WHAT: RMGA MEETING – FORNEY MUSEUM OF TRANSPORTATION
WHEN: Monday March 11, networking 6:30 – 7:00 pm followed by the program at 7:00 – 8:00 pm with a short business meeting 8:00 – 8:20pm.
WHERE: Forney Museum of Transportation, 4303 Brighton Blvd, Denver, CO 80216.
PROGRAM: We will meet in the conference room for the networking and for Christof Khelm, Executive Director, opening comments prior to the tour. The museum gift shop will be open during the networking period for any purchases you may want to make.
PARKING: The museum has a very large parking lot in front of the museum building and to the west of the museum.
Guide Line Review
Forney Museum of Transportation
The Forney Museum of Transportation began as a private collection and has expanded into one of the finest transportation collections in the country. The museum maintains a collection of 600 artifacts in 70,000 square feet of space. The building has a total of 140,000 square feet of museum space available, but only about 1/3-1/2 of the collection is on view at any given time. Its early years were focused on antique automobiles but the focus soon expanded to other modes of transportation including Motorcycles, Trolleys, Aircraft, Fire Engines, Wagons and much more.
Christof Kheim, gave us our tour guide tour and explained that the Forney museum was started by J.D. Forney, who was the inventor of the Instant Heat Soldering Iron in about 1932. Then the company went on to produce the first portable farm welders, which could run on regular household current. It was the only welding equipment at the time that was approved for operation on the rural electric lines.
Forney was a workaholic and in 1955 his wife Rachel and son Jack thought he needed a hobby. They gave him a 1921 Kissel yellow Tourister, the same model that J.D. had courted Rachel in. This first car remains a part of the collection to this day.
Mr. Forney started taking in old cars and carriages as trades on some of the welder sales, in addition to buying antique cars that he wanted. It wasn’t long before J.D. had more vehicles than he could store in the collection’s original location in Ft. Collins. Local residents and employee's families increasingly desired to view the collection and J.D. created the museum, incorporating it as a non-profit entity in 1961.
The museum moved locations several times. In the mid-1960s it was housed in the lower level of Cinderella City Mall. Due to limited space, Mr. Forney began to seek a new location. His collection now numbered over 200 vehicles, including another locomotive and some rail cars. The Denver Tramway Powerhouse, a large brick historic building near the Platte River became available. The Tramway Power House was built in 1901 to house the boilers and engines to generate the electricity for the Denver Trolley system. Another collector, Dr. James Arniel, a prominent Denver surgeon, had several railcars and six antique automobiles and partnered with J.D. to purchase the building to house both collections. Shortly after the move in 1968, Union Pacific donated a 4884 Alco 'Big Boy' Locomotive, the largest steam locomotives ever built.
The Museum remained in the tramway building for 30 years, remaining a well known landmark along I-25. J.D.'s health began failing in the mid '80s and his son, Jack took over managing the activities of the museum. In 1998, the Platte Street building was sold to sporting goods retailer REI. A warehouse facility on Brighton Blvd. next in 1998. With the help of many volunteers and the loan of needed equipment, most of the collection was moved to the new building by the spring of 1999. It took 2 years of negotiations, permits, track laying, etc. to move the Big Boy locomotive to its new home.
On of the more remarkable items in the collection is a 1932 Kissel Speedster, Model 45 "Goldbug" that was owned by Amelia Earhart from 1924-1929, that was prchased by the Forney Museum in 1961. Earhart often called her car that "Kizzle", but later referred to it as the "Yellow Peril," due to her love for speed. Amelia and her mother drove the car 7,000 miles across the country, from California to Boston.
Another amazing antique car is the 1923 Hispano Suiza Victoria Town Car; a 6 cylinder, 6 wheel, Model H6A made in Barcelona, Spain. It was believed to be orginally ordered by King George II, the King of Greece, and was bought by the Hollwood director D.W. Griffith for $35,000 and used in a 1933 film "My Lips Betray" and a few war movies.
There is a Forney locomotive designed by Matthias N. Forney who was a distant cousin to the museum founder, J.D. Forney. The one displayed at the Forney Museum of Transportation was built by Porter in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1897. This type of engine was commonly used on elevated railways, such as the New York, Brooklyn and Chicago Elevated. They were called the "Little Giants," and more than 500 were in service around 1900 hauling both freight and passengers. Steam-powered engines on the elevated’s lasted only a few years, as they were replaced by the new electric engines. Forney engines were then sold off to buyers all over the world for mining, lumber, plantations, and short-haul freight and passengers. The Forney locomotives hauled both freight and passengers in the Denver area. The Denver, Lakewood and Golden Railway and the Denver Circle Railroad were the best known systems using this model.
Another Denver gem is the last surviving cable car that used to run up 15th St. This model is from 1888.
The oldest piece in the museum is an all-wood bicycle that dates to 1817; a French Draisienne. It does not have pedals, gears or a chain and was designed to be walked up hill, and then ridden down.
The largest piece on display, of course, is the Union Pacific “Big Boy” #4005, (one of only eight surviving) billed as the largest articulated steam locomotive in the world. It keeps company with two cabooses, three other locomotives, a Rio Grand dinng car, three coach cars, a rotary sowplow and a rail crane.
Mr. Kheim told us that many people ask about the wax sculptures. He said that in the early 1970s, the Denver Wax Museum was going out of business and J.D. purchased the whole collection. He often has to explain to the kids that the figures are not real. Mr. Kheim pointed to some of the figures dressed in old clothing and said that Rachel Forney, J.D. Forney's wife, collected the vintage clothing. Apparently Mrs. Forney would make all the passengers dress in period clothing from when a car was built, before they could go out on rides in a special car.
One of the things the museum has more recently begun doing is inviting different car clubs to get involved and to bring in temporary, rotating three-month long exhibitions. The displays incorporated vehicles from the Forney Museum, but are primily those owned by local collectors and hobbyists. The public gets to enjoy cars and related memorabilia not normally on display,and gives them a reason to visit the Forney Museum again and again.
A new display in the museum was donated in September 2012 by Bob and Meg Rich. It is a comprehensive collection of 143rd scale European Matchbox vehicles; larger than the small Matchbox vehicles we see in the United States.
Check the museums website, www.forneymuseum.org, for the museum rates and special tours.
-- Valerie Booze
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