Members of the CTRC leadership have been briefing city agencies and San Jose City Council on conceptual plans for the San Jose Steam Railroad Museum Park.

The location is a vacant privately owned parcel near downtown alongside the Guadalupe River Park trail.  Plans are underway to enlist the fiscal and political support to protect the property and eventually fund the project.  Toward this effort, CTRC has created documents (web link to San Jose Steam Railroad Museum Park), presentations and a model **TODO** (web link to model pictures Provided in CD) to share within the community.

One block west of the original 1864 San Francisco and San Jose Railroad depot site, the museum location and surrounding area was once the focal point for the transshipment activities of San Jose’s thriving canning and food processing industries.  Additionally, the parcel is only two blocks west of the former Bassett and Market Street location of the arcade style railroad depot built in 1883.  Furthermore, it is less than half mile east of the of the former site of the 1890’s San Jose Roundhouse and turntable at Lenzen Avenue, both city-designated historical landmarks.  These structures would be rebuilt and replicated to become focal points of the San Jose Steam Railroad Museum and would be placed in an appropriate historic geographic context providing a link to the heritage of the downtown community.

The vacant parcel provides a unique opportunity to create a railroad themed community park and a future destination point for users of the Guadalupe River Park trail.  Celebrating the area’s transshipment importance to San Jose’s agricultural and food processing past, relocation of city designated historical landmarks will supplement educational exhibits in preserving this portion of our community’s heritage for future generations.