A nostalgic baseball evening at the Oregon Depot Museum
On August 1, the Oregon Depot Museum will host a special installment of its “Those Were Days” series, inviting longtime Cardinals devotees Pat Donahue and Garry Mueller to share their personal histories with the franchise. Sports reporter Andy Colbert will moderate the conversation, guiding the audience through decades of on‑field lore and off‑field anecdotes.
Donahue, who currently serves as an usher for the St. Louis Cardinals and once presided over a regional bank, brings a front‑row perspective to the game‑day experience, recalling the rituals that have kept fans returning season after season.
Mueller, a veteran sports journalist who spent 38 years covering baseball for the Metro East Journal and the St. Louis Post Dispatch, also held the official scorekeeper’s seat for the Cardinals from the 1980s onward, a role that gave him a unique vantage on the team’s evolving narrative.
The museum’s centerpiece, a 79‑year‑old vintage rail car known as the Silver View, will serve as the backdrop for the discussion. Constructed by Budd Co. in 1947 and originally delivered to the Burlington Northern‑Santa Fe, the car was a signature Vista Dome vehicle on the Twin Cities Zephyrs, ferrying passengers between Chicago and the Twin Cities.
Restoring a piece of rail history
A fundraising campaign is currently underway to restore the Silver View to its former glory, ensuring that the carriage can once again be admired by future generations as a tangible link to mid‑century travel. Contributions will support structural repairs, interior refurbishment, and interpretive signage that will illuminate the car’s place in railroad heritage.