Tug of war over railyard history

The developers of the downtown railyard have picked a fight with the state of California – right when they're about to ask the state for many millions of dollars in bond funds to get their industrial site ready for building.

At the core of the dispute are two of the seven historic railyard shop buildings. These are the largest buildings, the spaces where workers once repaired and made boilers and steam engines. One of the buildings, the erecting shop, has brick walls dating to 1868, the dawn of the transcontinental railroad.

The state Department of Parks and Recreation has long been working on the assumption that it would receive the boiler shop and the erecting shop for an expansion of the California State Railroad Museum. Former railroad owner Union Pacific even let the museum move its equipment and rail cars into those buildings in 1999.

Museum staff and volunteers use the boiler shop to restore cars and locomotives and to build exhibits for the museum. The erecting shop contains part of the museum's collection of locomotives. Trains move back and forth on a 65-ton transfer table that the museum spent $500,000 to restore.

The parks department envisions something much grander, however: a hands-on technology museum where visitors can watch engines being restored, use computers to load their own "freight" into cars, listen to the voices of railyard workers in a recording studio and drive trains in simulated cabs.

But since it bought the railyard from Union Pacific late last year, developer Thomas Enterprises has backed away from the plan. Local representatives say the Georgia company, headed by financier Stan Thomas, is willing to part with only the boiler shop.

While Thomas Enterprises hasn't disclosed how much it paid for the 240-acre railyard, city officials say tax records suggest it was about $75 million.

Richard Rich, development director for Thomas Enterprises, questioned this week the rail museum's attendance figures and its financial ability to carry out its expansion plan.

The historic shops form the core of what Thomas hopes to turn into a bustling district of 12,000 residential units, office buildings and hotels.

"By making the shops an exciting place with arts venues, a public market, eateries and entertainment, Thomas will be able to attract buyers for future housing," Rich said.

"We're trying to take a Superfund site and turn it into an active, thriving community. The hurdles are absolutely enormous," he said. "We have to do it with the assets we have, and the assets we have are the central shops."

Rich said the shops district should be geared toward the future, not just Sacramento's past identity as the terminus of the transcontinental railroad.

"Does it make sense for us to give half the (square footage) in the central shops so the rail museum can triple in size?" Rich asked. "Is this the biggest draw we can put in there?"

Rich, a former Disney executive, suggested that a hands-on, kid-friendly museum like the Exploratorium in San Francisco or Innoventions, a Disney attraction of corporate-sponsored exhibits highlighting scientific or technological development, would be a better choice.

Some top city officials agree with his assessment. "I want to see people walking around, I want to see them eating and being entertained; I don't want to see it become wasteland," said City Manager Ray Kerridge. "If it becomes museum row, that could happen."

Kathy Daigle, associate director of the California State Railroad Museum Foundation, defended the park department's vision, saying a rail technology museum would be a strong draw. She said the museum would also give visitors an inside look at bullet trains and future train technologies.

She said the museum has raised $19.6 million in bond funds and private donations – about 80 percent of the money needed to improve the buildings.

That's more than Thomas Enterprises can say, she said. The developer says it needs to secure $300 million for streets, sewers, utilities and other improvements before construction on the first phase of the project can begin. Much of that money is expected to come from the city and state.

About the writer:

• The Bee's Mary Lynne Vellinga can be reached at (916) 321-1094 or mlvellinga@sacbee.com.