San Antonio Railroad Heritage Museum

05/30/2026

SARHM wildlife watch!

We had a visitor out at the museum this evening! This little Armadillo was out snooping around, assumably looking for food. It’s the first time we’ve seen one one the property!

05/18/2026

Now for the moment you all have been waiting for!!!!

SARHM is excited to announce, we have entered into an agreement with the Gulf & Ohio Railroad to acquire the LAST remaining San Antonio & Aransas Pass Railroad locomotive, the SA&AP #60!!!

This has been years in the waiting! We had been negotiating with the Stone Mountain Memorial Association prior to being sold to the G&O. When the locomotive was sold off, we never gave up hope that we could one day return the SA&AP 60 home to Texas and her home rails! Today, that dream has finally come to the point where it will become a reality!

With Scott Lindsay’s experienced eyes on site today, we did an initial survey of the locomotive and its condition. It definitely needs some serious work, but as Scott said, it’s all relative. In addition to worn out parts and missing parts, we will be putting together a plan of attack for the restoration plan….

Oh yes, we WILL be restoring her to operation!!!

The main, GLARING, issue we found was with the outer firebox wrap. The metal is thinned in several places, sever pitting, case iron rigid stay bolts, NO flexible stay bolts…. Yes, you read that right, no flexible stay bolts. For those that don’t know, that is the reason she was removed from steam operations at Stone Mountain in the early 90’s. We don’t know the full details, other than what Mr. Kevin Wood who worked on her at that time told us, that during the rebuild at that time, someone decided to replace the flexible stays with rigid stays. This is an immediate violation and can lead to a VERY catastrophic event occurring! There are also some extremely poor previous boiler patches on the firebox, that just will not pass inspection.

In the coming weeks, we will be posting more detailed photos (we’ve got a SD card full) where we will discuss other issues and repairs that will be needed. We will also be discussing our plan for the phases of restoration. For now, we are going to start with getting the Baldwin boiler diagrams and such to make a comprehensive restoration plan.

We will be launching a page on our website in the coming week with a dedicated donation button for this project!

WE ARE SO EXCITED ABOUT THIS!!!! IT’S A DREAM COME TRUE!!!!

05/17/2026

05/16/2026

Our EHRM staff was kept busy today with museum tours, and of course, the Star of the show was the Alamo. One visitor commented that it was like taking a step back into a time, when traveling by rail was an adventure.

05/15/2026

So this coming week, there’s going to be a HUGE announcement that is going to blow some minds! Not going to say a whole lot, but the accompanying photo will drop a hint….

We honestly can’t wait to make this announcement!

05/12/2026

Before and after. The toilet air vent off the MP 13777 had been damaged in transportation and needed to be repaired. After hammering and bending, we were able to restore the vents form.

05/12/2026

Today, we were up at the ASTA yard on Cedar Park to meet with an associate who’s going to be coming on board with SARHM and take the lead on the S2 project.

The last time we were working on the 158, we found that #1 and #3 axles have high/thin flanges and will need to be turned prior to movement. Evaluating our options, it was decided that the best decision on what action should be taken in regard to the wheels is to acquire our own wheel lathe. One of our members has offered to step up and acquire the wheel lathe for the organization, opening up new options and opportunities for SARHM in the future.

While we wait upon the arrival of the wheel lathe, we will be turning our attention to the S2s motor. The radiators need to be cleaned; drain hole in the nose, cleared; turbo needs to be lifted and properly seated.

While we have secured a single chime Leslie air horn and a classic bell (versus the electronic bell that it had once sported), we will need to fabricate a bell bracket and polish the bell so it can show its true nature!

We encourage you to keep a close eye on the progress as the closer we get to potentially starting up the old S2!

05/12/2026

So we have a small problem with the truck off the MP 13777. In the two pictures below, the first photo is the side bearing roller housing, as it should be. The one in the second photo apparently was over stressed in a derailment and all but 3/4” has broken through. You can visually see the angle of the wall on the one side, causing the opening to be wider than it should be. We will have to replace the side bearing roller housing before we can place the truck back under the caboose.

Next up, bolster removal!

05/05/2026

Looks like the Glidden Sub is down for a little bit…