The Durham Museum is a beautifully restored art deco train station that is now a museum. It has some fine detailing that shows deco at its finest. There is a preserved soda fountain where banana splits and phosphates can be purchased. The actual museum included photographs of modern-day cowboys in Montana and Nebraska. The lower level of the museum includes fully restored and preserved Union Pacific Pullman cars. These cars were tall and wide, with sleeper births in each. The mechanisms of the bunks are sturdy and demonstrate how important steel was in railroad car construction. Today the steel chain mechanisms would likely be replaced with some plastic pneumatic apparatus. The rest of the museum has artifacts displayed in facades reflecting various periods in Omaha's history. Its like walking through a small town. Also on display were 150 Pulitzer Prize winning photographs. All were powerful, some were very troubling. I found most sad the photo of two parents on a beach looking desperate and holding on to each other after their baby has been washed away by the ocean. The Durham Museum is a wonderful museum and preserves a rich part of life when passenger trains still ruled.
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