CHEYENNE, Wyo. — The Cheyenne City Council has voiced support for a rail-oriented tourist attraction that will initially include a series of historic railcars and could expand to include Union Pacific’s roundhouse and the Big Boy locomotive currently on display elsewhere in the city.
The Wyoming Tribune Eagle reports the council last month approved a Memorandum of Understanding between the city and its visitors bureau, Visit Cheyenne, for the Cheyenne Railroad Visitor Experience, and learned more details of the project in a Friday session. The city will contribute up to $120,000 for the project that, in its first phase, will include the group of cars adjacent to the former UP depot and utilize a pump house built by the railroad in 1892. There will also be dining and retail facilities.
The project could later include a footbridge from the depot to the UP roundhouse and an expansion of the roundhouse area, according to former Visit Cheyenne CEO Darren Rudloff, who heads a task force working on the project. Rudloff said he hopes plans for the project can be finalized by next spring.
This could get exciting!
Would they buy the roundhouse, steam shop and turntable from UP? If so what would happen to the UP steam program?
Looks like something most railfans (like me) would want to see.