Built in 1914 at a cost of two million dollars, it was approximately 300’ x 155’ and the concourse spanned 12 tracks below. It was demolished in 1978 and all passenger business was transferred to the Amtrak station in St. Paul, but during its many years of service, nearly 3 million passenger trains passed beneath its concourse.

The depot was reconstructed in miniature for the Twin City Model Railroad Museum by Bob Niederkorn in 1996, after years of meticulous model building.

Niederkorn’s masterpiece was built on a base of ¾” fir plywood, and nearly 1-1/2 sheets of ¼” luaun mahogany plywood were used for the walls and partitions. To simulate the 2’ x 4’ granite blocks from which the outside walls were constructed, over 5,000 individually cut pieces of 1/32” basswood were applied to the structure.

There are 221 window openings in the model, requiring over 556 pieces of framing. Nearly 100 feet of additional trim material was used on the surfaces of the station.

Because Phil asked, here are some more photos of the station:

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The book is now available in the Museum’s gift shop at Bandana Square, Suite 222, 1021 Bandana Blvd. East, St. Paul MN, 55108; cost is $20 including tax. 

On Saturday nights in February, the book’s authors will sign copies of the book as a part the TCMRM’s special Night Trains exhibition from 6 to 9 pm. 

Night Trains is a special attraction at the Museum each holiday season beginning on the Saturday after Thanksgiving and runs every Saturday evening through the last Saturday in February (February 27, 2010). 

For information upcoming events, please visit the Museum web site at www.tcmrm.org, or contact Chad Kono at konox001@umn.edu or 612-220-3384.

Twin City Model Railroad Museum
1021 Bandana Blvd. E., Suite 222
St. Paul, MN 55108
651-647-9628
tcmrm.org

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Every year beginning on the first Saturday after Thanksgiving and running through the last Saturday in February, the Museum hosts it’s annual Night Trains event.

The event starts at 6 pm and lasts until 9 pm. For more information about Night Trains, visit the Twin City Model Railroad Museum’s Night Trains page on their website.

This was my first year at Night Trains and I made sure I was there to take pictures and videos. Unfortunately, I didn’t check before leaving home and found out after getting to the museum that my camera’s battery was dead. Doh!

Well I did get some videos, including videos of the special Christmas Train, so here they are:

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Here are the pictures I took at the event! Also, check out the videos I posted earlier for this event .

The event was held at the Twin City Model Railroad Museum’s home turf at Bandana Square in Saint Paul and was attended by other groups, including C & R Circus, a group that specializes in HO and O scale circus modeling.

I hope you enjoy these pictures:

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Well, I’m posting videos I took at the event! I’ll post pictures in another post.

The event was held at the Twin City Model Railroad Museum’s home turf at Bandana Square in Saint Paul and was attended by other groups, including C & R Circus, a group that specializes in HO and O scale circus modeling.

I hope you enjoy these videos.

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Enjoy!

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From the Circus Trains page of the Twin City Model Railroad Museum:

The Twin Cities Model Railroad Museum will be host to the Circus Moves by Rail show on October 10 and 11, 2009. Zellmar Bros Ring 80 of Circus Model Builders, Inc. and circus modelers from a 10 state area will display their circus modeling skills in several scales and circus trains will be running on the layout.

Come see hundreds of elephant, horses, lions, tigers and bears all in miniature displayed for your pleasure. See many of the famous circus acts from the past all in scales from 1/8″ = 1′ to 1″ = 1′. See a colorful cavalcade of clowns cavorting, performers decked out in costumes and of course the colossal parade wagons rolling down the streets of Small Town USA! All this and more in miniature!!!!! This event promises to be a kaleidoscope of color and wonder for ages from 1 to 101!

According to Lenny Leier, show manager and member of TCMRM, it will be largest display of miniature circus models in the Twin Cities metro area in 20 years. Admission to this special show will be included in the Museum’s normal admission price of $6 per person, children under 5 are admitted FREE of charge.

I’ll post some pictures in a follow up article.

