Wheels Museum

Leba’s Passion, Leba’s Dream
From the brochure:
«The WHEELS Museum, Inc. was established in 1996 with the goal of saving and redeveloping the steam locomotive repair shops in downtown Albuquerque… They were the centerpiece of our community and can again become a major attraction for history, culture and tourism…»
Albuquerque New Mexico morphed into its modern form because of the Santa Fe Railroad Depot. Between 1880 and 1956, the deport was the main support location for steam locomotion for the Atchison Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad. Steam engines were replaced by diesels, diesel maintenance went elsewhere During the 1990’s, the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway removed the Albuquerque Santa Fe railroad depot from its property inventory.
Leba Freed decided the Santa Fe Depot must not be forgotten. The WHEELS Museum has been her historical preservation/​museum response. I’m just a visiting kid from Phoenix trying to summarize a lot of detail. If you want to know more, it is there to be fond.
Most of the Depot Yard belongs to a movie production company. Trespass or take pictures on it and you and your imaging device will suffer the consequences. You see it in movies and TV all the time anyway, don’t worry about it.
Leba’s personality, skill, passion and devotion got 20,000 square feet of building space and a large parking lot carved out for the museum. Volunteers and donors have steadily improved the space, adding exhibit materials for many years. A lot of the focus is railroad. Leba, being who she is, has opened the door to wheeled items and items relating to the commerce of wheels. This is an eclectic and interesting place. It has accumulated unique high-​quality items of historical significance found in few other places in our nation. Farm wagons, town buggies and surreys.
Other people’s passions have come to rest in Leba’s dream. There are at least three very large model train layouts. One of them represents all of New Mexico, another a southwest setting, and yet another, a model railroader’s escape from reality into a Southwest world set in the 1950’s and ’60’s.
There’s a replica carreta, a restored farm tractor, automobiles of all ages, an experimental aircraft, exhibits about the Santa Fe Depot, a railroad «speeder» track inspection car being rebuilt, a library of documents, shelves of advertising and mementos. A corner hosts a binnacle and other nautical gear, a wall holds iconic advertising art for the railroad age.
It’s all in the process of becoming. By the time you read this, the volunteers will have organized and assembled items into better-​interpreted spaces. More items will have arrived. Leba and her Board of Directors will Wheel on and Albuquerque will have a very memorable space honoring the Santa Fe Railroad and transportation in the New Mexican West.