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Perry Wiley
Hatteberg's People
Reporter: Larry Hatteberg
| July 24, 2005--Perry Wiley of Wellington had this little collection of ‘train’ memorabilia in his basement. Problem is, his ‘little’ collection could fill a museum.
So, he, with the help of the city of Wellington, created the Panhandle Railroad Museum. |
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The kid in all of us loves trains…there is something about these metal monsters that people like Perry Wiley want us to remember in his own personal Wellington train museum.
“It’s in a great setting. We’re here with an old ‘iron horse’ of the Santa Fe. It’s in a historic building. Inside is all the memorabilia I’ve been able to gather up so far.
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The city owned building was perfect for the museum and Perry jumped at the chance to display his train memorabilia.
“It’s not really as good, you don’t enjoy it as much,
unless you can share it with somebody.”
“To me, it’s preserving part of the past and of course we need to remember the past in order to appreciate the future.”
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The museum is full of little moments of train history, like these old spittoons….what was acceptable then, certainly not acceptable now.
“No, and you don’t see them used thankfully.” |
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| Outside, more history sits on the nearby tracks.
“It makes the museum a lot more interesting, just to have it there.”
“The wife is probably responsible for me having some of these higher dollar items because she says if you want them you better get them now, because they won’t be available later. So that’s all I needed to go get them.”
“I think it’s going to bring people to town just to see this museum.”
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“Practically every position on the railroad had a specific designation. Of course you had your conductor, you had your porter and I hope to get a sample of all of them someday, but some of them are hard to come by.”
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“Knowing that it was up to you to know whether or not you were going to get it to the end of the line in one piece or not.
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| He always did. Now those memories are for others to see and enjoy and the Panhandle Railroad museum in Wellington, Kansas.
“We tend to remember the good and forget the bad.” |
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| The Panhandle Railroad Museum is located at 425 E. Harvey in Wellington.
Hours are 10-4 everyday except Monday. |
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