Twin City Model Railroad Museum O scale layout

The photos above are from the Twin City Model Railroad Museum in Minneapolis-St. Paul, which I visited recently. This huge O scale layout is a must-see if you are ever in that area.

I posted more photos and links on my blog at http://cprailmmsub.blogspot.com/

John Longhurst, Winnipeg

Nice photos, thanks for sharing them with us, John! What did you think of their layout and design?

You know, ever since I was a kid, people who knew I was a model railroader and "train nut," told me that I needed to go to Bandana Square to see the layout. I have been to the Twin Cities a number of times, but have NEVER been to see the layout (the Twin Cities are about two hours away and my folks HATE driving in large, metropolitan areas... plus that, and I'm the only one in my family who's into model trains/trains/railroads, etc.). I've been told that it's quite impressive, and that to truely appreciate it, one needs to go on the weekends when the club members are there operating the trains.

Bandana Square, the complex the layout is in, was originally a part of the Como Shop Complex for the Northern Pacific, and was renovated into an enclosed shopping center/convention space in the early 1980s. However, it has since been turned into an office park.

Here's a short wiki article about it...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bandana_Square

And a link to the Twin City Model Railroad Museum webiste...
http://www.tcmrm.org/


I'm going up to "the Cities" in a couple weeks to visit a friend of mine that I met in college. Maybe I'll see if my driver will be willing to go up a little earlier, so we can partake of the museum. If we do, I'll post some extra photos and info. as well.

Well, kids...

I went, I saw... I was impressed with the layout. The club has done a very good job of recreating scenes from around the Twin Cities area (circa the 1950s) in 1:48th scale.

Let me share a few shots I took of the layout...



The scene that greets you as you walk into the layout area, a multitude of bridges spanning the Mississippi River. In the forefront is the Milwaukee Road Shortline Bridge, the next is the Northern Pacific North Coast Bridge, behind that is the Ford Dam (or St. Anthony Falls... fellow Twin Cities people can verify as to which it is), then the iconic Stone Arch Bridge built by the Great Northern (which still stands today, although the tracks were removed in the 70s or 80s and it is now utilized as a bike/walking path over the Mississippi River) and the bridge in the background is the Third Avenue Bridge.



Here's another shot of the same scene that jdl56 shared in his posting above. Here is one of the TCRT (Twin Cities Rapid Transi) PCC cars (and there were two more in the carbarn that I didn't take a shot of) on the layout. I believe the carbarn (to the right, out of the view of the camera) is supposed to represent the TCRT Como Shops and that large red building is supposed to be the Metropolitan Building (which was demolished in 1963 in an "urban renewal" project).



This complex represents the Northern Pacific Como Car Shops... which became Bandana Square, where the layout is located.





The two images, above, are of the Mississippi Street Roundhouse and Midway Yard area. According to one of the club members, all but a couple of the steamers in the shot are owned by the club. Only one or two are privately owned. Today, this is the home turf of the Minnesota Commercial Railway.



A DM&IR (Duluth, Missabe & Iron Range) Yellowstone sits in Midway Yard awaiting it's next call to duty. Behind it is a Union Pacific Big Boy. (No, Big Boys never made it to the Twin Cities, but neither did the Yellowstones... as far as I know. But this is THEIR club layout and if they want to run Big Boys in Minnesota...)





I saw this unique bit of Minnesota railroading sitting on a storage shelf under the layout, and one of the club members was kind enough to show it to me. It's a scratchbuilt model of a Baldwin-Lima-Hamlton DT66-2000 center cab switchers that was operated by the Minneapolis, Northfield and Southern. A very well-built model (at least in my opinion).



One of the Nicknames for Minneapolis is "The Mill City," for all the flour mills that lined the shores of the Mississippi River. Here, resting next to one of the mills on the layout, is a Milwaukee Road RS unit and ribbed-sided caboose. (Hey, I'm a Milwaukee Road man, had to include the obligatory Milwaukee Road equipment shot!)


I don't want this posting to get too long, so I'll conitnue in part two...

Continuing on...




The old Great Northern Depot in Minneapolis. is one of the prominant scenes on the layout. (There are plans in the works to return rail service to the old St. Paul Union Depot and use it as a transit hub for the Northstar commuter line (as well as future commuter lines that are in the works), the Hiawatha LRT (and future LRT lines) and bus routes.)



I thought the Dayton's Bluff area iss one of the best senic areas on the layout (although, I'm biased in this opinion, as I grew up in the "senic bluff country" area of southeastern Minnesota). I'm not sure which Great Northern train is represented here, although, I thought the "paddlewheeler" was a nice nod to the history of steamboats on the Mississippi River.



A C&NW RS unit sticks its nose out of this rural, branchline enginehouse. I also thought the curved trestle was a nice touch in this area of the layout.


There are a few, little, interesting scenes that occupy the layout. Here, a steam engine meets its fate in a scrapyard.


