Norm has worked with, and on trains for his entire life, he got into the model train side of things when he was a young boy from his father’s interest. The current set up has been built up over the past six years.
“When we moved here to Pampa, I just had an empty space with a table,” Norm Schindler said. “I drew out my own plans for how I wanted it to look, but I also wanted to have space to visit people and have display cases.”
The model is a restoration of the Rock Island and Southern Pacific railroad of the Pronghorn Division of the Southern Pacific that ran from Amarillo to Elk City. The railway was a line that ran three years before it became a part of the Union Pacific. The line running south from Pampa to Wellington was the Chicago Burlington and Quincy. The now Burlington Northern runs on south from Wellington. The Chicago Burlington and Quincy section that ran south from Pampa to where it crossed the Rock Island and Pacific at Shamrock was not restored, and Pampa became a part of the Santa Fe Railroad. In Schindlers’ model, three towns are featured that the train ran through. Those model towns being Alanreed, Shamrock and Amarillo. The City of Alanreed is located on the rail line west of the City of Shamrock. Both towns are located on the route of the Historic Route 66. The Rock Island railway ran side by side with Route 66. Alanreed and Shamrock have model buildings and characters along side the tracks. Schindler worked in the railroad industry for many years, but stepped aside and took a different line of work to spend more time with his family. So now he collects items from old trains.
“I have a lot of different things,” Schindler said. “I have many lanterns that you’d use back in the day when working on a train.”
For now the trains are ran by Schindler, but Schindler has hopes of starting a club.
“I’d love to have a club here in Pampa, I’ve been apart of them before,” Schindler said. “Just a group of people to come to this thing I’ve built and take part in it.”
While his home museum isn’t a listed museum, guests are always welcome to come see what all he has with trains and all other memorabilia
“I have a lot of different things in here, but a lot of memories,” Schindler said. “I’d love for people to come see what all I have collected and made over the years.”
Along with his passion in trains, Schindler is a carpenter by trade and has built model log cabins and everything that is part of his model railway.
To set a time to visit with Schindler and see his collection give him a call at (806)665-2650
