Minnesota Transportation Museum facts for kids

Quick facts for kids
Minnesota Transportation Museum

The Minnesota Transportation Museum's Jackson Street Roundhouse
Location	Saint Paul, Minnesota
Type	Transportation museum

The Minnesota Transportation Museum (MTM) is a cool place in Saint Paul, Minnesota, USA. It's a museum all about different ways people have traveled!

MTM runs several historic transportation spots in Minnesota and one in Wisconsin. The museum works hard to save old trains, buses, and streetcars. They want to keep the history of local travel alive.

The museum started in 1962. Its first goal was to save a streetcar built by Twin City Rapid Transit (TCRT). Many early members were part of the Minnesota Railfans Association. This group used to organize fun train trips from the 1940s to the 1960s.

In 2004–2005, the museum's streetcar operations became the Minnesota Streetcar Museum. Also, the steamboat Minnehaha, which was built like a streetcar, became a big part of the Museum of Lake Minnetonka.

Discover the Minnehaha Depot

The Minnehaha Depot in Minnehaha Park

After the first streetcar, TCRT No. 1300, was fixed up, the museum looked for other projects. They needed things to do before the streetcar could run on its own tracks.

The Minnehaha Depot is an old train station near Minnehaha Falls. It was built in 1875 and was called "The Princess." This was because of its fancy architecture. The depot is a special historic building in the Minnehaha Historic District.

Sometimes, special trains have stopped at this station. It was even connected to the area's streetcar system. Today, tracks owned by the Canadian Pacific Railway reach the station. However, it's at the end of a track that isn't used much anymore.

The Minnesota Historical Society owns the depot. The Minnesota Transportation Museum runs it. In 1967, it was the first building the museum restored. They filled it with cool exhibits. In 2004, the METRO Blue Line's Minnehaha Park station opened right across the street.

Explore Classic Buses

The Minnesota Transportation Museum used this classic General Motors bus for the Blue Line light rail opening in 2004.

An older Mack bus behind the Jackson Street Roundhouse

Until 2019, the museum also had several buses from the 1940s and 1950s. Most of these buses were made by GMC, a part of General Motors. These buses were the ones that took over from streetcars in the Twin Cities in the 1950s.

It took two years to change from streetcars to buses. The very last streetcar ride was on Hennepin Avenue on June 18, 1954.

The bus collection included buses that once traveled all over Minnesota. The oldest was a 1942 Mack bus. It once carried war workers to a factory that built B-24 planes. There were also 1953/54 GMC buses. Two of these were painted in their original Twin Cities Lines colors.

These buses were used for special trips and tours. They were a very noticeable part of the museum's collection. They were often used for weddings and company events.

A company called Richfield Bus Company helped with the buses. They provided maintenance and helped keep them ready to drive. The museum got many of its buses from Metro Transit. Sometimes, Metro Transit would ask to use the old buses for their own special events.

In 2019, the museum gave its entire bus collection to a private owner. The museum doesn't plan to get new buses right now.

Ride the Osceola and St. Croix Valley Railway

The MTM works with the Historical Society of Osceola, Wisconsin. Together, they run a special heritage railway called the Osceola and St. Croix Valley Railway. You can take fun train rides on tracks that used to belong to Wisconsin Central Ltd.. Now, these tracks are part of the Canadian National Railway.

The train trips start from the old Osceola Depot. They go north to Dresser, Wisconsin, or south through the beautiful St. Croix River Valley. Regular rides begin in early May and continue until late October.

There are also special event trains throughout the year. These include Wine Tasting, the Pumpkin Train for Halloween, and Fall Leaf Viewing trips.

At the Osceola service area, you can see several locomotives and train cars. All the equipment has been fixed up to run well. This includes classic 1920s coaches with open windows. There are also Great Northern express coaches and a snack car. The trains running now are classic diesel-electric engines.

In the past, a classic steam engine, Northern Pacific No. 328, used to pull the trains. But it's very old (107 years!). So, it's now being restored.

A regular train ride takes about 50 minutes to Dresser, Wisconsin, and back. It takes about 100 minutes to Marine on St. Croix, Minnesota, and back.

The museum also runs the Dresser Depot. This is at the end of the line in Dresser, Wisconsin. The depot looks exactly as it did when staff last left it. You can even see old calendars and railroad notices. It's also where the Pumpkin Train Park is. Thousands of visitors come here during the weekend before Halloween.

