The local paper had an article on the upcoming move of the APG Ordnance Museum. Ground is to broken in 2010 for the new location at Fort Lee, Va. Move in is scheduled for 2011. They said that roughly 50% of the armor/artillery pieces will remain at APG and become part of a smaller museum. The rest will move to Fort Lee to form the new Ordnance Museum.

They also said that Tank Row, a group of restored vehicles that used to line the main road, have been moved to other locations at the museum. That should mean that they are easier to access than before. And they said that a restored Elefant has been rolled out as will be a Nike missle by the end of the month.

So for those of you who haven't been, if you can get there, do so soon. You won't regret it and it may be your last chance to see all these great pieces in one place.

I wonder what they are going to do with the "Leopold?" I bet it stays where it is...
Thanks for the update,
Shaun

I hope they'll all be stored inside so they don't return to the neglected state that so many of the vehicles had been. I was especially glad to see they finally restored the Elefant!

Yeah, they're certainly not going to roll that big boy up onto the back of a flat bed! And there are no railroad tracks nearby that I know of. I wonder how in hell they got it there in the first place.

And Scott I can't tell you how much I agree. They have been trying for years to raise 10 million dollars for a building to house these pieces, but they continue to sit out in the weather and rot away. Hopefully their new home will be under a roof.

The upcoming AMPS Boresight will have a short article about the future of the museum. We talked to the Director to make sure we had the right info before publishing. The short story is: no one knows right now what will happen with all the exhibits. The goal is to keep the entire collection together but no one knows if that will happen.

The K5E Leopold could be moved in pieces by truck if needed. A french museum moved a large German rail gun that way.

The 2009 AMPS International convention will be right down the road at harve de grace April 17-18 2009. This will be the last AMPS show in the APG area. So, if you want to combine your museum visit with a visit to the coolest armor-only show around, join us there! We're working on a very special "behind the scenes" tour of some of the museum's facilities.

Danny Egan
President
AMPS
http://www.amps-armor.org

There's a rail siding coming into APG right next to Leopold......... (or atleast there was last time I was there) it's on it's own set of tracks......

I didn't notice the tracks coming across the road leading up to the museum. Maybe they run the other way? It would be a neat sight though to see Leopold rolling down the tracks.

Danny, I'm hoping, considering the 'infinite wisdom' of the government, that they decide that the cost to move the museum would be too high and just leave it where it is.

If I remember correctly, the gun is on a rail spur that also ran right by where the Elefant used to sit when it was rotting in the field. It's probably safe to assume that rail spur is still connected to the rest of the rail system.