Group oversaw construction of a quarter-roundhouse on the museum grounds. In 2020, the board of directors hired a new executive director: Joseph DeFrancesco, a former executive director of the Blair County Historical Society. Shortly thereafter, the COVID-19 pandemic temporarily closed the Railroaders Memorial Museum and Horseshoe Curve visitor center. DeFrancesco ordered "cuts across the board" and restructured the museum. The museum reopened in March 2021. On June 24, 2021, the Railroaders Memorial Museum hired FMW Solutions to again restore the PRR 1361 to operating condition. Charles "Wick" Moorman, a retired chairman and CEO of Norfolk Southern Corporation, was elected chairman of the board. A new staff of professionals and a new board of directors has ushered in a new era for the organization with a solid financial foundation. Building Since 1998, the museum has occupied the Master Mechanics Building built by the Pennsylvania Railroad as part of its Altoona Works, once the world's largest complex of railroad shop facilities. The railroad began building shop facilities at Altoona in 1849, and within three decades had multiple campuses across the city, including locomotive and rail car fabrication and repair shops, a paint shop, a blacksmith shop, a brass foundry, and an iron foundry. The two-story Master Mechanics Building was completed in 1882; it contained administrative offices and was the first home of the railroad's Test Department: physical and chemical testing laboratories inspired by those of European railroads. In 1886, a third story was added to the building, giving the Test Department two entire floors. Test Department workers helped the Pennsylvania Railroad achieve company-wide standardization through their analysis of materials used in railroad construction and maintenance. Railroad officials also used the laboratories for public relations; for example, Test Department employees gave demonstrations at the railroad's exhibit at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. By 1909, the Master Mechanics Building had been expanded to four floors, but the Test Department needed yet more space, and in 1914, the department moved to its own building in the Altoona Works. The Pennsylvania Railroad and its successors continued to use the building for administrative offices, including railroad police headquarters. It last housed Conrail's medical offices and was vacated in 1984. Beginning in 1990, the Master Mechanics Building was renovated and remodeled for the museum, which opened in its new space eight years later. The building also houses administrative offices for the Railroaders Heritage Corporation. Rolling stock