Several members of the Cleburne Railroad Museum Advisory Committee said Tuesday’s meeting accomplished much more than expected given that it marked the committee’s first meeting in several years.

Nonetheless, committee members appeared enthusiastic to get the long delayed project back on track.

“This is exciting,” Railroad and Cleburne 4B Economic Development Corporation member Guy James said before the start of the meeting.

The railroad museum is one of several projects, and the sole remaining project yet to be undertaken, approved by Cleburne voters in 2002. That vote established the 4B and increased city sales tax by half a cent to fund the construction and maintenance of the listed quality-of-life projects. Area train enthusiasts have long called for a working railroad museum to increase tourism and chronicle the history of railroads and railroad shops in Cleburne.

“We wanted to get everybody together again, re-establish the committee and begin to push forward,” Cleburne Development Services Director Jody Butler said to begin the meeting.

Committee members approved a few decisions, but opened up several avenues of ideas for future discussion.

Members first elected Gary Shaw to serve as committee chairman. They also moved to retain the same guidelines that the earlier committee operated under.

Those guidelines, among other things, establish the railroad committee as a temporary advisory committee operating under the 4B committee. Proposals put forth by the committee require approval by 4B and, ultimately, the Cleburne City Council.

Cleburne City Secretary Shelly Doty told committee members that about $1.7 million will be available for the project by the end of the current fiscal, which is Sept. 30.

Members discussed a formal name for the museum with Sonny Burt suggesting the Cleburne Railroad Museum and National Railroad Hall of Fame. Burt said that although several other railroad museums exist, none, so far as he knows, have established a national railroad hall of fame. The committee reached no firm decision on the name, but appeared enthused by Burt’s suggestion. Adding the hall of fame aspect, several said, may well increase tourist interest in Cleburne and up the museum’s chances for future state and federal grants.

Member Richard Sikes raised the challenge of attracting residents and tourists.

“We know the railroad people will come,” Sikes said. “But how do we bring in the amateur fans and the people with just peripheral interest?”

Sikes answered his own question by suggesting that the museum concentrate, in part, on aspects unique to Cleburne. One such project in the Cleburne Santa Fe shops, Sikes said, was the refurbishment and conversion of about 232 1940s-era locomotives during the 1970s. That project, arguably the most ambitious locomotive rebuild project by any U.S. railroad, saved Santa Fe millions of dollars and secured good jobs for Cleburne.

Member Michael Percifield suggested modeling the museum building after a working roundhouse rather than a depot replica.

“There’s many a depot restored around the nation, but not many working roundhouses,” Percifield said. “Railroad people like something unique.”

Committee members also discussed several possible locations for the museum.

One proposal calls for locating the museum on land adjacent the Cleburne Intermodal on Border Street. Workers relocated a caboose, formerly parked outside the Layland Museum, to that site a couple of years ago. The plans envisions an indoor museum with train cars parked around the building.

Percifield and member Jack Carlton floated the idea of the site of an old cotton press located on privately owned land further down Border Street.

Doty suggested the First Financial Bank building on North Main Street, which the city purchased several years ago. City leaders planned to relocate the police department to that building but have since decided that such a plan may be unworkable.

The bank location garnered little enthusiasm. Although centrally located, it sits several blocks from railroad tracks.

“It needs to be by the tracks,” member Linda Burt Wallace said. “One of the things people like to do is be by the tracks to watch the trains go by.”

Burt agreed.

“They don’t put battleship museums on dry land,” Burt joked. “A railroad museum should by the tracks. I know how rail fans are, a lot like to just sit and watch trains go by.”

The biggest problem, member Ron Parnell, also a 4B member, said is not paying for the building, but funding maintenance after it opens.

“That’s getting to be a problem with the other 4B projects that I don’t think people thought about when they were put together,” Parnell said. “The operating costs eat up the money.”

Shaw suggested using volunteers instead of paid staff to save money, much like the system at Cleburne Chisholm Trail Outdoor Museum. Doing so would also likely attract volunteers already interested and knowledgeable in railroad history, he said.

James and Sikes also suggested other area railroad museums to glean ideas and inspiration.

The number of ideas put forward made it clear that committee members have much work, planning and decisions before them. Which would appear to be a good thing in their opinion as they all seemed reluctant to call the meeting to a close and probably wouldn’t have save for the fact that the 4B board had a meeting scheduled for 6:30 p.m.

Doty said she plans to check the city calender and call another railroad committee meeting soon.



4B

In a short meeting, 4B board members approved proposed guidelines for naming or renaming facilities. The guidelines apply solely to 4B facilities but are otherwise nearly identical to a policy recently approved by the city council. The guidelines lay out procedures for the naming, or renaming, of city properties such as buildings, parks and streets.