The railroad museum in Wichita Falls, Tex., has received a new lease on life — literally. A new lease for the city-owned property on which it sits was unanimously approved by city councilors on September 5, giving a newly reconstituted board of directors a year to revive the museum, which has been closed since 2020.
Founded in 1980 to preserve the rich railroad history of the North Texas city, the Wichita Falls Railroad Museum fell victim to an increasingly common problem in preservation, age and attrition of the volunteer ranks. In 2022, after the last three remaining members told city officials they were calling it quits and not going to seek renewal of their lease, the city was considering liquidating portions of the collection and turning the rest over to the Museum of North Texas History. That led to renewed interest in the museum on the part of enough residents to persuade local officials to give its revival a chance.
The museum is being rebranded as The Rail Yard at Depot Square. No date has yet been set for reopening, but on October 28 the gates will be opened during a downtown community event, “Running Dead WF,” which involves a zombie-laden obstacle course among other attractions.
The website and Facebook page have been dormant for a decade but a recent revision states its mission as being “to educate the public about the impact of the rail industry as it relates to Wichita Falls through a dedicated museum site with historically relevant exhibits and displays, including locomotive engines and train cars, educational displays, varied program offerings, and community events.”
The museum collection resides on three tracks running parallel to Depot Alley at the end of Eighth Street, which comes to a dead end at the foot of Fort Worth & Denver 304. The Alco 2-8-0 is one of just three still extant steam engines from the former Burlington subsidiary. The tracks are atop the former site of Union Station, which was demolished in 1967. Still standing at the site is the original rail depot opened by city fathers Kemp and Kell in 1876.
The 304 was built at Alco’s Brooks Works for the Fort Worth & Denver City as a coal burner in 1906, but was converted to oil in 1929. Following retirement, it was donated to the Wichita Falls’ Rotary Club in 1955 and displayed in Rotary Park until moving to the museum in 1997.
The other locomotive in the collection is a rather unique Missouri–Kansas–Texas Railroad diesel. Built as MKT 10, it was part of the railroad’s first order for EMD diesels, five NW2s built in 1947. It was rebuilt to SW1200 specifications in 1961, retaining its distinctive original hood but with a full front radiator grill replacing the half-sized grill that typically distinguishes the NW2 from later EMD switcher models. It was further modified in 1979 with the addition of a large filter box just in front of the cab windows that gives it an appearance unlike few other NW2s.
The museum is also home to the skeletal shell of Wichita Falls Traction 5, a relic of the local trolley system around which the city grew from 1909 to 1935. Museum rolling stock includes a pair of Pullman troop cars, a heavyweight Pullman sleeper, three cabooses and three former CB&Q power cars.
