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Minnesota Transportation Museum

The Minnesota Transportation Museum's Jackson Street Roundhouse
Location	Saint Paul, Minnesota
Coordinates	44°57′45″N 93°5′46″W / 44.96250°N 93.09611°W / 44.96250; -93.09611Coordinates: 44°57′45″N 93°5′46″W / 44.96250°N 93.09611°W / 44.96250; -93.09611
Type	Transportation museum
Website	http://www.transportationmuseum.org/

The Minnesota Transportation Museum (MTM, reporting mark MNTX^[1]) is a transportation museum in Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States.

The MTM operates several heritage transportation sites in Minnesota and one in Wisconsin. The museum is actively involved in preserving local railroad, bus and streetcar history.

The MTM was formed in 1962 to save a streetcar that had been built and operated by Twin City Rapid Transit (TCRT) in Minneapolis–St. Paul. Many of the museum's early members were formerly part of the Minnesota Railfans Association, which had organized railfan trips from the 1940s to the 1960s.

In 2004–2005, the organization's streetcar operations became the Minnesota Streetcar Museum. In addition, a steamboat that was originally built by TCRT in a style similar to its streetcars became the Museum of Lake Minnetonka.

Minnehaha Depot

The Minnehaha Depot in Minnehaha Park

After the first streetcar, TCRT No. 1300, was successfully restored, other projects were examined in the time before the streetcar could be put on its own set of rails.

The Minnehaha Depot was a former Milwaukee Road depot at Minnehaha Falls. The station, built in 1875, was nicknamed "The Princess" because of its delicate architecture. The depot is a contributing property to the Minnehaha Historic District. Trains running on special routes have sometimes stopped at the station, and it was eventually integrated into the area streetcar system. Tracks owned by the Canadian Pacific Railway reach the station, though it is at the disused end of a rail spur.

The depot is owned by the Minnesota Historical Society and operated by the Minnesota Transportation Museum. In 1967, the depot became the first building to be restored by the museum and it was outfitted with exhibits. In 2004, the METRO Blue Line's Minnehaha Park station opened across the road from the old depot.

Classic buses

The Minnesota Transportation Museum pressed this classic General Motors bus back into service as part of the Blue Line light rail opening in June 2004.

An older Mack bus behind the Jackson Street Roundhouse

Several buses from the 1940s and 1950s are also operated by the museum. Most equipment in the bus collection were built by the GMC division of General Motors, and represent vehicles that replaced the streetcars in the Twin Cities in the 1950s. The conversion from a streetcar to bus system required two years. The last trolley run was on Hennepin Avenue on June 18, 1954.^[2]

The collection consists of buses operated in and across Minnesota. Earliest is a 1942 Mack (used in conjunction with the Commemorative Air Force) which transported war workers to the B-24 final assembly point at what is now St Paul's Holman Field, and a block of 1953/54 GMC transit units, two of which are painted in original Twin Cities Lines colors. The buses are used in regular charter service, and form a very visible part of the museum's collection, often used in wedding and corporate charters, and on the museum's city tours.

This part of the collection is sponsored by Richfield Bus Company, graciously providing maintenance and licensing to operate them.

As the museum has acquired much of its bus collection from Metro Transit, the bus company sometimes requests the use of the old buses for special events.

Osceola and St. Croix Valley Railway

MTM, in conjunction with the Historical Society of Osceola, Wisconsin, operates a heritage railroad called the Osceola and St. Croix Valley Railway. Excursion trains are operated on trackage formerly owned by Wisconsin Central Ltd., now part of Canadian National Railway.

Excursion trains operate from the historic Osceola Depot, north to Dresser, Wisconsin, and southbound to and through the scenic St. Croix River Valley. Regular schedules begin on the first weekend in May, continuing through the last week of October. Special Event trains operate through the season, including Mother's Day and Father's Day dining specials, the popular fireworks train to Marine on St. Croix, the Pumpkin Train (Halloween) and Fall Leaf Viewing trains through the River Valley.

Passenger classes are General Tourist, First Class and Dining Car. Dining Car service is handled by the Osceola and St Croix Dinner Train, operating on alternating weekends. Service includes Brunch and Dinner, classic affairs done in the old "high dollar style". All Dinner Trains are "full service," served by staff on matched white linens and original diner china, 60 to 90 years old.

