Galesburg Railroad Museum

[dknelson]

From the Galesburg Register Mail newspaper website:

http://www.register-mail.com/stories/042905/MAI_B692CU17.GID.shtml


RR Museum debuts Saturday
Depot-style building replaces Pullman car

Friday, April 29, 2005
By JOHN R. PULLIAM
of The Register-Mail
GALESBURG - The latest addition to Galesburg's 150-year railroad legacy will be
on track Saturday as the city's new railroad museum opens to the public.
There will be a short ribbon-cutting ceremony at 10 a.m., with Mayor Bob Sheehan
doing the honors at the 2,800-square-foot building in Colton Park, near the
Amtrak depot. The museum was built to look like a train station.
Mike Godsil, president of the Galesburg Railroad Museum Board of Directors, said
the work on the museum is pretty much done, although he laughed when he talked
about Saturday's ribbon cutting. "We haven't even bought the ribbon yet," he
confessed.
If reaction to the new building so far is any indication, the museum may be a
busy place this summer. Godsil said many people waiting for Amtrak trains
already have tried to take a tour. When someone has been there, some of the rail
passengers have been let in to take a look. Godsil thinks people coming to the
depot to wait for trains may bring in a lot of additional visitors.
"We think that will be a big thing," he said. "That's PR. They go back to where
they're going and say, 'Galesburg has a nice museum.' "
The building replaces the Pullman car, which has served as the museum since
1982. Godsil said the Pullman car will be moved across Mulberry Street in the
fall to sit with the other rolling stock.
Forty-seven members of a senior citizen bus tour got the chance to go through
the museum last week, while 45 members of a fifth-grade class from a grade
school in Bartonville will take a look today.
Godsil estimated annual attendance at the Pullman car museum was about 6,000. He
declined to guess how many people will visit this year, but said, "The first
year, I think it will be a big summer. ... We just hope it's better every year.
It's nicer because now they can wander through there at their leisure."
The narrow Pullman car made that difficult and had a tendency to make people
feel they had to go from one end to the other so that others also could see the
exhibits.
Major funding came from Marilyn Fagan, who died in October 2003, and left
$150,000 in her will for construction.
Museum opens: Saturday
Hours: 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturdays and noon-4 p.m. Sundays, through May. After
Memorial Day, Tuesday-Saturday: 10 a.m.-4 p.m., Sunday: noon-4 p.m. Closed
Mondays.
Admission: Adults - $4
Ages 8-16 - $1
7 and younger - free

[eolafan]

Excellent timing as my better half and I are taking a "road trip" by car from Aurora where we live to Springfield, IL and on to St. Louis and back up the west side of the Miss. River through Galesburg and back home to Aurora next week. I will need to see this museum for sure.