Sacramento Railyard sale picks up speed

"Railyard sale picks up speed: Amid flurry of last-minute details, developer hopes to close the deal today" by Mary Lynne Vellinga, © Sacramento Bee, December 28, 2006. (News Article)

"The city of Sacramento's longtime quest to revitalize its urban core is expected to hit a major milestone today when the shuttered downtown railyard passes into the hands of a private developer — ending nearly 150 years of railroad ownership. ... The city is ... to purchase 33 acres of railyard land from Thomas Enterprises, as well as the historic train depot on I Street. ... the California Department of Parks and Recreation, ... has long planned to convert two of the seven historic shop buildings left on the property to a museum of railroad technology. ... The railyard dates back to the late 1860s, when Central Pacific filled in the former Sutter Lake, also known as China Slough, to build a complex of buildings that grew to become the largest industrial complex west of the Mississippi. Locomotive engines and cars were built and repaired in the shops, which employed about 4,000 people in their heyday during the 1930s and '40s. Union Pacific closed the railyard shops for good in 1999, and tore down all but seven buildings — the ones considered the most historically significant. ... " [More]

[from the R&LHS Newsgroup.]