Regarding the illumination of the railyards mentioned in the article "SACRAMENTO RAILYARDS ARE ALL AGLOW", this appears to be a stunt to drive a political wedge between the City of Sacramento and California State Parks over the historic buildings. The California State Railroad Museum occupies two of the buildings, one being the Boiler Shop (labelled SACRAMENTO LOCOMOTIVE WORKS and visible from the I-5 freeway), the other is the Erecting Shop east of the Boiler Shop. In between the two buildings is the CSRM Transfer Table, built at a cost of over $350,000 by donations to the museum. Together, these historic structures (part of the Erecting Shop predates construction of the Transcontinental Railroad) form the future Museum of Rairoad Technology, a concept supported by Union Pacific prior to their transfer of the property to Thomas Enterprises. Thomas Enterprises seems to envision trendy boutique stores and bistros in the shop buildings as opposed to museum/tourist business.

Thomas Enterprises is no friend of railroading. If the firm had it's way, the Museum's presence in the historic Railyards would also be history. They have already attempted to shut down the Museum's restoration shop function in the Boiler Shop by limiting access to the buildings to a few individuals with gate cards, excluding dozens of volunteers from their place of work. Thomas Enterprises has expressed themselves to key Museum personnel as less than sympathetic to preservation of railroad history, and uncooperative about supporting the Museum's major role in providing a spark of public interest as a main tourist attraction in the redeveloped railyard.

The Museum is facing a struggle to maintain it's goal of realizing a Museum of Railroad Technology through preservation of historic Central Pacific/Southern Pacific shop buildings, despite having dollars to make it happen. Thomas Enterprises seems only to care about making a fast buck, then leaving town. CSRM is here to stay, and has a proven record of world-class historic preservation and stewardship, along with the highest attendance of any California State Park and hndreds of volunteers for sustaining support.

As this drama moves forward, please do what you can to support CSRM's goal. If this means attending a City Council meeting to "pack the house" with supporters, please do it. Don't let the Museum of Railroad Technology slip away!