Dear friends,
WHEELS is becoming busier and more successful by the day. Visitors from all over the world are enjoying our exhibits and new displays. Several people have said they want to move to Albuquerque and help WHEELS. The volunteers are remarkable, kind, helpful and steady.
The Sunday railyards market is busy and we have a booth there and send people to the museum from 10-2. We have had meetings with various community and neighborhood stakeholders to envision the potential for moving to the machine shop.
Lawrence Rael, city COO has advised us he wants WHEELS to expand into the 166,000 sq ft building, 5 stories high, where 40 locomotives were repaired monthly for decades. We are working with the #2926 locomotive group, Wings for Life and other partners to create a world class attraction, educational facility, tourist attraction, food mecca, major national exhibit spaces and much more. Of course we will need major sponsors, grants for this huge move.
Saturday, June 25, WHEELS has been asked to participate with the Mayor at the State of City address and city is making large posters of WHEELS and rail history for this event. We will have a booth and later we will be given the city’s pictures for display at the museum.
We will meet with head of City Economic Development, Charles Ashley next week to discuss growth of our mission and project.
Former Governor Bill Richardson called recently and is in support of our work as he has always been, having given $2 million to invest in the property when it was purchased by city in 2007.
Please call (505) 243-6269 with any ideas and to help.
Leba
NOTE: WHEELS Museum is a 501(c)3 organization in the Albuquerque Rail Yards dedicated to collecting, preserving and creating educational exhibits about the history of transportation in Albuquerque and New Mexico with emphasis on the impact on the development of the area. Our collections embrace the history of the railroads, the impact of the rail yards on Albuquerque, as well as automobiles, horse and wagon, and other modes of transportation.