Visit the Jackson Street Roundhouse

Turntable at the Jackson Street Roundhouse

The Jackson Street Roundhouse is the main home for MTM in St. Paul. It's a working roundhouse, which is a rare type of building for trains. In winter, the Roundhouse is a busy workshop. Volunteers weld, grind, and send sparks flying as they fix museum trains.

It's open year-round on Wednesdays and Saturdays. During summer, it's also open on Fridays. This is where the museum's locomotives and rolling stock (train cars) are repaired and restored. It's a very hands-on place. You can take train rides on Saturdays. There are also exhibits about the history of surface transportation in Minnesota.

The Great Northern Railway built this building in 1907. It replaced an older roundhouse. This spot has been used for trains since the first railroad came to Minnesota in the 1860s. The Roundhouse shows how American industry changed from the 1800s to the mid-1900s.

The Roundhouse is home to many different types of equipment. These include:

• Pullman coaches (fancy passenger cars)
• Northern Pacific RR mail and baggage cars
• A working 115-foot (35 m) turntable (a big spinning platform for turning trains)
• A 200-ton lifting crane
• An F7A Freight engine (being restored to run again)
• A Brill Car (a very rare type of train car)
• The Rock Island Business Car "Gritty Palace" (donated in 2022)

The roundhouse also has the famous Northern Pacific Railway steam engine No. 2156. Many kids from the Twin Cities who grew up in the 60s and 70s know it as Casey Jones's steam engine. This was from the popular children's TV show "Lunch With Casey."

Engine No. 2156 has been taken apart for restoration for the last ten years. Now, it's being prepared for a "Steam Bay" exhibit. This exhibit will show how steam locomotives work inside. It will be displayed next to its sister engine, No. 2153. That engine has been restored to look like it did when it was running.

Train Equipment Collection

Steam Locomotives

Locomotive	Type	Built	Retired	Acquired	On Display	Operational	Image
Northern Pacific #328	Class S-10 4-6-0	Alco, 1905	1950	Leased 1976	Cosmetic Restoration	No 1981–1999
Northern Pacific #2153	Class Q-3 4-6-2	Baldwin, 1909	1950s	Donated 2000	Cosmetic Restoration	No
Northern Pacific #2156	Class Q-3 4-6-2	Baldwin, 1909	1950s	Leased 1980 - Purchased Later	Restoration	No

Diesel Locomotives

Locomotive	Type	Built	Retired	Acquired	Location	Status	Image
Andersen Windowalls #3110	EMD SW1	1949	2000	Donated 2001	Jackson Street Roundhouse	Operational
Burlington Northern #6234 (Colorado & Southern #839)	EMD SD9	1959	2003	Donated 2003	Osceola and St. Croix Valley RY	Operational
Chicago Burlington & Quincy #9735	EMD PMC	1929	?	Purchased 1984	Jackson Street Roundhouse	Stored awaiting restoration
Dan Patch #100	GE 57-Ton	1913	1967	Donated 1967	Jackson Street Roundhouse	Display
General Mills #7176	GE 35-Ton	1962	2018	Donated 2018	Jackson Street Roundhouse	Restoration
Great Northern #325	EMD SDP40	1966	2008	Donated 2009	Osceola and St. Croix Valley RY	Operational
Great Northern #454-A	EMD F7A	1950	1981	2003	Jackson Street Roundhouse	Stored awaiting restoration
Great Northern #558	EMD SD7	1952	1983	Donated 2017	Jackson Street Roundhouse	Stored awaiting restoration
Lake Superior Terminal & Transfer #101	EMD NW2	1948	?	?	Jackson Street Roundhouse	Stored
Northern Pacific (LST&T) #105	EMD SW1200	1957	?	1987	Jackson Street Roundhouse	Operational
Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe #2627 (MNTX #454)	EMD CF7	1946	2015	2020	Jackson Street Roundhouse	Stored as a spare parts provider
Northern States Power NSP-5	GE 45-Ton	1951	20xx	2023	Jackson Street Roundhouse	Restoration
Soo Line #559 (Rock Island #1223)	EMD GP7	1951	1997	Purchased 1998	Jackson Street Roundhouse	Operational
US Navy #10106	GE 45-Ton	1942	?	?	Jackson Street Roundhouse	Operational

Passenger Cars

Cabooses

• Burlington Northern #11214
• Chicago, Burlington & Quincy #13500
• Great Northern #X71
• Milwaukee Road #992040
• Northern Pacific #1264
• Northern Pacific #1631
• Soo Line #31

Service & Miscellaneous Equipment

• Great Northern #X1735 Derrick Wrecking Crane
• Northern Pacific #30 Russel Snow Plow