GFSM News

GFSM Visitors Post Record Attendance in January 2012!

2012-02-03T13:51:00.000-08:00

GFSM got some great news this week: January paid attendance figures jumped more than 200% over the same month last year.

We’ve experienced a sizable jump in numbers and everyone is running around here with huge grins these days. Figures for January 2012 totaled 1,443 paid visitors with approximately 80% coming from areas outside of Greeley/Evans. Last year’s monthly attendance was 554 with about 15% coming from Greeley proper. The museum attracted more than 15,000 paid visitors in 2011, another record for our attraction.

Our popular non-profit, privately-funded museum will celebrate its third anniversary this coming Memorial Day weekend and we will continue to feature one of the world’s largest, continuous HO scale miniature railroads.

Michelle added that she just completed a successful trip to Texas to the American Bus Association and is expecting national bus tours to begin scheduling Greeley as a stopping point in the summer of 2013. “We’re excited about the bus prospects and we’re putting together a 15-20 minute promotional film for bus companies to show their guests as buses approach Greeley for visits.” Jim Inglis is heading up the museum’s “production company” which will turn out the film.

Field Trip for RE-1 4th Graders

2012-02-03T13:49:00.000-08:00

So what do forest fires, shipping port operations and railroad cabooses have in common? For one, they were all topics covered in the recent visitation from the Gilcrest, Pete Mirich (Lasalle), and Plattville Elementary fourth grades to the Greeley Freight Station January 26^th. More than 151 students, accompanied by their teachers, chaperones and principal toured the museum on a field trip designed to education youngsters in a host of railroad-related topics. The field trip was sponsored by Cecil Vigil of Farmer’s Inn Mexican Restaurant in LaSalle, and a service organization asking to remain anonymous.

Included on the program for the day were topics that covered the history of the caboose, railroad safety, forest fire prevention, movement of products through a shipping port, railroad car identification, Colorado railroad history, along with a good dose of train watching.

As an added bonus, the Union Pacific added to the event by having a giant “Blade train” from nearby Vestes run through Greeley during one of the sessions. Students got to see the giant wind machine blades up close and personal and the train rumbled north on the railroad's mainline.

Instructors for the day included Darrell Ellis, Loveland; Don Allender, LaPorte; Wayne Hansen, Cheyenne; Karl Luce, North Denver, Jake Reese, Johnstown; Bob Owens and David Trussell, Greeley. Other volunteers for the day included Barry Maxted, Johnstown, who handled the computer control of four trains that were demonstrated on the museum’s massive 5,500 sq. foot miniature railroad. Phil Todd, Steven Parsons, Christine Ellis, John Vonk and John Eisenman also helped out.

The program was under the direction of museum director Michelle Kempema and has been made available to regional school districts throughout the Northern Colorado area.

2011 Holiday Hours!

2011-11-22T11:55:00.000-08:00

Join us for our special Holiday Celebration on Saturday, November 26th. We will have Santa in the Caboose during the day and the whole museum is decked for the Holidays. Then join us for the Greeley Lights the Nights Parade at 5:30pm that evening. It will culminate at Lincoln Park in downtown Greeley.

Holiday Hours:
Friday, Nov. 25th - Open 10am-4pm
Saturday, Nov. 26th - Open 10am-4pm
Sunday, Nov. 27th - Open 1pm-4pm

Christmas Week:
Friday, Dec. 23rd - Open 10am-4pm
Saturday, Dec. 24th - Open 10am-4pm
Sunday, Dec. 25th - Closed

New Years Week:
Friday, Dec. 30th - Open 10am-4pm
Saturday, Dec. 31st - Open 10am-4pm
Sunday, January 1st - Open 1pm-4pm

"Duncan's Disney World" - article about GFSM in the Greeley Tribune

2011-10-12T09:02:00.000-07:00

Train museum watches out for its newest volunteer

13-year-old autistic boy rarely misses a Saturday at the Greeley Freight Station Museum

By Dan England
dengland@greeleytribune.com

Monday, October 10, 2011

Duncan Breeding examines a miniature locomotive Saturday at the Greeley Freight Station Museum on the corner of 6th Avenue and 10th Street. Duncan is allowed early entry on Saturday in exchange for the completion of a few planned chores. -NANTENA BELLER / For The Tribune

Duncan Breeding picks the train he will follow as soon as he is done with his job. No one can tell you how he selects one, but then again, no one, not even his parents, understands everything that goes through his head.