At the Osceola service area, several locomotives and pieces of rolling stock are on display. All equipment has been reconditioned to standard operating condition, including classic 1920s open-window coaches, Great Northern express coaches and a refreshment car. Locomotives currently in running condition are classic diesel-electric.

In past years the classic steam engine, Northern Pacific No. 328 (4-6-0) was used to pull the trains, but has been placed in restoration status due to its age (107 yrs).

The regular service train route runs approximately 50 minutes to/from Dresser, Wisconsin, and 100 minutes to/from Marine on St. Croix, Minnesota.

The Museum also operates the Dresser Depot at the northeast terminus of the line in Dresser, WI. The Depot has been preserved exactly as if the staff stepped out for a break, down to calendars and railroad notices. It is also the site of Pumpkin Train Park, hosting several thousand visitors during the pre-Halloween weekend.

Jackson Street Roundhouse

Turntable at the Jackson Street Roundhouse

The Jackson Street Roundhouse is MTM headquarters in St. Paul, as well as a fully functional railroad roundhouse, one of the last of its kind in the country. During winter months, the Roundhouse is a functioning work area for Museum rolling stock, often with the volunteer workforce welding, grinding and sending sparks flying.

Open Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday, year-round, it is where the museum's locomotives and rolling stock come for maintenance and restoration. It is highly interactive, offering train rides (Saturdays) as well as hands-on exhibits about surface transportation history of Minnesota and the upper Midwest.

The building was erected by the Great Northern Railway in 1907, replacing another, older roundhouse. The site has been used for rail transportation since the first railroad came to Minnesota (1860s). The Roundhouse and surrounding grounds are a near complete display of American industrial history from the 19th century through the mid-20th century.

The Roundhouse is home to equipment as varied as Pullman coaches, Northern Pacific RR mail & baggage cars, an operating 115-foot (35 m) turntable, a 200-ton lifting crane, an F7A passenger engine (under long term restoration to operating status), a Brill Car (one of the last of its kind) and the Minnesota Transportation Museum's fleet of classic buses.

The roundhouse is also home to the famous Northern Pacific Railway steam engine No. 2156, best known to many Twin Cities children from the 1960s and 1970s as Casey Jones's steam engine, from the popular children's program. No. 2156 is currently undergoing stabilization to become part of a "Steam Bay" exhibit, demonstrating the inner workings of steam locomotives. It will be displayed next to its sister engine No. 2153, restored cosmetically to original operating configuration.

Train Equipment

^[3]

Steam Locomotives

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

Diesel Locomotives

Locomotive	Type	Built	Retired	Acquired	Location	Status	Image
Soo Line 559 (Rock Island 1223)	GP-7	1951 EMD	---	Purchased 1998 from Wisconsin Central	Jackson Street Roundhouse	In Restoration
Northern Pacific (LST&T) 105	SW1200	1957 EMD	---	1987	Jackson Street Roundhouse	In Restoration
Norfolk & Western 3110 (Wabash 110)	SW1	1949 EMD	---	---	Jackson Street Roundhouse	Operational
Lake Superior Terminal & Transfer 101	NW-2	EMD	---	---	Jackson Street Roundhouse	In Restoration
Burlington Northern 6234 (Colorado & Southern 839)	SD9	1959 EMD	2003	Donated 2003 by BNSF Railway	Osceola and St. Croix Valley RY	Operational
Great Northern 325	SDP40	1966 EMD	2008	Donated 2009 by BNSF Railway	Osceola and St. Croix Valley RY	Operational
Great Northern 400 "Hustle Muscle"	SD45	1966 EMD	1986	Leased 2000 (owned by Great Northern Railway Historical Society)	Minneapolis	In Restoration
Great Northern 454-A	F7A	1950 EMD	1981	2003	Jackson Street Roundhouse	In Restoration
Burlington Northern 6008 (Great Northern 558)	SD7	1952 EMD	1983	Donated 2017 by Cargill, Inc.	Jackson Street Roundhouse	In Restoration

Passenger Cars

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Minnesota Transportation Museum.

• Minnesota Transportation Museum


• Minnesota Historical Society: Minnehaha Depot