One last step

Virtually all the paperwork has been signed. All that remains for Tucumcari MainStreet to take over operations of the Tucumcari Railroad Museum is an act by the New Mexico Secretary of State's office.

The last remaining deed is to dissolve the nonprofit organization that ran the museum at the city's historic depot. Connie Loveland, executive director of Tucumcari MainStreet, said the Secretary of State could do that as soon as this week.

Though the Tucumcari Railroad Museum remains closed because of the coronavirus pandemic, Loveland said one of the changes MainStreet wants to implement when it reopens is implementing longer operating hours. The museum had been open from three days a week from early May to late October.

"We do want to extend the hours and days that it's open," she said during an interview in her MainStreet office at the depot. "We're doing a lot of research on other train museums to see what their standard hours are, what holidays they're closed, so we can maximize the exposure to tourists.

"Even through this pandemic, I have people who want to see the inside of this building," she added.

Loveland said she would launch a campaign to enlist volunteers to help run the museum. She said she would consult with the Union Pacific Railroad to see whether it has community initiatives involving employees in Tucumcari that might benefit the museum.

Long term, Loveland said she would see whether the museum could apply for Union Pacific grants so the depot's east baggage room can be used for exhibits.

Another project Loveland said she'd love to highlight is the Dawson Railway that connected Tucumcari to the Dawson coal mine in Colfax County during the first half of the 20th century. She wants record residents' memories of that rail line and other recollections.

"We just want to tell the stories," she said.

While MainStreet's takeover of the museum was announced during a county commission meeting in June, the wheels were set in motion long before.

Frank Turner, one of the museum's co-founders, approached the Tucumcari MainStreet board of directors during a formal presentation in early 2019 about the organization taking over.

"I felt last year we had reached a point where we needed to really find the best way the museum would serve Tucumcari," he said during a recent phone interview. "The more I became acquainted with them, the more I felt the time had come to make a decision and turn it over to (Tucumcari) MainStreet."

Turner said he'd made informal overtures to Tucumcari MainStreet years before.

"I knew there was interest," he said.

Turner said it had become difficult for the museum's officers to effectively run it because they now reside in North Carolina, Amarillo, Albuquerque and California.

Turner acknowledged the turnover of the museum didn't come without bittersweet feelings.

"I realize we're giving up control of it, and I put a lot of good railroad memorabilia in there. But I realized those aren't my items. It's what's best for Tucumcari," he said.

Turner and Loveland said they received valuable advice from Eduardo Martinez of New Mexico MainStreet how to make a more seamless transition.

Turner said his rail roots run deep in Tucumcari. His father was a conductor there for the El Paso and Southwestern Railroad. Turner himself worked for the Norfolk and Western Railway and later became president of the American Short Line and Regional Railroad Association.

Because of his extensive rail knowledge, Turner said he knew he had to act fast when he'd learned in 2000 the Tucumcari depot building had been officially abandoned by Union Pacific. That usually meant its bulldozing was imminent.

Union Pacific deeded the depot to the city in 2002. About $1.8 million was spent over the years renovating the 1926 depot, including the expensive removal of asbestos.

"That building was pretty important for my childhood," Turner said.

Turner said Tucumcari was a major rail hub. Its railyard once contained a big roundhouse where trains were repaired. Also, the Rock Island Railroad ran east and the Southern Pacific Railroad ran west of Tucumcari.

"Every freight train that came in there had to change their headpower, crews, cabooses," he said. "Tucumcari was a railroad town, and I'm delighted we're preserving that history."

Though Tucumcari owes most of its existence to a rail line being laid through the area in 1901, its importance in the industry has ebbed because of consolidation. Union Pacific trains, however, still rumble past the depot and through the city almost daily.

Loveland said Tucumcari MainStreet soon would set up a subcommittee that will include the museum's former officers.

Once the state lifts coronavirus restrictions, Loveland said they'd get to work removing the dust covers from exhibits and shoring up displays.

"I feel very good about the future of the railroad museum," Turner said. "We've done our part. MainStreet has a really good network in the community - far better than we had."