Information on this site will be expanded to tell the story of the Historic Depot, exhibits for the Southern Arizona Transportation Museum (SATM) and the Locomotive #1673 Ramada on the Historic Depot property.

OPT Volunteers envisioned the development of a transportation museum to display exhibits telling the story of the railroads of Southern Arizona for many years. That vision is now reality at the former Southern Pacific/Union Pacific Railroad Station at Toole and Fourth. This property has been restored to its 1941 design by the City of Tucson as the Historic Depot and is home to Locomotive 1673 and the SATM.

The current station property was completed by the Southern Pacific Railroad in 1907 with Southern Pacific staff engineer J.D. Wallace and staff architect D. J. Patterson designing the structure. The station was completed in August/September 1907 for a total cost of $665,000. A Mission Revival style, the walls were constructed of double brick supplied by the Tucson Pressed Brick Co. (founded by Quintus Monier) from kilns near Sentinel Peak (now referred to as A Mountain).

In 1941 enlargement of the station began with passenger facilities moving to a temporary facility at the east end of the station. Renovation of the station was completed in April 1942. The renovation increased square footage by approximately one third with railroad forces completing most of the work. The extension of the arcade and construction of a pedestrian subway and ramps beneath the rails for passenger access to tracks north of the station increased the final construction costs from the original $68,000 to $234,000.

The station property was offered for sale in 1993 by the Southern Pacific Railroad and purchased by the City of Tucson from the Union Pacific Railroad in September 1998 for $2.lM. The Mayor & Council appointed the Downtown Intermodal Task Force in 1998 to develop a Master Plan for the station property. OPT Volunteers W. Eugene Caywood, Chairman of the Board and CEO of Old Pueblo Trolley and Howard A. Greenseth, formerly a Vice President of OPT and the founding Chair of the Museum Division Management Committee served on the Task Force.

The Intermodal Task Force worked with City staff and consultants to develop a plan and their final report was accepted by Mayor and Council on June 28, 1999.

Decisions were made to

• renovate the buildings to the 1941 era designs
• designate the vault buildings for a transportation museum
• assign a site for the former Southern Pacific mogul type locomotive #1673.

Other ancillary buildings remaining on the station property include the Roadmaster's and Railway Express structures.

On March 16, 1992, Mayor Miller and the City Council appointed the Locomotive #1673 Task Force to restore the former mogul type Southern Pacific locomotive at Himmel Park and find a more suitable display site. The locomotive appeared in the movie OKLAHOMA, filmed in Southern Arizona in 1954. The Task Force raised funds and donated over 5000 volunteer hours over the span of the ten year project. The completion of the restoration phase was celebrated at Himmel Park March 20, 1994, to coincide with the arrival of the first train to Tucson on March 20, 1880. With a site assigned for the locomotive at the former Southern Pacific station on Toole Avenue the group raised additional funds enabling preparation of the site by S&L Contracting Company of Phoenix and the locomotive and tender were moved on December 2, 2000. Architectural and engineering plans were prepared by Poster Frost Associates, Inc. for a locomotive ramada and it was completed and dedicated in September 2002. Scheduled bi-monthly tours have been conducted and are available by contacting the SATM.

In July 2000, Tucson Mayor Walkup approached Howard A. Greenseth, about ideas for establishing a transportation museum for Tucson. Other interested citizens joined in the discussions and although the Mayor's original idea of developing the former El Paso and Southwestern Railroad roundhouse was ahead of its time, the group continued to meet and discuss the idea of a transportation museum. W. Eugene Caywood agreed to chair meetings of the group and it began to develop a Southern Arizona Transportation Museum concept. The consortium of members included representatives from the National Model Railroad Association, Old Pueblo Trolley, Inc., Locomotive #1673 Task Force, Southern Arizona Society of Model Engineers, Tucson Garden Railway Society, Gadsden Pacific Division Toy Train Operating Museum, Arizona Southwestern Model Railroad Society, the National Railway Historical Society and the Southern Pacific Historical and Technical Society.

The group was successful in securing a grant under Mayor Walkup's Back to Basics program to explore design ideas for the vault buildings. In 2002 a proposal, through the Pima Association of Governments for Federal Transportation Enhancement funding, was successful in amount of $397,050 to complete interior exhibits, with OPT administering the grant. In July of 2003 another proposal to the North American Railway Foundation was successful with $24,000 provided for the necessary matching funds for the federal grant.

Opened in 2005, the museum will appeal to many visitors, from children beginning to learn about transportation, to the elders whose earliest memories were of riding on trains, to the railroad workers who made it all possible.

Exhibits present the history of the Southern Pacific Railroad influence in Tucson, the station property site and Locomotive #1673. Changing exhibits will tell the story of freight and passenger railroading in Southern Arizona. A program to video tape conversations with retired railroad workers and Tucson citizens will further document the history of railroading in Tucson.

With the ever expanding mission of Old Pueblo Trolley, Inc., a recent reorganization took place with a number of divisions being established, one of which is the Museum Division, known as the Southern Arizona Transportation Museum. In September 2003 volunteers from the former Locomotive #1673 Task Force joined the Museum Division to continue to offer tours of the locomotive Ramada.

Contact Museum Director Laura Caywood-Barker at satmdirector@yahoo.com for information.

by Howard A Greenseth, updated 4/2005 by P. L. Dunford

Southern Pacific Depot ca 1941