As railfans we would have liked to see the San Jose Roundhouse become the site for a San Jose railroad museum but Caltrain and UP had other plans for that area. The Fairgrounds site seemed like a good compromise and the CTRC guys had a good plan on how to use the land but the county decided they too have other plans for their land. The CTRC guys have been working with the city to find another location but the city has to weigh the options and how the land use will benefit the most people or how the city can get the most return from their buck. Sadly for us railfans there is a lot more people interested in soccer than in railroads. Remember that sports organizations pay a fee to the city for the use of the fields. It is doubtful that the RR museum would generate comparable income.

This is the same problem that the GGRM is facing. San Francisco had other plans for the Hunters Point area and a RR museum won’t fit in with the development. Maybe they could get the old Bayshore roundhouse but Brisbane is also looking at that land as being very valuable for development. Searching up and down the peninsula shows that any chunk of land worth turning into a museum is probably worth over a million bucks per acre. It is too big of an asset to turn over to an organization for limited return.

The PLA/Niles Canyon Railway is also on public land but currently have the support of Alameda County, the city of Fremont and the Niles Merchants Assn. So maybe Mr. Luna’s comments in the news article present the only real hope for railfans to have a railroad museum in the Bay Area.