Wheels Museum

The Rio Grande Chapter of the TCA has partnered with the Wheels Museum to help with the operation of the O gauge display in the museum. We are dedicated to the preservation of toy trains and the history that these items preserve. We also enjoy the operation of those trains both old and new. This year we have decided to provide some additional support to the Wheels Museum via our annual Pumpkin Meet Raffle.

We have a brand-new Lionel Polar Express train set (retail value $400+) to be given away to some lucky winner. Donations are $2 per ticket, 6 tickets for $5. Tickets will be available at the museum. The drawing will occur November 12th 2023 at the RARG train show held at the Pilots Pavilion, Balloon Fiesta Field.

If you would like to join us in operating trains at the museum, the Rio Grande Chapter will meet Saturday
October 14, 2023 at 9:30 am.
https://www.facebook.com/ABQToyTrains/

Wheels Museum Fall 2023 Newsletter

Wheels Museum is a non-profit, volunteer run organization. We very much would like to be open for more hours, but we need more volunteers to be able to do so. If you are interested call Leba or Janet at (505) 243-6269. 

The Wheels Museum, Inc. is a 501C3 non-profit community organization whose mission is to create a transportation museum at the downtown Albuquerque Steam Locomotive Repair Shops. We provide educational programs, tours and presentations for the community in our 21,000 square foot historic building located at 2nd and Pacific, SW (1100 2nd Street, SW) Tax deductible donations are gratefully accepted.  Contact Leba at leba4@aol.com.  

True West Magazine July/August 2022 
Jana Bommersbach

This truly was the “engine” for Albuquerque.

The first thing Rabbi Isador Freed did in 1920, as he de-parted the train in a dusty New Mexico town, was drop to his knees and declare, “Albuquerque is a special paradise on earth, and we will never leave this place.”

It had been a long journey, as the Rabbi and his family were escaping the antisemitism of Russia. But he was right—they never left, becoming a mainstay family as Albuquerque grew from 15,000 to a half-million today.

His granddaughter, Leba Freed, has honored the family by devoting 26 years to saving that railroad station. (Her father, who was eight when they arrived, grew up to become a major merchant—and a devoted friend to this magazine, advertising for decades.)

“I wanted to give back to Albuquerque,” Leba says.

More

Box Seats from Tingley Field

Tingley Field (originally named Apprentice Field and then Rio Grande Park) was a baseball stadium in Albuquerque, which served as the home of professional baseball in Albuquerque from 1932 to 1968. 

The site of Tingley Field was originally one of several public baseball fields used by Albuquerque’s various semi-professional teams in the early 20th century. One of these teams was the Apprentices, made up of Santa Fe Railroad employees. In the late 1920s the Apprentices leased the field and built a fence and wooden grandstand with a capacity of roughly 1,000. The stadium was located at the intersection of 10th Street and Atlantic Avenue, across the street from the Rio Grande Zoo.

Model Steam Engine

Our youngest WHEELS volunteer, Andrew Delgado, has refurbished the model “Atlantic Type” steam engine donated to WHEELS by the Explora Museum.  Andrew has the model running and it is a hands-on exhibit in which visitors can control the locomotive on its stationary platform.

Meetings

WHEELS is a wonderful place for your group to have an interesting meeting.  You can have your meeting and then experience a talk about WHEELS and the Railyard history and a tour of the museum.  If you are interested, please contact Leba at (505) 243-6269 or email to Leba4@aol.com. 

Wheels Museum Summer 2023 Newsletter

Wheels Museum is a non-profit, volunteer run organization. We very much would like to be open for more hours, but we need more volunteers to be able to do so. If you are interested call Leba or Janet at (505) 243-6269. 

The Wheels Museum, Inc. is a 501C3 non-profit community organization whose mission is to create a transportation museum at the downtown Albuquerque Steam Locomotive Repair Shops. We provide educational programs, tours and presentations for the community in our 21,000 square foot historic building located at 2nd and Pacific, SW (1100 2nd Street, SW) Tax deductible donations are gratefully accepted.  Contact Leba at leba4@aol.com.  

Albuquerque The Magazine | April 2023

1994 marked the year that Leba Freed decided to try to save theABQ Railyards, and sixteen years later, the Wheels Museum was born. More

© 2023 Albuquerque The Magazine All Rights Reserved.

WHEELS Museum Newsletter Spring 2023

Volunteers are always welcome at WHEELS. We especially need more volunteers as we add Saturday visiting times to the museum.

WHEELS will be asking the NM Legislature for funds to continue our project to add new track next to the museum for full size rail car exhibits. We are also seeking for funds for WHEELS development as the Railyards develop. If you can help or simply know legislators who might help please contact Leba at (505) 243-2629.

By: George Gonzales
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) –  The city has come out with a new master plan 16 years after buying the Albuquerque Rail Yards to redevelop and preserve it. The new plan lays out the rules for what can and can’t go at the site. It also lists what they’d like to see from developers.

The 167-page plan lays out rules, such as maximum height limits for new buildings and mandating shops along Second Street facing the Barelas Neighborhood as the city looks for developers to build apartments, a hotel, shops, restaurants, galleries and performing spaces. They also plan to refurbish old buildings. The updated plan also pushes for a new train stop at the rail yards, underground parking garages, and a rebuilding of the historic turntable and smokestack. Leba Freed with the Albuquerque Wheels Museum said in the same June meeting… “The turntable is the heart and soul of this property along with these historic buildings. so to me, it is very obvious that the turntable has got to be functioning.” More

Leba Freed has been recognized by the Albuquerque Historical Society with an Albuquerque History Accolade for her efforts over two decades to preserve Albuquerque’s historic railyards and for creating a museum that honors the nation’s history of transportation.

Leba Freed’s family is one of the mainstay families in Albuquerque’s history. Her father created Freed and Company which had a store on Central downtown for decades. Leba worked there as a child and became the owner/operator later in life. During these years, she rarely gave any notice to the abandoned buildings that were mostly home to pigeons in the 1990s. However, a visit there to the enormous structures caused her to envision turning these industrial Gothic spaces into a world-class museum of transportation. She imagined that the museum would showcase how all forms of transportation have contributed to the nation’s prosperity and the history of Albuquerque specifically. It would pay tribute to the men and women who built the buildings and worked there helping to move people and goods across the country.

More

© 2022 Albuquerque Historical Society, Inc.

WHEELS Museum Winter 2023 Newsletter

Volunteers are always welcome at WHEELS.  We especially need more volunteers as we add Saturday visiting times to the museum.

WHEELS will be asking the NM Legislature for funds to continue our project to add new track next to the museum for full size rail car exhibits.  We are also seeking for funds for WHEELS development as the Railyards develop.  If you can help or simply know legislators who might help please contact Leba at (505) 243-2629.