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 |  |  | | Johnson Space Center is 'all aboard' in helping the community
If $3,000 was molding in stagnant water, someone would probably get motivated to save it. But when it comes to irreplaceable model trains worth about the same, it took a few weeks to start saving.
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The model trains and train-set buildings arrive at the same vacuum chamber used to test the Apollo capsule. | |
The Galveston Railroad Museum was one of the many buildings flooded during Hurricane Ike. The museum wallowed in 13 feet of water for several days, and many of its historic documents, model trains and buildings were submerged. To help preserve the relics of Texas’ train history, Johnson Space Center donated space and use of its equipment to museum volunteers trying to save what is left.
“I was told that JSC stepped up and offered help to this effort. I was more than happy to open up the lab in Building 10,” said Michael Meadows, facility manager/technical assistant in the Engineering and Science Contract Group.
Meadows has provided volunteers with everything they will need to complete their task, including shop air, sink, stainless-steel tables, rolls of cloth, drip rack, lights, magnifying lights and all safety equipment necessary. “(The train volunteers) have been very nice and fun visitors to work with in Building 10. As the facility manager, I am very happy with the effort and progress to bring back the trains,” Meadows said.
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The Galveston Railroad Museum was ravaged by Hurricane Ike's storm surge. | | |
The same vacuum chamber used to test the Apollo capsule is now drying out the paper documents the museum housed. After a careful disinfecting process, “many of the documents are salvageable,” said Michael Ward, a train enthusiast and museum volunteer temporarily working at JSC.
“It’s a wonderful project,” Ward said. “The majority of these trains are collectors’ items worth $500 to $3,000, and some are irreplaceable.”
Ward is personally taking on the challenge of cleaning the model trains and buildings once on display at the museum. Inside the lab, Ward is uses Pine Sol, dish soap and an alcohol bath to clean the models. He then washes them with distilled water before drying them with compressed air.
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Michael Ward, train enthusiast and museum volunteer, cleans a model train at JSC. | |
“I would have done this out of my back yard if I had to. It would have been tearful to see these go to the bulldozer,” Ward said.
There are about 18 large boxes full of model trains and miniature train-set buildings at JSC, and Ward hopes to be done restoring them by mid November.
“Mike Meadows has set me up for success,” Ward said. “These trains have been a fixture at the museum for many years.”
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Trains and buildings waiting to be salvaged. | | |
The Galveston Railroad Museum was hit by a Category 2 hurricane with 110-mph winds and a storm surge of a Category 4 hurricane. The entire Galveston Railroad Museum went underwater, ranging from about four feet to as high as 13 feet as the dirty saltwater swept up from Galveston Bay. Museum officials say they are doing everything possible to salvage as much as they can. However, the museum currently has no electricity, no phones, no fax and no Internet.
The museum formerly featured a MoPac 13895 Short Bay Window Caboose offering visitors 15-minute rides, three steam engines and three diesel engines on site, a model train exhibit and a display of railroad china, from dishes and cups to saucers.
Heather Nicholson
Johnson Space Center, Houston
281-483-3317
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