Mid-Continent Railway Museum, North Freedom, WI Videos
Videos by Mid-Continent Railway Museum in North Freedom. The official website of Mid-Continent Railway Museum is www.midcontinent.org
All Hands on Deck Day 2!
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Train Rides at Mid-Continent Railway Museum
Mid-Continent Railway Museum is now open 6-days a week, Tuesday-Sunday! This schedule is in effect through September 2nd. Explore the museum displays, then join us for a fun and educational 55-minute ride. Choose from coach seating, ride in the 100-year-old caboose, or join the engineer in the locomotive! Tickets and information at www.midcontinent.org.
At Mid-Continent Railway Museum, we focus mostly on Upper Midwestern railroad history of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, but something notable happened in Wisconsin railroading today that is worth mentioning. Amtrak added a new train, the Borealis, to its schedule. The Borealis route travels from Chicago through Wisconsin and terminates at St. Paul, Minnesota. This video shows today's inaugural eastbound Borealis passing through Mauston, Wisconsin. The introduction of the Borealis increases service at all Wisconsin Amtrak stations west of Milwaukee, including Wisconsin Dells, the Amtrak station nearest to Mid-Continent Railway Museum. Previously, two trains a day were offered (one in each direction) aboard Amtrak's Chicago-Seattle/Portland Empire Builder. With the addition of the Borealis over a portion of the Empire Builder's route, service at Wisconsin Dells has increased to four trains per day (two in each direction). Fellow railfans - please comment if we're wrong, but from a quick glance at past Amtrak schedules, it appears the last time Wisconsin Dells was called upon by four passenger trains per day was back in October 1981, before Amtrak's North Star train from Chicago to Duluth was truncated to only operate between the Twin-Cities and Duluth before the North Star was discontinued entirely in 1985.
Mid-Continent Railway Museum's 2024 season has officially begun! In this brief clip of the season's first departure, we see David "hooping up" orders to Trainman Adam. In the days before radio dispatching was common, dispatcher instructions for the train crew could be telegraphed to the appropriate station where the station agent would write out the orders and tie them to a bamboo hoop or a wooden fork with string. This allowed the train crew to collect orders by just sticking out their arm - no need to stop the train! For departures between now and May 31st save $4 off per coach-class ticket when you use coupon code 𝗦𝗨𝗠𝗠𝗘𝗥𝟰 at checkout at www.midcontinent.org
On May 4th, Mid-Continent Railway Museum hosted its annual 'Spring Fling,' a day of volunteering aimed at getting the museum in tip-top shape before opening day on May 11th. The Spring Fling day features many different types of projects taking place all around the property. Thank you to the over 50 new and returning volunteers who took part in this year's Spring Fling! Contact us to find out how you too can join our team of amazing volunteers!
C-74 Caboose Is Back on Track! The caboose will once again pull up the rear of our trains for the 2024 season which starts May 11th! After being sidelined for servicing the caboose will celebrate it's 100th birthday year bringing joy and fun to riders on our trains. The video here shows C-74's passing the inaugural test run with flying colors in preparation for the season opening in a few weeks.
What's That Sound: 1385 - The Answer
The answer to What's That Sound is...the piston movement of the Barco M-23 Power Reverse Gear mounted to 1385! Here you see our Foreman of Steam, Ed, testing out the cylinder on compressed air. The trio of Ed, Steve and Alex (from FMW Solutions) + a magnetic base drill helped the cylinder find her home back on 1385's new boiler. We'll post some photos in another post. To learn more about this device check out our August 2023 post about the power-reverse's refurbishment: https://www.midcontinent.org/cnw-1385-power-reverse/
Shout out to FMW Solutions for the assist!
What's That Sound: 1385
Leave your guesses in the comments below. Answer will be revealed at noon today!
Can you guess what that sound is? Leave your guess in the comments! We will post the answer tomorrow.