Joshua Morris, curator of exhibits for the Smoky Hill Museum, knew he was on the right track when a group came to see the wrong exhibition.
The visitors, which included children, had wanted see the museum's previous exhibit, an examination of the paranormal and other ghostly phenomena. When Morris said that exhibit had been taken down to make room for a new one, they were disappointed.
But when Morris said the next exhibit would be about trains and railroads, one child's face lit up.
"The kid said, 'That's OK, railroads are great!' " Morris said. "Railroads bring out the inner child. They appeal to all ages."
The exhibit, "Rails, Roundhouses and Rust," opens Tuesday and runs through Dec. 5 at the museum, 211 W. Iron.
The exhibit will track the history of the rail and the mechanics of railroads through photographs, artifacts and interactive features, Morris said.
On display will be historical photographs of trains, rails and depots, including photos of 19th century-era depots in Salina, Bavaria and Falun; lists of railroad terms, train slang and job descriptions; and notable dates in railroad history, from the creation of the first Pullman sleeping car in 1859 to the last operation of a Railway Post Office car in 1977.
Also featured will be nonhistorical interactive features that include a small hand-powered rail car that rolls across the exhibit space on a set of wooden tracks; a hand-cranked piston that turns a set of steam locomotive wheels that Morris constructed; sound effects of locomotive gauges, whistles, bells and signals; and train trivia, where visitors can test their knowledge of railroad lore.
Former railroad employees
Train and railroad artifacts included in the exhibit already are part of the museum's collection, much of it courtesy of the local retired employees club of Union Pacific Railroad, said Lisa Upshaw, Smoky Hill Museum curator of collections and research.
Visitors entering the exhibit space will see a recreation of a rural train depot that Morris built.
"I didn't want it to identify one particular time of railroads," he said. "It's a generic train depot from the Midwest in the 19th century."
Putting together the railroad exhibit has been a fun project, Morris said, but it turned out to be much more complex than he originally anticipated.
"As simple as the exhibit looks, it was a challenge," he said. "There's a lot of little details -- like getting the steam wheels to fit together just right to make them work -- that took more time than I anticipated."
The railroad exhibit was sparked by numerous requests from museum patrons, said Smoky Hill Museum director Susan Hawksworth.
"It's been a popular subject with our visitors in the past," she said. "When we get a lot of requests like this, we file it away. Then when we plan our exhibit schedule, we see what artifacts we have and what our target audience is."
The target audience for this exhibit was obvious -- families, Hawksworth said, especially with kids.
"There were so many ways to approach the subject of railroads -- from immigration to town settlements," she said. "But we didn't want to go into that. We wanted an exhibit that children can get into, to show them how railroads work."
Railroad history highlights
1825 -- John Steven, of Hoboken, N.J., built the first steam locomotive in North America. It ran on a circular track in front of his house.
1826 -- The first railroad in America opened. The Granite Railway of Quincy, Mass., carried blocks of granite from the Bunker Hill Quarry to the Neponset River by means of horse-drawn cars.
1828 -- The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O) begins offering both freight and passenger services, launching the U.S. railroad industry. The B&O used horse-drawn cars until 1831.
1831 -- The first U.S.-built steam locomotive was placed into service on the Charleston and Hamburg Railroad, providing regular passenger service.
1859 -- The first Pullman sleeping car was put into operation.
1862 -- President Abraham Lincoln signed the Pacific Railway Act to construct the first transcontinental railroad. It was completed in 1869 at Promontory Summit, Utah.
1893 -- The American Railway Union is formed.
1929 -- W. Carrier built the first mechanical air conditioner for railroad cars.
1934 -- The first lightweight stream- liners are introduced -- Union Pacific's City of Salina and the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy's Zephyr.
1939 -- Electro-Motive Division displayed the first diesel-electric freight locomotives.
1950s -- Salina's passenger rail history mirrored that of the nation. Several lines ran through this area until the 1930s. The jitney, a small, two-car train, carried people from Lincoln (Kan.) to Salina. Its last run was in the 1950s.
1969 -- Sixteen railroad lines operated more than 8,000 miles of track in Kansas.
1971 -- The National Railroad Passenger Corp. (Amtrak) begins operation. Amtrak became the only long distance, inter-city passenger rail service in the U.S.
1977 -- The last operation of a Railway Post Office car.
-- Courtesy of the Smoky Hill Museum
nReporter Gary Demuth can be reached at 822-1405 or by e-mail at gdemuth@salina.com.
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