6416. Go to the Railroad Depot History Museum in Waupaca

Last year Mom said Our Wisconsin magazine has an article about the train museum in Waupaca. I'm thinking there is no train museum in Waupaca and she must have been mistaken. But when I got our copy of the magazine, sure even there was an article about a train museum in Waupaca. Even the hubby didn't know it existed. I knew we needed to check it out.

Railroad Depot is part of the Waupaca Historical Society. It is open Memorial Day Weekend though Labor Day Weekend on Saturday and Sundays 12-5 which makes it difficult for us to visit. It is located by the Waupaca Foundry and if you weren't looking for it, you probably wouldn't even notice it was there as it's off of downtown. It is free to visit. 

When we arrived, a volunteer asked us to sign the guest book and suggested we start downstairs with the model railroad. There really wasn't much upstairs in the depot to see to be honest. 

In the basement, there is a model 6 scale train of Waupaca and surrounding area in the 1950-1960s (I believe). Another volunteer told us all about his work on the model railroad and stories how the railroad depot came to be in the hands of the historical society. He also mentioned how their acquired their extensive library collection. 

We headed back upstairs to view the train cars outside but first our volunteer showed us the tracks and explained how it looked in the hey day. A train was going to be coming through in about 10 minutes according to the digital scanner.

We headed over to the caboose. Someone turned it into a man cave. It was very cool to see.

Then we saw the Soo Line Potato Car. I didn't even know Potato cars were a thing but it make sense that they needed to haul tons of potatoes before the days of the semi. It was smaller than a regular box car. 

We thanked the volunteer and drove down the hill to check out the car barn. Our volunteer met us there. He explained about the baggage car from the Waupaca Trolley, the horse drawn cart, and the old Model T. He bought (or assisted in acquiring) all of it. 

Our volunteer made our visit into a personal tour. 

Before heading home, we drove across the street to the another caboose and old Soo Line Building. 

If you are into train, the Railroad Depot in Waupaca is definitely worth checking out. Then go check out the Red Mill and Grand House as well. The Grand House is on my bucket list yet. 

26 in 2026 -- Take a New Train Ride -- Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum

 When our spring training plans were no longer feasible, Tennessee became the new vacation spot. I saw that Chattanooga had a train museum with train rides that actually was open year round. It was an easy selling point to the hubby when I told him I found him a train ride.

Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum is located in Chattanooga. It is open daily 9:30-5. They have a daily train ride for $26/adult. It is a 65 minute train ride which is the longest train ride we've been on yet.

When we arrived at the museum, we had some to explore before our train left. We walked the yard but could not go in any of the trains. That was disappointed. 

We boarded the train. We opted for the last car. It was a diesel engine so it would be quiet at the back of the train. 

We went through a Pre-Civil War Tunnel that was a tight squeeze. The walls of the tunnel was about an inch from the train. It was a very cool tunnel.

When we got to the East Chattanooga Depot, we got a turntable demonstration. The museum has a 1911 turntable and we watched how they turned the locomotive around so we don't have to do the return trip backwards. The hubby was impressed. He loves roundhouses and turntables. 

We also go to see the restoration shop and their steam engine. 

Once we got back to the museum, we opted not to check out the display as it was uphill. 

If you are ever in Chattanooga and enjoy trains, definitely check out the Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum. It is definitely worth the 90 minutes journey. 

3264. Go to the Minnesota Transportation Museum in St. Paul

 The hubby has been on a train kick lately. I am not really sure what caused this fascination to reappear but at least it gave me ideas of places he would like to visit. Because the Fourth of July fell on a Friday this year, we decided could possibly take a mini trip somewhere on Saturday. Originally we were going to see the Rays play the Twins at Target Field.  I casually mentioned if we didn't go to the Twins game we could go to the Minnesota Transportation Museum since it's only open Saturdays and Wednesdays. And that's what we ended up doing since the Twins tickets were insane and the weather wasn't looking the greatest. 

The Minnesota Transportation Museum like I said is only open Wednesdays and Saturdays 10-4 year round. They only do train rides on Saturdays. Admission is $11/adult and $9/students. Parking is free. 

While I was excited to ride a caboose, the hubby was excited that the museum is in an old roundhouse. For those non-train folks, a roundhouse is where they stored and serviced locomotives. It was circular or semi circular with a giant turntable that helped to move the locomotives. There are not many left in the country.  

After paying our admission, it was almost time for a train ride so we headed out to the train yard to grab a seat on the caboose. This would have been the last train before the engineers broke for lunch. So perfect timing. 

The train consisted of a caboose and an engine. You could probably fit 15-20 people in the caboose plus a 4 or so up in the cupula. We had about a dozen or so people. It was not at all crowded or I didn't have to sit next to a stranger. There are no seats just a couple of benches along the sides of the caboose like a working caboose had. 

