It’s the last call for passengers — or this case visitors — at the Memphis Railroad & Trolley Museum. 

The museum announced it will be closing its doors on Thursday, June 30. 

“We’re scouting around for other locations,” museum board president Mike Fleming said. 

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Fleming, who has been involved with the railroad museum since its inception in February 2008, said the group is looking at possible relocations in DeSoto and Tunica counties. 

The museum is on the ground floor at 545 S. Main St. inside the historic Central Station, where it has been since 2012. 

The location was donated by the Memphis Area Transit Authority. The goal was to help attract foot traffic and attention to both Central Station and the South Main neighborhood. MATA had a long-term goal to open a trolley stop near the station, he said. 

The trolley stop along South Main near the Central Station entrance opened in February 2021 and was the last phase of MATA’s Central Station Phase II Redevelopment Project.

In 2015, Central Station was part of a $55 million redevelopment by Henry Turley Co. and Archie Willis. Kemmons Wilson handles leasing for the property. 

“We are super sad the Railroad and Trolley Museum is moving and we are working with them on alternative locations,” Kemmons Wilson principal McLean Wilson said via email.

Fleming said the museum was offered a location on site in the former baggage and freight tunnel. It is a 700-foot tunnel that is under tracks five and six. 

“It would make a great exhibit space, but it needed HVAC and fire safety,” Fleming said. “It was not cost-efficient to make the space habitable.”

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He said renovation of the baggage tunnel would have cost more than $1 million. 

“Nobody wanted to seem to want to help us find the money (to renovate it),” he said. 

Fleming said the museum’s board has contacted city and county officials about a possible relocation. 

“It is hit or miss,” he said. “I haven’t gotten any good feedback from anyone in Memphis or Shelby County.”

Following the June 30 closure the museum will use the freight tunnel for storage until a new location is found, Fleming said. 

He said Kemmons Wilson has not charged the museum rent since they have been at the Central Station location and was thankful for the support they have shown the museum over the years. 

Wilson would not comment on why the lease was ended. 

“We have been open to all possibilities of space for them to utilize,” he said.

Stephen Albers, who helps manage the museum’s daily operations, said the majority of the museum’s exhibits have been consignments or donations over the years. 

“Why get rid of a railroad museum in the last station in the city,” Albers said. 

If the museum moves to DeSoto County, specifically Horn Lake or Hernando, the museum’s location would remain on the Illinois Central Line, so the museum’s exhibits and narrative would remain relevant.

More significant changes would likely happen if they move to Tunica, Fleming said.