Company Profile
Rosenberg Railroad Museum
Company Overview
The Rosenberg Railroad Museum (the Museum) is located in historic downtown Rosenberg beside active rail lines. The Museum and its programs endeavor to create an environment where the public can engage in conversation, learning and reflection. The mission of the Museum is the preservation and education of railroading history in Fort Bend County, Texas.
Company History
In 1992, a group of citizens formed an exploratory committee to determine the feasibility of establishing a museum and since Rosenberg was named after a railroad official, and was platted by the Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe Railroad, the creation of the Rosenberg Railroad Museum (the "Museum") was the natural choice. In 1994 the Museum acquired its first group of artifacts including the 1879 private rail car, the Quebec. The Quebec was moved to the Museum grounds in 1995 and restoration work began. None of Rosenberg's original railroad structures had survived, except for Tower 17, and that structure was still in service, so there was a need to construct a building that would house the exhibits. By the end of 1998 construction began on the reproduction of the Rosenberg Union Depot (originally built in the late1800's) for use as a museum gallery.
The Museum building was completed in 2002. In June of that year, a Grand Opening was held, attracting thousands of people from across Fort Bend County.
In 2004, Union Pacific donated Tower 17 (in service since 1903) and all of its contents to the Museum. The tower was approximately 1/2 mile west of its present site. The tower was dismantled, moved to the museum and reconstructed on site. Reconstruction took two years which included making the interlocker an interactive exhibit for visitors to operate the signaling devices such as the wigwag and semaphores.
The tower was opened to the public in 2006, making it the only interactive exhibit of its kind in the United States where visitors are allowed to actually operate the interlocker machine and control signals. By 2011 theMuseum had acquired a MoPac Caboose and a HO model railroad exhibit and approximately 4,000 people visited during the year. In 2014 work began on the Garden Railroad, a G Gauge model railroad depiction of the Rosenberg and Richmond areas as they existed in the 1950's. This exhibit has become a guest favorite and a wonderful visual tool for educating guests about Rosenberg history and development.