LCCA Day 3

Yesterday was day three at the LCCA convention and time for another tour. Many of America's larger cities once had amazing train stations. This Union Station at Kansas City is no exception. Unfortunately, with the demise of most rail travel, these stations have fallen into neglectful states. Some have been destroyed, but a few have been restored and turned into useful facilities for community events, locations for new businesses, and showpieces. Fortunately, Union Station has been saved, and it is magnificent.

Tiled ceilings with impressive chandeliers are in good condition.

The arrival hall is enormous with a seven-story ceiling.

For us though, the fact that Union Station is host to area model train layouts may have been the cherry on the cake. There were maybe ten different layouts in all gauges (O, HO, N, Z, and G) and with varying types of scenes. The trains were all running too.

They knew LCCA was coming!

Our next stop was at the Arabia Steamboat Museum, one of the most popular stops in Kansas City. Here is the link for the museum, and here's a link to the Wikipedia page on the history of the boat and museum. This was one of the most amazing things I've ever seen. Anders enjoyed it too. He has a current fascination with ships and sinkings, starting with learning about the Edmund Fitzgerald.

The short story is that the steamboat Arabia sank in 1856 on the Missouri River north of Kansas City. The only casualty was a mule, that its owner failed to untie from its berth aboard ship. The boat was so quickly overcome by silt and the rapid current that it became lost in the mud. Beginning in 1987, members of the Hawley family became interested in finding it, and they succeeded. Because the river had changed course, the boat was 45' deep in a farmer's field. Their original goal had been to locate the cargo and to sell it, but once they saw what they had found, they decided instead to share it with the world (and of course make a profit on museum fees).

They brought up very little of the actual vessel. Only this portion of the stern was brought up. The wood is preserved when buried, but exposure to air makes it destabilize very quickly and to disintegrate. They treated this portion to restabilize it.

The most amazing thing in the museum is the display of recovered cargo--mostly items that would have been sold to pioneers upriver who were building new homes and traveling further west. The thing is that they are all still new. That is, none of these items were ever used. The china is perhaps most interesting.

There is a display of tin cooking items of all kinds...

and lots and lots of unblemished, undamaged china and glassware...

clothing of all kinds was found and preserved, even bolts of cloth and leather...

and all kinds of hardware and building items--hinges, locks, nails, and tools.

One of the two wheel mechanisms was also recovered, as well as parts of the boilers and engines.

After lunch at the Crown Center, our last stop was the World War I museum and monument, now part of the Smithsonian Institution (hats off to my former boss, David Skorton, now Secretary of the Smithsonian). Anders wanted to take the elevator to the top of the monument plus the 47 steps above that to the viewing platform.

Up there, we could see Union Station just across the way and many, many things in and around Kansas City for miles and miles in every direction. Anders thought it was a little spooky up there though--a long way down!

Another fun day with my grandson, with lots of interesting things to see and to learn. I recommend both Kansas City and St. Joseph as places one could have a very fun vacation.