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Coming in on a Saturday would give me a chance to work with some folks I normally don’t get to work with, so I figured it would be a good opportunity to learn something new. I did learn some new stuff but I also re-learned something I already knew; or so I thought.

It was time to pull one of the freight trains off the main line into the Midland Yard and send out something else for awhile.

There was a young boy watching me work the control panel, and, since I like to engage the public whenever I can, I asked him which train I should sent out next.

He picked the “Yellowstone” engine shown in the picture at right, a massive 2-8-8-4 steam locomotive.

I brought the other train in from the main line and sent out the Yellowstone. While the train was pulling out onto the main line I was distracted by a commotion on the other side of the layout. After I returned to the yard control panel I started moving some of the rolling stock around to set up another freight train to run next.

I was pretty intent on what I was doing in the yard and didn’t notice the small crowd of about a dozen visitors lining up to watch the yard action. As I was happily moving an engine around the yard I heard someone say, “Hey, I think that train is going to . . .” and then CRASH! The train with the huge engine I had sent out a few minutes earlier came crashing into the yard at nearly full speed, rear-ending another train!

I had forgotten to reset the switch that leads from the main line into the yard. Instead of continuing on the main line, the train followed the track back into the yard. Three sidings full of trains were now scattered all over the yard, and in front of an audience of about a dozen people! It would have been embarrassing without the audience, but I wanted to crawl under a rock!

One of the other volunteers helped me clean up my mess and got the train back on the main line. Fortunately, none of the trains were damaged. As we were cleaning up the mess, I ran through my head what had happened to lead up to the crash. In the same way that I was modeling freight yard operations, I had inadvertently modeled a railroad disaster. I had allowed something to distract me from following the procedures that would have prevented the crash.

Fortunately, I don’t have to deal with an NTSB accident investigation and, other than my bruised ego, no one was hurt. I will no doubt, have to endure a little more ribbing from my fellow volunteers at the museum.

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A simple plastic stir stick, available at most fast food restaurants that serve coffee, can be used as shown in the pictures at right to uncouple two cars.

Simply insert the pointed end of the stir stick into the coupler and rotate clockwise until the coupler arms release each other.

The cars shown in the pictures are O Scale cars with Kadee couplers. I haven’t tested this on smaller scale cars, but I’m sure something similar would work for those scales as well.

I’ve used this technique while reorganizing cars in the freight yard on the TCMRM layout; it’s fast and effective.

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The centerpiece is a large O-gauge model railroad on display for the public. Each of the four main lines are 220′ long which translates into two scale miles of track! In addition to the four main lines there are several yard lines, some of which can be seen in the photo at right.

Also seen in the photo is one of the trolley cars. The cars on the trolley line actually get their power from the overhead lines that run the length of the line from the foreground of this photo to the train station.

From their brochure:

On May 1, 1934, a group of modelers met to form the St. Paul Craftsman Club and begin building an O-gauge model railroad. From these humble beginnings, and through several location and name changes, the Twin City Model Railroad Museum has grown to a world-class museum.

Now located in historic Bandana Square, the Twin City Model Railroad Museum is an exquisitely detailed model panorama of railroads of the Twin Cities during the 1930′s, 1940′s and 1950′s. This was a time when both steam and diesel engines shared the rails.

Thousands of volunteer hours have faithfully reproduced Twin Citys railroad history in O Scale (1/4 inch equals 1 foot), an impressive sight and well worth your visit. Come watch the Empire Builder speed along miles of track through the Twin Cities, rumble over St. Anthony Falls on the famed Stone Arch Bridge and down the Mississippi. Freight trains haul the goods to and from the industries that made the Twin Cities famous.

The Twin City Model Railroad Museum is a non-profit organization. Our mission is to provide family entertainment for the young and old alike, while preserving this era of Minnesota railroad history.

While there, I got into a discussion with Paul Gruetzman, one of the volunteers, about the museum and my interest in model railroading. He told me that the museum was a volunteer organization and that they were always looking for volunteers with an interest in model railroading. It didn’t take me long to decide to volunteer. What better way, I thought, to learn about model railroading then to spend time at a model railroad museum!

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