The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Railroad museum restoration keeps rolling
The Painesville Railroad Museum continues chugging along with renovations during their off-season.
Originally the NYC Painesville Depot, the 125-year-old building located at 475 Railroad St. ceased operating as a train station in 1971. The building served then as a Greyhound station until 1988 when it was left unused.
Then, in 1993, Ed Dunlap purchased the property with the intentions of opening a restaurant.
Dunlap went as far as gutting what remained of the station’s interior before experiencing a change of heart and donating the property in 1997 to the Western Reserve Railroad Association, under which the Painesville Railroad Museum operates.
While moderate renovations started in earnest once the museum was first established, it was not until 2015, the same year that the city of Painesville deemed the location an official historic district, that a series of dedicated renovations were undertaken.
The repairs are openended on a rolling schedule that is dependent upon fund allocation. Additional exterior renovations are also dependent upon cooperative weather.
‘The city has been extremely good with us,” says the museum’s vice president, Tom Pescha. “They’ve given us an open-ended building permit for restoration.”
To cover the restoration’s expenses, the museum applies for grants, puts on several fundraisers throughout the year, and is always accepting individual donations.
“In the last four years we’ve spent over $50,000, and that’s just materials. We do all the labor.” Pescha adds, “Most of our restoration crew are retired, most are over the age of 75.”
For Pescha, one of the highlights to the renovation is the restoration to the windows that line where the ticket booth faced adjacent rail lines. Left boarded up with old plywood, the windows needed plenty of attention from Pescha and museum president Jim Wendorf.
“Once the plywood finally came down it was the first time sunlight shined through for the past 50 years,” Pescha comments.
Another focus of the restoration was the caboose that sits just outside of the museum. Originally donated from Lubrizol in 2000, the historic caboose fell victim to arson in 2006 and was reduced to no more than its steel frame. Since, the caboose has undergone extensive and ongoing remodeling with the smell of fresh cut wood still lingering within.
Pescha and Wendorf intend on utilizing the caboose as a small party center for patrons.
The museum’s biggest construction project, however, is still in its planning phase.
Drafted to stand beside the current museum, the Lionel Experience and Event Center will boast a banquet hall that aims to host 200 people in lower level.
On its main floor, the new building will hold one of the most comprehensive post WWII series of Lionel model train collections in the U.S., gifted from a single donor.
The new building has an estimated cost of $3.2 million with $1 million already pledged, according to the museum.
“We’d like to see some local corporations get involved and donate some money,” Pescha says. “If they pay a sizable amount they can have naming rights to certain rooms. This will become a tourist attraction. Railroaders and prototypical train enthusiasts will come through here to see it and come to Painesville.”
The museum opens to the public 6-9 p.m. Fridays, and 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. the first and third Saturdays of the month from May through October.