GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ) – Green Bay’s National Railroad Museum has plans for a major expansion.
Potentially, the $20 million project is just a few years away and officials say it will become a major destination spot for the area.
“What you’re going to be able to see is basically a big room with multiple bays in it and each bay will have two to three, maybe up to four different pieces of rolling stock. Each one you’ll be able to enter into,” Jacqueline Frank, the National Railroad Museum’s executive director, tells FOX 11. “In the center of the room you’re actually going to be able to see a turntable that’s going to be able to turn all of the pieces.”
The railroad museum is still in the process of fundraising, looking inside the Green Bay community and elsewhere.
“We’re also talking to railroads, we’re talking to private individuals from around the United States and we already have some really significant donations from individuals from Chicago and other areas as well,” said Frank.
She said fundraising will take a year or so, and the construction will take at least 2 years. Architects working on the project say the original museum buildings will be kept where they are.
In 2015, museum officials say they had 86,000 visitors which was up 10,000 from the previous year. They believe that number will continue to grow.
In addition, the museum received a newly restored Canadian National Railway boxcar. It is the first major rolling stock donation to the museum in more than 10 years.
