Granby musuem derailed by Union Pacific

GRANBY, Colorado — A Grand County Model Railroad Club project has been derailed due to a Union Pacific Railroad campaign to clean up its territory.

The club, now 11 members strong, purchased building along the railroad in Granby for $100 at a county treasurer’s sale last July.

The club planned to turn the building into the Moffat Road Railroad Museum upon completion of renovations, but a letter from Union Pacific says the club must “remove” its building by Aug.1.

“Obviously, this delays things,” said club treasurer Jack Bakken.” We had hoped to be in operation by 2009, but I don’t think that’s likely to happen.”

The land on which the building stands is leased from Union Pacific. The railroad company’s push for 2008 is to remove, replace or renovate all old and dilapidated buildings in various forms of ownership along its rails from Denver to Glenwood Springs in an effort to make the company’s properties more presentable, said Union Pacific General Superintendent John Rourke.

“It’s a huge undertaking,” he said.

Each building is being reviewed on a “case-by-case” basis, Rourke said.

Bakken estimates that $15,000 in materials have already been put into the club’s building. The club’s plea for clemency to Union Pacific headquarters in Omaha, Neb. have been unsuccessful.

Since acquisition of the building, the club has rebuilt an office, repaired the floor, put in a new ceiling, drywalled and removed 133 tires that were left in the building, among other projects.

Now that the building needs to be moved or demolished, “We really have to start from scratch,” Bakken said, holding the certified letter in his hands.

Club members may be building a new structure rather than spend money to disassemble and rebuild the old one, having to bring it up to code.

The Moffat Railroad Museum, Bakken said, would celebrate the Moffat Road, which rail pioneer David Moffat started building in 1902 to be a line from Denver to Salt Lake City. But the Moffat project got as far as Craig before he ran out of funds and died.

“We’d model everything between Denver and Craig on the Moffat Road,” Bakken said.

Around 1904-1905, the railroad arrived at Granby, and in 1906, Kremmling, where a depot was built.

That depot still stands today, and the Grand County Historical Association and the town of Kremmling are racing to save it from being part of Union Pacific’s demolition project.

As many as 400 residents have already signed a petition in favor of acquiring and relocating the building somewhere within town, and the town is willing to help with finding grant funds for the project, according to Kremmling Town Manager Ted Soltis.

“The goal is to move the structure and preserve it,” said Yvonne Knox of the Historical Association.

“It is the last existing depot of that floor plan that’s made of frame that was on the Moffat line in all of western United States,” she said.