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The
Albuquerque Shops was one of AT&SF's four big system shops. The other
three were San Bernardino, California (now gone), Cleburne, Texas, and Topeka,
Kansas. Built between 1914 and 1924 on the site of the old A&P roundhouse,
they embodied an evolution in industrial design that began with brick, stone
and wood and finished with steel, glass and concrete. During the days of
steam, the Albuquerque Shops handled class 1 through class 5 repairs. All
locomotives on the Southern District of the Western Lines and all freight
locomotives east of Winslow, Arizona on the Coast Lines were assigned to
Albuquerque for major repairs. After WWII, the Albuquerque shops made
the transition from steam to Diesel, but only for a short period after which
it became a maintance-of-way rebuild center. In the mid 1980's, Santa Fe
deemed the shops surplus and closed them. Efforts to preserve and convert
the complex to a convention center, hotel, retail shops, and museum made
significant progress when the organization known as Urban Council purchased
the shops and land from the BNSF for 2.5 million dollars in November of
2000. Urban Council is a coalition of civic, state and business developers.
The official title of the project is The New Mexico Exposition Center, and
is slated to open in 2004. For more information and history on the project,
navigate to the link http://www.wheelsmuseum.org
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