The Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania is undergoing a major construction project while it celebrates its 50th anniversary.

Once finished, the 16,000-square-foot, six-stall exhibit structure will house six Pennsylvania Railroad historic steam locomotives, which are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The state capital project, with a cost of $15.6 million, is expected to be completed at the end of 2026 or beginning of 2027.

A groundbreaking ceremony was scheduled for July 29, but the project got underway several weeks earlier. "Technically, we've already started," Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania director Patrick Morrison said on July 18. "We are probably about five weeks into the project. We've made some good progress already trying to take advantage of good weather and good conditions to get work done."

Morrison said the design of the building is "modeled after or inspired by a historic roundhouse that was in Cressona. That was where our original turntable was located. It's a climate-controlled exhibit building. It's not exactly like a roundhouse. It's an exhibit building; it's not an exact replica. And I have to point that out because everybody wants to think that it's a replica, or it's a re-creation. It is not. It's inspired by a historic roundhouse, but it is not a one-to-one re-creation of anything."

Morrison said a fan-shaped layout proved to be the best solution considering the space constraints in the museum's outdoor yard. "The roundhouse design will utilize brick, steel, and glass, as well as a clerestory-style roof, which maximizes the use of natural lighting," a Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania press release said.

"It was very important that it fits the footprint of our property," said Morrison. "Our yard has limited space around that turntable. So we wanted to make sure that it fit that footprint. It also had to fit all six of those steam locomotives, because we wanted to get those six steam locomotives indoors out of the elements."

The museum's 1928 Reading Company turntable will be refurbished and updated during the project. "Over the long haul, we will have the ability to occasionally move (the locomotives) outdoors into our shop or restoration shop to do restoration on them," said Morrison. "It won't happen very often. We're not going to be moving them in and out, but we have the access to them to be able to move them to our shop, which will give us the ability to, one by one, work on them."

Members of the public can help by contributing to the Ready for the Roundhouse campaign, which is separate from the state capital construction project. Led by the nonprofit Friends of the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania, the Ready for the Roundhouse campaign is funding the restoration and preservation of the steam locomotives. Morrison said locomotive Pennsylvania Railroad E6s Atlantic No. 460 has undergone a comprehensive cosmetic restoration, and the Friends' campaign has raised more than $300,000 for restoration of the other five steam locomotives.

Morrison said people can make donations and become members of the Friends by going to http://www.rrmuseumpa.org. "The simplest thing people can do is just visit the museum," he added. "That helps us, too."

Visitors will notice some changes. "We are working on a way to keep our yard open, but for the time being, the yard is closed," Morrison said. "That's the only downside, but the trains are visible from fence line. (People) can walk around our fence line and view them. We have to take some safety precautions if we don't want anybody to get hurt while the construction is taking place. So we're working out a plan for providing some limited access where we can. But we want to make sure our visitors are safe. That's the biggest facet of that. ... Our exhibit hall, our indoor space, is fully accessible the hours that we're open,"

The Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania, located at 300 Gap Road, Strasburg, is celebrating its silver anniversary. "It's interesting to me that every time we have a major milestone in our history as a museum, we're either starting a project or in the middle of a project," said Morrison.

Rolling Stock Hall was added when the museum was 20 years old, and Stewart Junction came five years later. "Our front entrance was added on during what would have been our 30th anniversary, so we seem to leap forward with construction projects during every major anniversary year," said Morrison. "A lot of it is coincidental, but some of it is good timing. ... This is really the icing on the cake for celebrating our 50th anniversary."