State Rep. Rick Geist, R-Altoona, has finally gotten his $2 million from Gov. Ed Rendell for the Railroaders Memorial Museum.

Announced Friday, the Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program grant will enable the museum to finish its long-delayed quarter-roundhouse, while helping Penn State Altoona launch a one-of-a-kind railroad engineering course based there.

Completing the roundhouse will also provide a place to reassemble and store the museum's historic K-4 steam locomotive, which has been under renovation for years.

In 2006, according to Geist, Rendell promised a $2 million RACP grant to supplement a previously acquired $2 million federal transportation enhancement grant that he obtained to pay for most of the quarter-roundhouse work.

A year later, a spokesman for Rendell said the money wouldn't be forthcoming and that Geist had been misinformed or misunderstood about the commitment.

But Geist never quit trying to get the money.

"I asked over and over," he said at his offices in Altoona Friday, where he, museum and campus officials held a press conference.

About a month ago at a private meeting, Rendell finally said yes, Geist said.

Asked what changed, Geist talked about his support of the governor's proposal for a public-private turnpike partnership.

"It wasn't a quid pro quo," however, Geist said. "It was two old warriors shaking hands on a deal."

Rendell spokesman Chuck Ardo said the grant is a new one, that Rendell could approve it now because the Legislature had replenished the fund and that Geist had shown it was a "prudent investment."

"The key here is that the governor had a latitude which he previously had not," Ardo said.

At the time of the grant controversy, the museum had a bid from J.C. Orr Construction to build the quarter-roundhouse for $2.7 million.

When he learned the money wasn't coming, Scott Cessna, then-director of the museum, decided to shrink the project so the enhancement grant alone could cover the cost.

But the museum didn't follow through on that plan, and the bid eventually expired.

Accordingly, the museum will need to bid the project again after revising plans to accommodate an annex that will serve as home for the new engineering course, which Geist suggested three years ago to campus Chancellor Lori Bechtel-Wherry.

Campus officials discovered that the rail industry was eager for such a course to produce engineers with specific railroad knowledge, said Andy Vavreck, director of Business Operations and associate professor of Engineering.

Vavreck designed the course with the help of a consultant to take advantage of assets on the museum property and the nearby Juniata Shops.

The course will turn out four-year graduates who are qualified for any branch of railroading and for quick promotion to management, Vavreck said.

The museum has about $400,000 available from prior grants for the K-4 and will try to raise another $300,000, Salone said.

During the past year, current museum director Larry Salone has been familiarizing himself with the long-delayed project, with the Federal Railroad Administration - which must approve completed work - and with the three firms certified to work on the critical boiler.

The museum may be able to complete the quarter-roundhouse "before the snow flies," Geist said.

He has longterm hopes - and a line in the state's capital budget for $7.5 million - that the museum can buy out neighboring Altoona Pipe & Steel and expand operations into the building.

The new grant has nothing to do with the federal stimulus, Geist said.

Mirror Staff Writer William Kibler is at 949-7038.