boxcars" built by General American Transportation Corporation in 1928 and featured double-doors with wood bodies and steel underframes and end cars. Auto boxcars were operated by the Santa Fe to transport autos, trucks, farm equipment and heavy machinery and were equipped with tie-down chains in floor-mounted storage tubes and other interior components for securing their vehicle loads. Auto boxcars continued in service on the Santa Fe until the 1960's when they began to sell or scrap the aging cars. The last car of this class was finally retired in 1973.

The museum's auto boxcars were used by the Santa Fe to transport Crossly automobiles. Eventually, the cars were sold to the Continental Oil Company (CONOCO) which used the end-loading capabilities for grease drums, etc. The cars were donated to the ORM by the Continental Oil Company.

Santa Fe former truss-rod, wood-body boxcar 48169 built by Standard Steel Company in 1912 and equipped with Andrews trucks when new. All were retired and sold or scrapped by 1955. This car is missing its running gear and is currently stored in the museum's Owanda Siding.

Union Pacific caboose 25380, nee Union Pacific 2780 built by the railroad in 1955. Union Pacific retired this caboose on August 20, 1986 and sold it to the now-defunct SunBelt Railroad Museum in Sand Springs, Oklahoma. The Oklahoma Railway Museum acquired it in 2004.

Oklahoma Railway Museum RS-3 3, ex. Blacklands Railroad 3, nee Magma Arizona 3 built by American Locomotive Company in 1955. ORM member Jim Terrell purchased both units plus many spare parts and donated them to the Museum in 2005.

Oklahoma Railway Museum coach 1304 "Mistletoe II", ex. Amtrak 6805, exx. Burlington Northern coach 1304 1968, exxx. Great Northern 4 bedroom-1 compartment-6 roomette "Grand Coulee" 1955, nee 1 drawing room-2 bedroom-buffet- observation car 1197 "Priest River built by Pullman-Standard in 1950. Roy and Darlene Thornton donated the car to the Museum in 2011.

A special thank you to the Oklahoma Railway Museum for the great visit they gave us.

We left Oklahoma City and took Interstate 40 east to Shawnee.

We pulled into the station parking lot and found a BNSF train about to start switching some local industries.

The Santa Fe station built in 1902 houses a museum of the town's history.

Santa Fe caboose 999284 built by the railway in 1948.

Santa Fe caboose 999097, nee Santa Fe 1929, built by American Car and Foundry in 1930.

We had lunch at Hamburger King here in Shawnee and afterwards, I went outside first and heard a horn from a different direction. Chris and I drove south to the tracks and found our prey.

The Arkansas Oklahoma Railroad was in town switching.

Arkansas-Oklahoma Railroad B23-7 4064, ex. Norfolk Southern 4064, nee Conrail 1976 built by General Electric in 1979.

Arkansas-Oklahoma Railroad B23-7 4059, ex. Norfolk Southern 4059, nee Conrail 1970 built by General Electric in 1979.

Pushing a cut of cars into a grain plant.

A last view of the Arkansas-Oklahoma Railroad before we departed Shawnee.

We drove south down US 177 before turning right onto Oklahoma Highway 19 for the journey to our next stop in Pauls Valley.

Santa Fe 2-8-0 1951 built by Burnham and Williams in 1907. They were built with an extended smokebox to house a Baldwin-designed superheater without flues between the tube sheets but with an assembly in the smokebox that provided 600 feet of superheating. This was not an effective design and in 1920, Baldwin replaced it with a Schmidt superheater and the smokebox was shortened accordingly.

1951 worked most of the 1950's in California in general freight service both on the Los Angeles and Valley divisions until bumped by more powerful 2-8-2 and 2-10-2 types. Most ended their lives on local and yard service, and all but 1951 had been scrapped by 1955, when the locomotive was donated to the City of Pauls Valley and placed on display in Wacker Park. Around 1993, Pauls Valley converted their abandoned Santa Fe station into a museum and 1951 was moved to a location just north of the depot and given a fresh coat of paint.

St. Louis-San Francisco wooden caboose 893 which used to be on display near Ada, Oklahoma and moved to its current museum location in autumn 1997.

Santa Fe Pauls Valley station built in 1905. The depot had been a station stop for Amtrak's Lone Star until that train was discontinued in 1979. After being restored in the mid 1990's, it became the Santa Fe Depot Museum.

The shelter for Amtrak Heartland Flyer passengers. After stopping for some refreshments, we continued south and crossed the Arbuckle Mountains, coming upon a scenic viewpoint.

The view looking north.

The sign describing the Arbuckle Anticline. Rocks of the Arbuckle and Simpson Groups are exposed at the land surface in three prominent uplifts separated from each other by large, high-angle faults. The southwestern outcrop is on the Arbuckle Anticline, a geological structure that was formed 300 million years ago when intensive folding and faulting of a thick sequence of Paleozoic rocks formed the ancestral Arbuckle Mountains. Originally rising several thousand feet above the surrounding plains, the mountains have been eroded to their present-day maximum relief of 600 feet. Topography over the steeply dipping strata is very rugged. Road cuts along Interstate 35 provide unique views of the thick sequence of Paleozoic rocks and complex structure of the Arbuckle Anticline.

The view looking south.

Coming down off the Arbuckle Mountains. We drove on to Gainesville and checked to see what time the Heartland Flyer would arrive and with time on our side, went to Arby's and bought some sandwiches to go.

A railroad scrap yard with trucks waiting to be picked up. Amtrak was running a few minutes late but soon we heard a horn.

Amtrak's Heartland Flyer worked the station in Gainesville.

The Heartland Flyer departed for points north while we drove south to Fort Worth.

Downtown Fort Worth. We continued to the Best Western south of Interstate 20 for the night.