Sharp eyes spot peeling paint and pin-holes in the roof, but visionary eyes see a renovated, lively, functioning tourist draw called the Altoona Roundhouse.

   "We think there's a tremendous amount of potential here, the chance to preserve something that's really special," says Charlie Schaaf of Altoona, one of the railroad enthusiasts hoping to build a future for this historic building.

   "There's a railway museum in Green Bay, and the Duluth (Minn.) transportation museum, but we have something they don't have: An operating roundhouse next to a functioning rail line and right in a railway town."

   That the Altoona Roundhouse is in the city is no surprise. The oldest part of the structure was built in about 1887, making it one of the oldest buildings still standing in Altoona.

   Altoona grew up around the railroad, originally platted as East Eau Claire in 1881 because the old West Wisconsin Railway needed land for their rail yard, depot and roundhouse, according to Gerald Hagen's book "A History of Altoona."

   There's still a functioning switching yard and main line running through town, not to mention two taverns with railroad themes -- the 400 Club and the Rail Haven -- and a high school bearing the nickname Railroaders.

   "Eau Claire, Chippewa Falls and Menomonie had the timber industry -- Altoona has the railroad," Schaaf said.

   The roundhouse might have a bright future because enough people in the city rose up to stop its destruction.

   Its current owner, the Union Pacific Railroad, had previously announced that the structure was to be demolished. The City Council set up an ad hoc committee to work with the railroad on other options, with the result that ownership of the building and about seven acres of land surrounding it will be transferred to the city sometime late this year or early next year.

   The next step will be determined by how much of that enthusiasm continues.

   "We were really hustling to meet the deadline to stop that wrecking ball," said Dan Jones, a City Councilman and a member of the ad hoc committee.

   "The next step is to get some sort of organization going that can take control, begin raising and receiving funds, and develop a plan and a vision for what they'd like to see out here. As a city we're pretty much operating from a position of limited funds, so it's going to take that group to turn this into something that could end up being pretty awesome."

   The first items on the agenda for that future group are relatively modest -- a new roof, some cleaning up around the site, possibly a coat of paint.

   But as Schaaf and Jones tour the facility, with its still-functioning turntable and the locomotive stalls with their rails radiating out from the center, they present a grander vision.

   "You start with maybe just some static displays, the 2719 (a Soo Line steam locomotive being renovated in the roundhouse) and maybe another locomotive here," Jones said. "But you go out to the high end and you can see a whole interpretive center, a rail center, with excursion trains originating here and a pedestrian walk going from here over function tracks to downtown. That could help turn a pretty minor business district into a pretty nice niche shopping area, with restaurants, train-related memorabilia, things like that.

   "It's pretty far down the line, but there's real potential there."

   Now that the title to the building seems secure, Schaaf said the next step will be finding the people who want to help develop the project.

   "Railroad enthusiasts are a very enthusiastic, very tightly-knit group, and I can't think of another group that could pull this off," he said.

   "They're going to be people who offer time, money and expertise. It's just a matter of helping that group get going and helping define the vision."