Last Stop at the Galveston Railroad Museum

With this entry, we conclude our visit to the Galveston Railroad Museum (see also the March 27 and April 2 entries). The self-guided tour allows us to spend time at the displays and cars without holding up a group. The slow pace provided time to study the cars and consider what travel was like in the golden age of train travel.

Glen Fee Sleeping Car

Originally built for the New York Central in 1926 and used on the 20th Century Limited until 1963, this car has three drawing rooms and six compartments.

Southern Pacific Rail Diesel Car, Engine #100

Built in 1954, the car can cruise easily at 75 mph.

It originally had a cab and controls at each end, but after a collision it was rebuilt as a one-ended car with a baggage compartment in place of the former cab.

Union Pacific Engine #410

This was the last engine manufactured by Fairbanks Morse in 1954. It was never owned by Union Pacific, but is painted in UP colors to commemorate the important presence of the UP in Galveston.

Robert E. Lee Sleeping/Lounge Car

This ten-section observation lounge was built by Pullman in 1924 and was never operated on the Crescent Limited under the name Robert E. Lee.

It had been painted for a movie role.

The car served the Burlington's Chicago to San Francisco Exposition Flyer and features an observation deck, a men's smoking room, and a spacious ladies lounge.

Interior photos of the Donald E. Harper, Jr., "E" Series Deluxe Sleeper

Built in 1954, this Pullman car had 4 double bedrooms, 4 open sections, 8 roomettes.

Illinois Central Post Office Car #100

Six clerks worked in this 1914 Pullman-built car while it was underway, sorting mail into 744 pigeonholes and 50 sorting cages.

Anacapa Private/Business Car

Built in 1929 by Pullman, this car saw service as the premier business car for the Chicago and Northwestern Railroad as the 401 and as the private car of John Palmer Gavit, the editor of the Washington Evening Post.

The car has three extremely luxurious and ornate bedrooms, servants' quarters, dining room, kitchen, parlor, observation deck, and shower facilities.

Dwight Eisenhower, Adlai Stevenson, and Harry Truman were among the distinguished passengers who rode on the Anacapa.

Old Santa Fe Depot Waiting Room, recreation by sculptors Irvan & Elliot Schwartz.

"The 'Ghosts of Travelers Past' represent typical travelers in the 1930’s era of the terminal, including soldiers calling home, children playing and teasing each other, vacationers, and people just catching “a few winks” while waiting for their departure. ...(T)he statues were created in the 1970’s by Studio EIS of Brooklyn N.Y. utilizing a unique process.

"Owned by the Schwartz family, they called on family members to be immersed in a plaster bath. Clothing used was copied from a 1930’s Sears Roebuck catalogue. The plaster was allowed to harden over a four- to five-hour period, whereupon the plaster was cut off in segments. The casts were then braced with reinforcing rods, reassembled and detailed to appear in the final product that is on display (galvestonislandguide.com/the-galveston-railroad-museum/).

(Information of the railroad cars shown above was drawn from the "Galveston Island Railroad Museum Guide".


Pelican Pics of the Day