He follows it through the shipyards, over the mountains, past the hidden dinosaurs and in and out of the tunnels, unless Thomas the Tank Engine and all those delicious buttons that make buildings light up or whistles tweet in the kids' section distract him for a moment.

The world at the Greeley Freight Station Museum can captivate anyone, really, which explains the number of grown adults on a recent day, enough for an offense and a defense in a game of backyard football. But trains seem to attract autistic people like Duncan the most. People with autism have difficulty making sense of the world. They are drawn to predictable patterns, and perhaps nothing is as predictable as a train set, even a set with 2,000 cars, 150 locomotives and the kind of detail you'd expect at the Sistine Chapel.

Museum volunteers had heard about the train connection, too, especially after an article in The New York Times ran this summer, and so they couldn't help but notice Duncan, 13, who lives in Fort Collins with his parents, Tammy and John Breeding. He came every Saturday for two years, and after a while, his parents had to call when he wasn't coming in, as if he was missing a day of school.

“They're structured, repetitive and predictable,” said John Vonk, a lead volunteer who keeps an eye on Duncan during his stays at the museum. “I guess that's what we all want, right?”

The museum lets him in for free, as it does all children with special needs, and now they let him in early so he can complete a few chores. The chores are simple, something you would expect from a 6-year-old, which is his level of thinking, Tammy said. Vonk, for instance, will mess up some chairs so Duncan can put them in a row again.

“Of course, I had to mess them up three times,” Vonk said and laughed Saturday, “because every time I'd do it someone would come by and straighten them before he got here.”

The Breedings saw Duncan connect with trains when he was much younger, and so after they read about the museum opening, they brought him for a Saturday, and he loved it, they said. When asked how they could tell, since it's difficult for Duncan to express it, John, his father, paused.

“Do you mean besides his insistence that we go back as soon as we left?” he said.

They had to count the days down to when he could come back, from seven to six to five, just to calm him down.

Duncan is not the only one who enjoys it, of course. Tammy recently qualified for state funding for caretakers to bring him down on most Saturdays. Tammy had to quit her job to take care of him, and Duncan is as challenging as a toddler and a puppy put together. Breaks are rare and precious.

“I would say unrelenting is a good word,” Tammy said with a chuckle and a thin smile.

Duncan inspired museum volunteers to call schools with autistic children to offer free visits and field trips, Vonk said.

“If there's some link there,” Vonk said, “we want to be a part of it.”

Vonk calls the museum Duncan's Disney World, and that is true, Tammy said. But it's more than a place of amusement. Many things in his life are controlled. For the most part, people tell him where to go, what to do and how to do it (or how not to do it). It has to be that way because of his disability. He can't make those choices. Structure keeps him safe.

But Duncan loves the museum. It's one of the few things in life he's passionate about, and he chooses to go, even if it's more of a demand. That's a small but significant step forward.

“It gives him a chance to follow his heart,” Tammy said, “and express his own personality.”

As he follows his train through the museum's world of mountains and minutia, Duncan gets a rare opportunity to take control of his own.

Duncan Breeding watches one of his trains of choice Saturday as the conductor maneuvers the miniature locomotive through the lush landscape of the Greeley Freight Station Museum.

NANTENA BELLER / For The Tribune

Full story online: http://www.greeleytribune.com/article/20111010/NEWS/710109962&parentprofile=search

A nice Thank You from a visitor...

2011-10-11T13:10:00.000-07:00

Hi Dave, Michelle, Bob and fellow trainsmen... thank you for the tour of

your trains this year when we visited onAugust 3 or 4.

Abrielle and Adam (our grand kids) were excited about the
treasures they had to find and the personal tour of the train station and
computer dispatching behind the scenes. What was to be an hour or so
tour of an electric train setup turned out to be a three hour + venture
into how things are scaled down, miniaturized and made to move on their
own. It was truly a learning experience for them as well as for my wife
Michele and myself.

Thank you very much and good luck, have fun and enjoy your hobby. Your
museum tour was a highlight of our vacation from MN to CO. You've made a
difference.

Gary (& Michele) Kemmetmueller
Coon Rapids, Minnesota

NEW WINTER HOURS!!!