The train ride itself was about 15 minutes. It went up the track a few miles, reversed, and came back. Honestly it was not all the exciting. We did get a brief history of the railroad in the Twin Cities area but the ride was over way too quick. At least I got to ride in a caboose. 

After our brief train ride, we learned more about the roundhouse and turntable. It's really big.

Plus checked out some of the trains outside.

Back inside we checked out the model railroad exhibit.

We checked out some of the trains inside.

I found a Charlie Brown dressed as a train engineer.

I went in another caboose

We got to go in an actual engine, sit in the seats, and learn how an steam engine worked. That was actually pretty fascinating and worth the price of admission.

The Minnesota Transportation Museum also offers train rides out of Osceola, WI on weekends. They run a scenic train ride along with theme rides such as pizza, ice cream, pumpkin, and even a wine train. The scenic train ride is on my list for another day.

Overall we probably spent about an hour or so at the train museum. It is not large by any means. If we weren't going to see friends in Eau Claire, I would have planned on seeing more in the Twin Cities including the Model Railroad Museum. 

I am glad we went. I got to ride in a caboose. The hubby got to see a roundhouse. If someone you know loves trains (or cabooses), it is worth checking out. You can definitely hit in a few hours on your way in or out of town. 

2249. Go to the Illinois Railway Museum in Union

 Conversation I had with the hubby earlier this year
Hubby: Where is the Illinois Railway Museum?
Me (after confirming with Google Maps): Union, IL.. about 3 hours from here. Just over the border from Lake Geneva
Hubby: They have this Union Pacific Turbine Engine.. only one of two still around. We should go see it.

Mind you, I have been telling him about this place for years since Stacy and her family regularly visit. It never made a connection until he saw something on Twitter that interested him. We made plans to go over the 4th of July weekend. 

Illinois Railway Museum is located in Union, Illinois literally in the middle of corn fields. It is open May-October on Weekends (Sundays in April) and weekdays Memorial Day through Labor Day. The museum opens every day at 10 and closes at 4 or 5. There is plenty of free parking. Admission is $20.weekend and $14/weekdays. Kids save $2. It includes unlimited train rides. Depending on the day of the week/time of year, depends on how many trains are running. 

You can get tickets online ahead of time or day of. We opted for day of. I would suggest getting there about 10:15 to avoid the massive line of every one checking in/getting tickets especially on the weekend. Even if you get your tickets ahead of time, you still have to check in.

There are two buildings right next to the gift shop. One was a museum dedicated to Milwaukee Road Railway. It was had a lot of neat artifacts especially for someone who grew up knowing about the Milwaukee Road like the hubby did. 

The second building was their model railroad set up. It was quite an impressive set up especially the scenes of Wisconsin. 

Since the trains did not start running until 11, we wandered in to the train buildings. I would have liked to see all the trains but the hubby wasn't interested in it all (too much walking). We did check out one complete train barn. You couldn't go in any of the trains but they did have some unique pieces.

As we headed towards the depot for a train ride, we saw the Union Pacific 18 -- the massive turbine engine. It was similar to a jet engine and had a tender to carry the special fuel for the turbine engine. They did not last long as the fuel price skyrocketed. It was a mighty beast though. 

Then we decided it was time to ride the rails. Since it was the 4th of July Weekend, they had an expanded schedule of trains operating. Normally 1 electric train and 1 steam and/or diesel engine running on weekends. There was the electric train, diesel engine, steam engine, and a caboose train all running. 

The first train we took was a the electric train. It was a Chicago Transit Authority Train that was built in the 1920s. We road the train about 15-20 minutes in one direction and then headed back. With the electric train, the engineer was able to just switch to a different engine compartment on the other end of the train on the way back. It was a nice ride.

When we got back the steam engine was also getting ready to go so we hopped on that. It takes travels the same route as the electric train except when you get to the end of the line, the engineer drive the train in reverse to get bac to the depot. It is a straight track so it was a pretty easy to navigate. You could tell you were on a steam train with the herky-jerky movements. 

We took a break from the trains for a bit and road the trolley. Unfortunately they had to break to lunch so we did not get to do the whole loop.

The last train we rode was the Chicago and North-Western Bi-Level Train. We opted to sit upstairs. This was a new experience for us. Sitting up higher, you could really feel the train move. Like the steam engine, it only went one direction so it went backwards for half the journey. 

Three train rides on the same track was a lot. We were starting to get sick. We both felt another train ride would not be good. I guess I will have to wait to get my caboose ride or go to the Minnesota Transportation Museum. 

There is plenty to see in the yard as well. Signs, crossing signals, and various trains. 

We ended the day with a short electric bus ride. The bus was fun but the ride was way too short. 

The hubby can't stop talking about our visit. He says we need to go back. There is still stuff we have not seen and I still need to ride on the caboose. It is definitely worth the $20. We spent a good 4-5 hours there which is a long day for us in one place. I highly recommend checking it out if you or your kids have an interest in trains.