The Wichita Falls Railroad Museum (A REQUEST FOR SUPPORT)
Likely this'll only post about this subject... (Unless something major happens regarding the subject)
This is also going to be a bulky post, but it is for awareness, so a reblog would be appreciated.
Alright, a little history lesson first:
Founded in 1980, the Wichita Falls Railroad Museum was founded to preserve railroad artifacts, rolling stock, locomotives, basically what you'd expect for a railroad museum.
in 1992 they finalized their location after moving around and that's where they've been ever since.
They have two resident locomotives preserved there, Fort Worth & Denver Railroad No. 304, and Kansas-Texas Railroad (known as the KATY) Diesel Switcher No. 1029 along with an assortment of various rolling stock that operated in the region.
The only reason that I know about it is because I used to live in northeastern Texas, in Wichita Falls. As you can tell, I've been a train person my entire life, so that place was always really special.
However I did move away, and I haven't been back since. awhile ago I suddenly remembered it, and decided to look it up. only to discover the museum was shut down.
Of course, I couldn't just sit around, so I did some digging and discovered that they are in fact, working to re-open the museum. They have a Prescence on Facebook (because they're southerners, why wouldn't they have Facebook...) and that's about it in terms of official coverage online, aside from a few local news articles.
I did a fundraiser last year, and raised about 400$! Really proud of that, and I hope it took them pretty far. I've been in contact with them, making sure everything's going smoothly. At the time of writing this, progress has been slow, but still going! (I messaged them via Facebook just today) But, there have been some challenges. The most frustrating of which, in my opinion, being rocks over the fences and into the windows... (It was custom glass with the logo on it!! 😭😭😭)
Basically, this chunky post is an attempt to raise awareness to their cause. I've gotten permission directly from them to run a Twitter/X account promoting and providing updates on the museum as an attempt to gain as much awareness as possible. If you have Twitter/X, please consider following the account and reposting some of the content!
In general, please just help raise awareness! and if you live anyway near the area, contact them directly and ask how you can help! They always need volunteers, and as I can't come out I'm doing what I can... Raise awareness!
https://x.com/museum68931
They also have an official website, though it's a bit bare bones at the moment:
