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Business feature: Train museum turned over to new owners

Staff photo: Tony Bullocks

The Clovis Depot and Model Train Museum is officially closed after being sold to new owners, Jordan Nichols and Tate Nichols, on July 29.

Staff Writer

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Like the model trains it once stored, the Clovis Depot and Model Train Museum is embarking on a new track. One of Clovis’ most historic buildings has been turned over to new owners.

New owners Jordan and Tate Nichols of Farwell haven’t settled on a plan for the depot.

But its past has been well documented.

For 21 years, former Clovis Depot and Model Train Museum owner Phil Williams conducted his business the way one would conduct a train — pushing the momentum forward.

Williams obtained the depot from the Santa Fe Railway in 1995, and since then, he’s worked to preserve Clovis’ railroad history in a number of ways.

Within a year of owning the depot, Williams managed to get the museum added to the National Register of Historic Places.

According to Williams, the depot was built in 1907 by the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway when Clovis was established. The depot’s original purpose was to serve as the railroad division point with offices, a passenger station and a boarding facility for train crews.

The depot was restored to match its condition of the 1950s-’60s when Williams took over, and eventually showcased artifacts, an operating telegraph station, model trains, a library on the Santa Fe Railway and a gift shop. Of the museum’s nine rooms, five contained railroad memorabilia and four contained nine operating model-train layouts.

Also in true conductor fashion, Williams knew how to get people on board; after approaching city officials, he played a major role in restoring and transporting the 1906 locomotive from Hillcrest Park to his lot in front of the depot in 2011.

“It’s been a long process with lots of challenges and things to do,” Williams said, “but I feel good about what’s happening.”

Williams put the depot up for sale about 2 1/2 years ago and sold it the end of July. But Williams, 77, said visitors haven’t been in since October due to a major back surgery that kept him in the hospital for eight weeks.

“I knew that I was getting old,” Williams said, “and that I needed to find somebody to take it over and hopefully continue preserving Clovis’ railroad history.”

Those somebodies were the Nichols brothers.

“Jordan wanted to purchase the whole thing and wanted to continue, as nearly as I understand it, to preserve all the railroad historical material we’ve got in there,” Williams said, “and that delights me.”

Jordan Nichols said plans for the building’s new purpose are still in motion, but maintaining its historic value is important to him and his brother.

“We have some ideas that we’re working on,” Jordan Nichols said, “but we’re pretty far away from being able to say what the definite plan is. Over there, we’re kind of right by the railroad, so we’re still working through stuff in terms of parking.

“Whatever we do, we’d want to incorporate all the history that Phil has managed to accumulate there. It’s really a history of the city, and the collection of what he’s managed to put together tells a story of the whole area.”

In his 21 years at the depot, Williams said his greatest memories were having past railroad workers as visitors. Like the bustling of a train station, the museum encountered countless people passing through to exchange stories.

“Many people came through, like people whose dad or granddad had been an engineer, or whose grandmother had been a Harvey Girl,” Williams said, referencing the historic Harvey House built in 1908 that provided meals to train passengers.

Williams still recalls one such visitor, who came to Clovis in the late 1930s for high school and a part-time job with the railroad.

“He lived in the upstairs dormitory facilities for train crews,” Williams said. “He showed me the room he’d lived in, and he had brought his wife of many, many years with him. One of the comments she made was, ‘Gee, I’m finally glad I get to see where it is you were living while we were dating.’”

Having officially sold the building, Williams said he has “mixed emotions.”

“Obviously, I’m going to miss it,” Williams said. “Clovis has a fascinating railroad history, but I know that I can’t continue to take care of it and do what needs to be done. That was partly why I put it for sale.

“I collected Clovis’ railroad history for more than 20 years. I think it would be a shame to lose that, so that’s the part of the sale — Jordan’s interest in preserving it — that I think is fantastic.”

 
 
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