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Dec 3, 2007 8:26 am US/Central
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Finding Minnesota: Working On The Railroad
by Bill Hudson
St. Paul (WCCO) ―
In the golden days of railroading, trains with names like Olympian and Hiawatha raced across the prairie, packed with passengers.
More than fifty years later, inside an old St. Paul railroad repair shop, some of those old legacy railroads, like the Minneapolis 400, still make their daily run.
However, this is more than just an old repair shot. This is the Twin City Model Railroad Museum, a place for kids of all sizes and all ages.
The museum's John Mertz said he practically grew up in the cab of an old steam engine.
"In fact I spent so much time with dad in the engine until the day my mother and the truant office caught me, then I had to go back to school," he said.
The model railroad is laid out like a sprawling Twin Cities in miniature has more than a few familiar landmarks: The Gold Medal Flour sign, St. Paul's Grandview Theater and a White Castle built from the restaurant's own blueprints.
It all looks like fun, but this railroad isn't just kid stuff. It's a labor of love, where the building is done by men and women who were true artists.
"When it came time to construct landmarks like the Stone Arch Bridge over the Mississippi, club members took the time to come out and measure the actual structures," said the museum's Arnie Hochhalter.
He pointed to the model bridge.
"Those are all single pieces of wood. The guys that built those cut all those little single pieces of wood and then glued them individually onto the wall," said Hochhalter who, by the way, never had a trail set while he was a child.
It took more than fifteen years to create this model layout. It could take as long for a first-time visitor to catch every detail. From the canoe trapped on St. Anthony's falls, to the campers pulling an Airstream trailer with a VW bus. It's all here.
But the trains are still the stars of the show. Some of them are as old as the club itself.
"We've got to keep 'em going. The engines in particular need a lot of work, but then again they get a lot of use," Mertz said.
All in a day's work on this railroad.
(© MMVI, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)