Railroad museum set for spring completion

Construction on the Nevada State Railroad Museum at the busiest intersection in town is progressing at a rapid pace and because of that, is set for a spring completion.

According to Museum Director Christopher MacMahon, work on the museum is progressing nicely as construction is anticipated to be complete on the visitor center, welcome plaza, and new passenger loading platforms in late April. Once construction, which began in January of this year, on the building is complete, exhibit installation will begin and is expected to go through July. He anticipates opening the building to the public in fall of next year.

“When looking at the structure, it’s wonderful to see the progress that has been made in such a short period of time and know the benefits the facility will provide as we move forward,” MacMahon said. “Yet, it also makes me keenly aware of the limitations of the facility and what will be needed in the years to come.”

He went on to say that the visitor center was always meant to be a jumping-off point for the remainder of the campus.

“One look at the master plan will tell you this is just the first step of several that are needed to build out the museum campus and help preserve our historic collection,” he said. “I remain optimistic that the Legislature will take the excitement and momentum generated from this project and approve design for the future exhibit hall, which will allow the museum to put the majority of its locomotives and rolling stock collection indoors, better preserving it for future generations.”

While there have been a handful of minor changes along the way, such as a single flagpole instead of two, MacMahon said there are three larger changes to the project the public may notice between the design renderings and the final project.

Two of these changes resulted from price increases between the time when the project was designed to when it was funded. Rather than having two shade structures over the passenger loading platform, a single shade canopy will be utilized to reduce the project’s overall cost. Secondly, the inclusion of photovoltaic panels (solar panels) would have put the project over budget. The electrical infrastructure was incorporated to add photovoltaic at a later time, but the panels will not be included with the initial build due to cost increases.

The third change, he said, resulted from a partnership between the Nevada Division of Museums and History and the Nevada System of Higher Education. A small, 40-foot communication tower will be erected behind the visitor center during construction that will permit NSHE high-speed communication with the Desert Research Institute.

In return, NSHE will provide high-speed internet and wi-fi to the visitor center to the museum helping them “provide quality education and life-long learning to all our guests.”

Once complete, the visitor center will offer the first indoor space for guests since the museum’s creation in 1991, MacMahon said.

Within the 3,800 square feet of exhibit space, guests will explore how railroads helped facilitate mining booms in Nevada, examine the railroads that built Hoover Dam, investigate the top-secret Jackass &Western Railroad that operated at the Nevada Test Site. They’ll also learn how railroads continue to shape and build Nevada today.

In addition to the exhibit space, there will also be an archive to store the museum’s document and artifact collections, a reading room for those conducting research at the museum, and a multipurpose room that will be utilized as a classroom for educational programs and school tours but also be made available for public meeting space when not used for museum programming.

The project also includes a larger museum store, new parking lot with a bus loading/unloading area, a welcome plaza, and a railroad passenger loading area with tracks on either side.

“Although less glamorous, there will also be office space for the museum’s staff, which we are all looking forward to as all five staff members currently share a single 10x10 office,” he said.

The museum is expected to be another draw for Las Vegas visitors coming through Boulder City on their way to Hoover Dam.

“The opening of the new railroad museum in 2026 will be a game-changer for our region,” Boulder City Chamber of Commerce CEO Jill Rowland-Lagan said last week. “It will draw visitors from across state lines, strengthen our tourism economy, and celebrate a chapter of history that helped shape the American West.”