Ellis railroad history preserved
ELLIS Several
projects have been completed recently at the Ellis Railroad Museum,
911 Washington. The museum hosts 2,000 to 3,000 visitors annually.
Four non-profit groups are
involved with the facility.
Naturally one group is the
Ellis Railroad Museum and its volunteers, including Mildred Kutina
and Donna Mickelson, who alternate receiving visitors and assisting
customers in the gift shop.
In addition to railroad memorabilia,
a portion of the museum building is given over to a model railroad
display, and the Western Kansas Division of the National Model
Railroad Association, with about six active members, maintains
the display, according to member John Keefer of Hays.
The group´s newest display
is a German Model Train, HO scale, donated by Mrs. Fred Conger,
Hutchinson.
The second floor of the museum
houses an extensive doll collection owned by Vera Dillinger Burns
and placed in the museum in 1996.
Besides the museum, a small
train on the site offers rides to visitors. It is operated by
the Kansas Pacific Railroad Association (KPRA) and the BK&E Railroad
(standing for Buddy King and Ellis). The railroad is named after
King, who helped make it possible.
Members of KPRA are working
on the restoration of the Penokee Depot, built in 1916, and moved
to the site in 1994. Though the depot qualifies as an historic
building, the group does not plan to register it, so members
can make what improvements deemed necessary without restrictions
imposed by the state historical society, according to Richard
Fries, Ellis, member of KPRA and the BK&E Railroad.
Volunteers have painted the
depot´s interior, cleaned the wainscoting and are sanding
and varnishing the floors in the ticketmaster´s office
and waiting room. The group plans to sell tickets and use the
waiting room for train passengers.
The depot also includes living
quarters for the station master, which Fries said the group plans
to restore. Eventually, the depot could be available for meetings.
Repairs to the depot already
completed include installing a new roof, painting the exterior,
installing a new furnace and laying a brick sidewalk using some
bricks from the Salina depot.
The group also installed a
ramp that makes the train more handicapped accessible and a cover
to keep the train out of the sun in hot weather. Like everything
else at the facility, the train is operated by volunteers.
Museum hours from April through
Nov. 1 are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday and 1 to 5
p.m. Sunday. Winter hours, Nov. 1 through April 1, are 11 a.m.
to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday and 1 to 4 p.m. Sunday.
There is an admission charge
of $2 for adults and $1 for children 5 to 12. Children under
5 are admitted free with an adult.
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