Kansas City, Mo. ? Workers are readying a collection of early 20th-century rail cars for a trip from Wisconsin to Kansas City, where they could be the stars of a rail museum at the financially struggling Union Station.

For more than 20 years, the trains have been kept just south of downtown Milwaukee. Owned by a reclusive collector, the trains have not been open to the public.

That could change after the trains make their trip in about two weeks to Kansas City. In June, Union Station’s board of directors agreed to spend $650,000 for 11 rail cars and their contents for a museum that could open late this year. The cars, all but one from the defunct Milwaukee Road line, date from 1911 to the early 1950s.

Union Station is hoping the rail museum will attract visitors. Faced with growing deficits, Union Station officials laid off 30 employees this summer and said they would no longer operate several station attractions on Mondays and Tuesdays.

Sean O’Byrne, the museum’s interim director, looked the cars over last week as donated Kansas City Southern crews got them ready for their journey, pumping air into the brakes and ordering spare parts to fix an array of problems. When the cars pass muster with federal inspectors, the Kansas City Southern crews will pull them to Kansas City.

“Really, the thought of bringing trains back to Union Station is a pretty big deal,” O’Byrne said.

With the help of private donations, the station plans to sell three of the cars and paint the other eight, putting them on display on the north side of the building. Kansas City Southern is planning to donate a 1951 locomotive, which would join the display.