The Railroaders Memorial Museum (RMM) is a railroad museum in Altoona, Pennsylvania. The museum focuses on the history of railroad workers and railroad communities in central Pennsylvania, particularly Altoona, the Altoona Works, and the greater Pittsburgh area. Since 1998, the museum has been located in the Master Mechanics Building, built by the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1882. The museum also operates a separate museum, visitor center, and observation area at the Horseshoe Curve. History Formation Public proposals to create a railroad museum in Altoona date at least to 1938, when the Altoona Mirror published a letter to the editor suggesting the city develop a tourism industry, including a "community railroad museum", centered around its railroad history. In 1959, Altoona's Chamber of Commerce proposed a similar museum. By 1963, a proposal for a "Pennsyland" railroad museum led representatives of the city's Tourism Bureau to compete against the Strasburg Rail Road in Lancaster County for possession of 28 pieces of decommissioned Pennsylvania Railroad rolling stock. Negotiations intensified when the Pennsylvania General Assembly chartered the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania but did not immediately designate a location. In 1965, Strasburg was selected as the site for the state museum and later awarded the contested Pennsylvania Railroad stock, which included historic steam locomotives and passenger cars being kept at a roundhouse in Northumberland. Despite the state's decision, the Altoona Railway Museum Club carried on with efforts to construct a museum in Altoona. In 1968, the club was granted a charter by the National Railway Historical Society to begin operating as the Horseshoe Curve Chapter. The chapter collected railroad artifacts to display in empty storefronts and at civic events in attempts to raise public support for a museum. The Railroaders Memorial Museum was incorporated in 1972 to raise more funds and collect more artifacts. The new group's first major acquisition was the 1975 purchase of The Loretto, a private railroad car built for steel tycoon Charles M. Schwab. That same year, the Altoona Redevelopment Authority sold a parcel of land previously purchased from the Penn Central Transportation Company to a private developer for use as a shopping center. The land deal stipulated that the developer donate a portion of the property and $50,000 towards museum construction. The Railroaders Memorial Museum received full ownership of the property in 1978. Groundbreaking ceremonies for the new museum were held on May 13, 1979. The museum, still incomplete, opened to the