2011-09-15T10:56:00.000-07:00

It's official! We are adding extended hours this Winter Season!

Due to the large number of visitors we had over the summer who expressed that more Winter Hours would be appreciated we have added Fridays and Sundays to our regular Saturday only schedule. This will eliminate our First Friday night hours due to the daytime hours on Friday. Our new schedule:

Winter Hours

(Labor Day - Memorial Day)

Friday 10am-4pm

Saturday 10am-4pm

Sunday 1pm-4pm

Little Johnny from Kansas played trains with us today.

2011-09-01T10:59:00.000-07:00

We had a little visitor today, only 2-1/2 years old, who spent an hour playing trains in the museum. Johnny, from Lawrence, Kansas, was so intent on driving his wooden train around the museum that we could tell he will be a part of the next generation of model railroaders!

Museum to be Open More Days!

2011-08-31T14:38:00.000-07:00

Due to unprecedented increase in attendance this summer, the “Powers That Be” at the museum have decided to see what would happen if we expanded our Winter Hours from the traditional Saturday 10am-4pm only format. Effective the first weekend after Labor Day the museum will continue to be open Fridays from 10am-4pm , along with Sunday afternoons from 1pm-4pm, with normal Saturday operations of 10am-4pm.

"Rock Making on the OC&E" Symposium September 2nd

2011-08-29T14:48:00.000-07:00

Dave Trussell will be sharing his vast experience with Rock Making on Friday evening, Septermber 2nd, at 7:00pm at GFSM. He will discuss how to make molds, cast, and color to create the realistic and scenic rocks that are on display on the OC&E Railroad here at the museum.

Cost is the normal admission price and the museum will be open to the public during this First Friday event from 5pm - 9pm that evening.

Crystal Fire Fundraiser at Greeley Freight Station Museum

2011-06-30T10:14:00.000-07:00

Saturday, July 2^nd, 1pm-4pm at the Greeley Freight Station Museum!

On April 2^nd, 2011, the Hanson family’s lives were forever changed when Jon Hanson looked out his window at midnight and saw flames on the ridgeline. Within the next 20 minutes his family narrowly escaped with their lives as the main force of the Crystal Fire destroyed their life’s dreams as it consumed the mountain top home they had spent over two years building by themselves. This family’s story was one of 12 tragic stories as a result of that fateful fire.

The Greeley Freight Station Museum is honored to host a fundraiser for the families who lost their homes in the Crystal Canyon Fire on April 2^nd, 2011. All admission proceeds for the museum from 1:00pm to 4:00pm on Saturday, July 2^nd, will go directly to the families in need. The Rist Canyon Volunteer Fire Department will be on hand with one of their fire trucks to help promote awareness. Volunteers of the Greeley Freight Station Museum will be running trains and conducting tours for those who attend.

On April 2^nd, 2011, the Crystal Fire burned over 2,940 acres and destroyed 12 homes. We would invite Northern Colorado communities to come out and help support all the displaced victims of this fire.

Charred remains are all that remain of the home of Corey Phillips and Linda Masterson swept away April 2^nd of this year by the Crystal Fire west of Fort Collins.

"Tracks Ahead" films at GFSM!

2011-06-23T14:10:00.000-07:00

"Tracks Ahead" filmed their season 8 sections with Spencer Christian on Monday, June 13th, at the museum. Here is the Greeley Tribune article: click here

We thoroughly enjoyed the cast and crew of "Tracks Ahead" and look forward to working with them again someday. If you have not seen this show make sure to check it out!

Here is their website: http://www.tracksahead.net/

Spencer filming introductions for the season from the volunteer breakroom:

Greeley Tribune article about GFSM 2nd Anniversary

2011-06-02T14:33:00.000-07:00

GFSM was featured in the Greeley Tribune on Sunday, May 29th, 2011.

http://www.greeleytribune.com/article/20110528/NEWS/705289926&parentprofile=search

The Greeley Freight Station Museum celebrates its second anniversary

By John Tattum
gtreporters@greeleytribune.com

Photos: 1 2 3 4 5 6

BUY

Dante Stewart, 13, visits the Greeley Freight Station Museum on Saturday for its two-year anniversary. Stewart traveled from Grand Junction with his family to visit the museum.