Acknowledging the tragic loss of lives and property to Hurricane Ike, does anyone have an idea as to how the Galveston Railroad Museum collection fared? UP, BNSF, and KCS moved their equipment out of Ike's reach, but did the museum have the capability to relocate locomotives and rolling stock?



What, me worry?

According to the Galveston Railroad Museum website, extent of damage is unknown at this time, as the museum personnel have not been allowed on to Galveston Island. Read official statements on website www.galvestonrrmuseum.com Judgeing by the photo's & video's i've seen, there may be NOTHING left .

their website has photos of the damage.

odd to me that there is a railroad museum on this island. why is it located there?

quote:

Originally posted by Forrest Jerome:
odd to me that there is a railroad museum on this island. why is it located there?

The Port of Galveston once was where all rail traffic converged in Texas. Although supplanted by the Port of Houston, Galveston still has respectable rail traffic.

Thanks, guys. I might have missed the website updates without your responses. Appears to be in much better shape than I expected based on news reports.



What, me worry?

quote:

The Port of Galveston once was where all rail traffic converged in Texas.

interesting. i suspected the answer was something like that. one? or more? railroad bridges?

Freight originally was ferried between the mainland and wharves. The first railroad bridge was built in 1860 and the first causeway in 1912. Read about the very interesting history and see photos here.



What, me worry?

thanks al.

odd text in that article. so many words colored blue but no significance (e.g. links) to the color.

The slide show on the museum site showed that it experienced significant storm damage. Looks like they can rebuild but its going to take some time.

The www.galveston.com website has a link to NOAA. The NOAA site shows satellite photos of Galveston and surrounding areas. Satellite photos show the main buildings of the museum are still standing and the cars are still there and on the tracks. although there is still some flood waters on the tracks. The photos do not show how much damage was done.

Looking at the Satellite photos shows most of Galveston still standing, the same cannot be said of the dwellings on Bolivar peninsular. Again all the photos show are the tops of buildings that are still standing, no idea how much damage was done.

I do hope this museum is able to come back. When we vacation in Galveston (I would like to vacation there in the future) the highlight of my trip is a visit to the railroad and flight museums. I have always put this railroad museum at the top of my list because I can climb on the steam locomotives and walk through the old cars. I like the flight museum for the same reason. You can get close, even touch the planes.