San Angelo Railway Museum Revives National Train Days After 30 Years

The Railway Museum of San Angelo is treating National Train Days like a theatrical production this year, pairing a model train vendor marketplace with a live historical play for its first full celebration of the observance in nearly 30 years. The two-day event runs May 9-10 at 703 S. Chadbourne Ave., with the vendor hall spreading across the Pearl on the Concho Hotel and Conference Center at 333 Rio Concho Drive downtown.

The play, "On the Right Track," gives the weekend its most unexpected element. Written and produced by Dr. Linda Thorsen Bond, a museum board member who has authored more than 25 historic plays including previous productions at this same venue, the show puts Arthur Stilwell and Fred Harvey on stage with authentic stories drawn from railroading history. Performances run through May 17, with guests joining Harvey Girls for treats and tea as part of the experience. For visitors who know Stilwell as the Kansas City Southern visionary or Harvey as the man who transformed dining along the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe, the staging is less novelty than reunion.

The Model Train Jamboree vendor hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on May 9 and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on May 10, with dealers offering model trains, railroad items and hourly door prizes. The Tom Green Library will run a separate railway display with coloring pages for younger visitors, and downtown businesses are participating in a passport-stamp program where kids collect prize-eligible stamps across multiple sites.

Museum admission runs $10 for adults, $9 for military and first responders, and $7 for children between 5 and 15, with kids under 5 entering free. Tickets and additional information are available through the museum's website or by phone at 325-486-2140.

Amtrak launched the National Train Days observance in 2008 "to spread information about the advantages of railway travel and the history of trains in the United States." San Angelo last hosted a full celebration nearly three decades ago, making May's event the most ambitious the museum has mounted under the national banner, and one of the few in the country to add a ticketed theatrical run alongside the vendor floor.