New museum, train house in the works

The end of the line is about to get a lot nicer for Engine No. 1.

A new museum and train house is slated to be built at Pioneer Park next summer to showcase the century-old steam locomotive, which currently winters in a cramped maintenance shed off the park's railroad tracks.

"The (Fairbanks North Star) Borough and the Parks and Recreation Department are really looking forward to this new museum," said Pioneer Park manager Michael Cox. "It'll be a tremendous addition to the park."

The new 3,500-square-foot facility is expected to be completed by Nov. 30, 2005, and cost between $1 million and $2.5 million, with funding coming from a 10-to-one match of federal and borough funds. It'll be located a short distance to the west of the current Pioneer Park depot, and will serve as a museum and depot for the engine as well as winter storage and what supporters call much-needed repair space.

"The building we've got is not big enough to do the maintenance that needs to be done," said Bill Chace, the facilities director of the Friends of the Tanana Valley Railroad, which maintains and operates the engine.

The new one-story structure will have a pair of spur lines leading off the Pioneer Park tracks to two locomotive bays, one with a pit for underside maintenance and the other with a gantry crane.

The building will be owned and maintained by the borough and furnished, stocked and manned by volunteers from the Friends, which was formed in 1991, specifically to refurbish Engine No. 1. The 7-ton locomotive was the first engine in Fairbanks, helping build the local narrow-gauge rail lines and working as a switchyard engine until being retired in 1922. It sat on display downtown, then in Alaskaland, until the Friends group came together to restore it.

Chace said the engine will be the centerpiece of the museum, which will also contain other railroad cars and related devices owned by the group. The Friends are still looking for smaller donations of railroad history to add to their collection like old maps, placards and relics from local railway stations.

The museum only will be open in the summer, at least at first, Cox said. According to state Department of Transportation spokeswoman Shannon McCarthy, federal guidelines prohibit admission being charged at the facility, though fees could be charged for tours or special events. Chace said the group is in the midst of trying to work out the specifics of running the museum.

"We've got to work out all these details, about how it’s going to be staffed," he said.

Engine No. 1 is only used on special occasions at Pioneer Park, with daily train duties falling to Engine No. 67, a modern diesel locomotive. Plans call for that engine to continue to stop at the existing train station, with the museum's platform only used for Engine No. 1.

Chace said he hopes the new building will make it more practical to run Engine No. 1 for more than the 10 or 12 days it operates each summer--although the 12 or more people it takes to operate it will still be a limiting factor.

Chace, who initially proposed the train house, said there was money lined up for it five years ago before a snafu with the federal government led to it getting delayed.

The project first went out for bid this summer, but the lowest bidder, at $1.6 million, was deemed to not meet a federal requirement. The second-lowest bidder backed off, saying the project couldn't be completed in time after the delay caused by the first bid falling through.

But Chace said he's optimistic the project will go forward this time. He said 10 different firms have expressed interest in bidding, which will continue through Dec. 7.

Tom Moran, Staff Writer, Fairbanks Daily News-Miner