SIMI VALLEY : Old Railroad Depot Studied for Museum

Like most Western towns, the advent of the railroad played a major role in the development of Simi Valley.

When the Santa Susana Railroad Tunnel was opened in 1904, it transformed the quiet Ventura County farming community into an important trade center by connecting it with nearby Los Angeles County.

Until then, the only means of transportation between the Simi and San Fernando valleys was by wagon trail over the steep, rock-studded Santa Susana Mountains.

Now the Rancho Simi Recreation and Parks District wants to pay tribute to the railroad by turning a vacant Southern Pacific railroad depot into a historical museum.

The district at its meeting today is expected to approve an agreement with the Rancho Simi Foundation, a nonprofit community organization, “to work as partners in the restoration of the building,” said Dmitri Hunt, a parks official.

The two-story railroad depot was used from 1904 to 1974, when it sat alongside the tracks at Tapo Street and Los Angeles Avenue. In 1975, it was purchased by the park district for $1 and moved to its present site on Katherine Road in Santa Susana Park.

The restoration of the depot, which was recognized in 1976 as a county historical landmark, will cost between $100,000 and $200,000 and is expected to take at least two years, Hunt said.

He said converting the depot into a railroad museum has been planned for about six years, but the district did not have the money for the renovation.

Hunt said the agreement with the Rancho Simi Foundation calls for most of the renovation work to be done by volunteers and that material costs will be shared by both the district and the community organization.

Walter Griffin, who heads the 50-member foundation, said his group has raised more than $5,000 for renovation and hopes to begin work by August.

One of the planned exhibits will be a miniature model railroad being built by Griffin’s group that will replicate the Burbank-to-Oxnard line. The museum will also feature an assortment of historical photographs and displays of various railroad memorabilia.