All-in-all, I enjoyed my time at Bandana Square. If I were to change anything about the trip, it would be to incorporate a few more railroad-related stops, such as the Jackson Street Roundhouse (part of the Minnesota Transportation Museum) and one of the streetcar operations in the Twin Cities (such as the historic Como-Harriet Streetcar Line). I also appreciated the club members taking the time to chat with me about the hobby and answer any questions I had about the layout or rolling stock. So, if any of you happen to find yourselves in the Twin Cities area for one reason or another, I would highly reccomend Bandana Square as a stop to add to your itinerary.

Just thought I'd include a few shots of the Bandana Square Complex here as well...



I like how the architect/designers preserved the "feel" of the old shops by not only retaining a few of the original doors to the buildings, but designing the windows to resemble the doors as well.



One of the more interesting elements that was retained from the shops is this concrete coal bunker located along an access road/alley that runs between two buildings in the complex. I don't know what is significant about the Burlington Northern Boxcar, other than it has a vent in the side, next to the door (maybe a former power or steam car?).



"The tower? THE TOWER?!? Rapunzel, RAPUNZEL!!!"- Johnny, in the movie "Airplane!"
(Sorry, I couldn't resist.)



In front of Bandana Square, is this 0-8-0 steam engine. I don't know what the heritage of the unit is, but it has a Grand Trunk Western logo on the tender, as evidenced in the image below...

Actually, I just realized that I made a goof in one of my descriptions...

The passenger depot is actually the Northern Pacific Depot in Minneapolis, not Union Depot in St. Paul. The NP depot was demolished sometime in the late 70s and was located close to the area that is now Target Field.

Allow me to offer a mea culpa for confusing the two structures.

Komachi wrote:Actually, I just realized that I made a goof in one of my descriptions...

The passenger depot is actually the Northern Pacific Depot in Minneapolis, not Union Depot in St. Paul. The NP depot was demolished sometime in the late 70s and was located close to the area that is now Target Field.

Allow me to offer a mea culpa for confusing the two structures.

Well actually it's a model of the Great Northern depot in Minneapolis, which was used by NP, CB&Q and a couple of other railroads (I think CNW too). It was a block or so from the Milwaukee Road depot, which is still standing. The depot that's going to used as a light / commuter rail station is SPUD (St.Paul Union Depot).

I don't think the red building is supposed to be the Metropolitan Building, at least I've never heard that it is. If so it's very compressed, the original was about 18 stories and took up most if not all of a city block downtown.

BTW did you get to the next door building to visit the new Toy Train wing ??

I just noticed this thread, and I'm a Minneapolis native who used to visit this layout frequently when I was growing up (it's what got me into this hobby), so I thought I could help out a with the captions on a few of the photos posted above.

Komachi wrote: The scene that greets you as you walk into the layout area, a multitude of bridges spanning the Mississippi River. In the forefront is the Milwaukee Road Shortline Bridge, the next is the Northern Pacific North Coast Bridge, behind that is the Ford Dam (or St. Anthony Falls... fellow Twin Cities people can verify as to which it is), then the iconic Stone Arch Bridge built by the Great Northern (which still stands today, although the tracks were removed in the 70s or 80s and it is now utilized as a bike/walking path over the Mississippi River) and the bridge in the background is the Third Avenue Bridge.

The dam is definitely the St. Anthony Falls dam, as it's located very close to the prototype Stone Arch Bridge (actually, there's an upper dam by the bridge and a lower dam near the infamous 35W bridge). Note that the prototype bridge (but not the model) has had two arches removed and replaced with a truss to accommodate the 1950's-era lock. The giveaway is the hydroelectric power plant to the right of the Stone Arch Bridge (both in the model and the prototype, on St. Anthony Falls) which interestingly was formerly owned by Twin City Rapid Transit and was used to power their streetcar network (talk about sustainable transportation energy.....). The check being exchanged in the infamous TCRT "burning streetcar" photo (bottom of this page) is the sale of the hydro plant to the University of Minnesota, who still own it.

Komachi wrote: One of the more interesting elements that was retained from the shops is this concrete coal bunker located along an access road/alley that runs between two buildings in the complex. I don't know what is significant about the Burlington Northern Boxcar, other than it has a vent in the side, next to the door (maybe a former power or steam car?).

As I recall there also used to be a few other pieces of rolling stock and a F-unit (now at the Minnesota Transportation Museum) on this track. Here's the F-unit still at Bandana Square, coupled to the boxcar (link is the MTM roster page).

Komachi wrote: In front of Bandana Square, is this 0-8-0 steam engine. I don't know what the heritage of the unit is, but it has a Grand Trunk Western logo on the tender, as evidenced in the image below...

This actually is a GTW 0-8-0, which formerly was one of the Northwestern Steel and Wire switchers in Sterling, IL, which operated until 1980 in industrial service (last run 12/03/1980 according to wikipedia). I recall reading a history of these locomotives (that I can't seem to find now) that stated that GTW sent these to NSW for scrapping, but NSW found them to be in better condition than their own switchers, and scrapped their own locomotives instead.

As I recall, there used to be some sort of wooden passenger car along with GTW 8327, but it appears to have mysteriously vanished.

Komachi wrote: (Hey, I'm a Milwaukee Road man, had to include the obligatory Milwaukee Road equipment shot!)

Too bad they didn't have the 1935 Hiawatha running. It's by far my favorite piece of rolling stock I've seen there.