Daily News




Galveston RR Museum

Towering at the head of the Strand, the vast Railroad Museum boasts one of the largest restored railroad collections in the southwest, and one of the five largest in the country, with more then 20,000 railroad items, including more than 40 engines and cars. Saved from demolition by the Moody Foundation, this impressive Art Deco building was once the Union Passenger Depot. Now the waiting room is filled with life-size plaster models of “ghosts of travelers past” telling tales of their Victorian rail adventure when Galveston and its railroads were at the heart of Texas commerce.

As you walk in the front door from the Strand, to your left you will observe what was the Harvey House restaurant, to your right was the ticket booth, and straight ahead was the news stand and the doors to the concourses. The waiting room is now called the People's Gallery and is populated by Ghosts of Travelers Past. The full-sized figures in the gallery were made with plaster molds of real persons, and depict individuals who might have passed through the waiting room in 1932. The figures were created in 1981 by Elliot and Ivan Schwarz.