What to say about the San Jose group? They go by CTRC - The California Trolley and Railroad Corporation, but actually, it seems to be two groups in one: the Kelly Park trolley operation the the mainline/steam component.

The trolley operation at Kelly Park seems to have settled into a stable and productive existence. They have a small fleet of restored streetcars with more stored at VTA's Guadalupe Division and some track at History Park on which to operate.

The other half of the group is involved with the ongoing (30 year) restoration of SP 4-6-2 2479 which was on display at the SC County Fairgrounds since the end of steam. The group also has the disassembled remnants of the Lenzen Street roundhouse. They've trying to develop a museum for decades. From their website: "A railroad museum celebrating the rich legacy of railroading within Santa Clara County has been under development by CTRC since 1992. This project was originally intended to be located at the Santa Clara County Fairgrounds in San Jose, California; however on June 25, 2002, the Board of Supervisors voted to rescind support of our proposed railroad museum at that location."

Since then, they've looked at several locations within Santa Clara. About 8-9 years ago the plan was to build in DTSJ near where the Target on Coleman Avenue is located. I recall going to a Parks Commission meeting when CTRC was presenting the idea. CTRC also requested a letter of support from the railfan group that I belong to. The group was unable to acquire the necessary land at this location.

Other candidate locations were in north Santa Clara and San Jose near Kelly Park. According to the latest edition of the CTRC newsletter, they are now looking at building in Guadalupe river park near the Rotary Playgrounds, also just off Coleman.

To get back to JR's question about moving this group to Niles, I don't think it will happen. This writer's personal opinion is that it is a good idea to have fewer, stronger museums as opposed to multiple railroad museums that are fairly close to each other and compete for scarce resources, but that won't happen here.

As is obvious from reading the group's newsletters archived on their website, this group's leader is a former SC County supervisor who brings a politician's approach to the group and is Santa Clara County-centric. Unfortunately, they are letting politics into museum planning. The latest newsletter refers to "CTRC's pro-posed 'Steam to Sustainability' Railroad Museum will celebrate the best of the past to assure a better, more sustainable future." Really? Do we really need a politically correct museum? Does everything have to be "sustainable" now? I guess the straightforward name "San Jose Railroad Museum" was taken.

Anyway, judge for yourself. Everything in this post was surmised by reviewing their website at [www.ctrc.org]