Minnesota Transportation Museum / Osceola & St. Croix Valley Railway

Take a train ride on the Osceola & St. Croix Valley Railway this weekend!

Tickets available at trainride.org

Labor Day weekend is here!

Come celebrate the end of summer in Downtown Osceola. Enjoy the beautiful surroundings, delicious food, and unique shopping experiences.

Grab a friend or bring the family, there is a lot to do in Downtown Osceola this weekend!

This week’s volunteer highlight is Dave Anderson! Dave started volunteering in 2021, after he retired from being a computer programmer. His dad was a Civil Engineer for The Great Northern, fueling his own love of trains and railroads. Even while simply eating around the dinner table, Dave had endless opportunities to learn about the history of the railroad.

In 1968, Dave recalls feeling like royalty on a trip with his father in a business car. As chief engineer, they would stop along the way so that his father could conduct inspections. From then on, he considered working on the railroad. In college he worked for the signal department, and was easily the youngest one there. In fact, during this time Dave worked right by Jackson Street Roundhouse, but at the time it was a post office!

Dave ended up working for a software company, and this is where he became a software engineer. This made MTM the perfect place to continue pursuing his love of trains. When he first began to volunteer, Dave made the effort to always listen and make notes of what people needed help with. At the time, this was a lot of cleaning up and cosmetically working on cars. He says you can learn quite a lot from just listening and asking follow up questions.

When summer rolled around, Dave noticed that the grounds needed some attention. Since then, he has been more focused on maintaining the grounds of Jackson Street Roundhouse, which is no easy task! Thank you, Dave, for all that you do!

Dave pointed out that volunteering at a museum such as our own allows people to stay connected to the past. Jackson Street Roundhouse is full of living history. Volunteering with us at the Minnesota Transportation Museum provides you with an incredibly unique opportunity to actively preserve and create history! If you’re interested in joining our team, send an email to [email protected].

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A glimpse into a day of volunteering on the Osceola & St. Croix Valley Railway 🚂

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Looking for something to do over Labor Day weekend? Check out this article, which includes information on the Osceola & St. Croix Valley Railway!

Families Can’t Miss These 12 Unique Labor Day Weekend Adventures Parents Are Raving About These 12 Unique Labor Day Weekend Activities in the Twin Cities!

Happy World Photography Day! Do you have any photos from Jackson Street Roundhouse or the Osceola and St. Croix Valley Railway? We want to see them! Send them through direct message, or to [email protected].

Due to a change in plans, TC Bear will be at Jackson Street Roundhouse from 2pm-3pm today!

A peek at Northern Pacific Railway Post Office Car No. 1102 👀

You can ride in this historic mail car on the Osceola & St. Croix Valley Railway! Get your tickets for this weekend now at trainride.org.

TC Bear will be at Jackson Street Roundhouse this Saturday from 12-2pm!

Tickets are available at trainride.org

Have you ever noticed these on the ceiling at Jackson Street Roundhouse?

These are smoke jacks, which are commonly found in roundhouse roofs! The chimney of a steam locomotive would be parked underneath for ventilation of coal smoke. In this section of the roundhouse, they were used for diesel engines.

Have any fun train facts that someone might not know? Share them in the comments!

Gorgeous aerial photos of the Osceola & St. Croix Valley Railway 🚂

Looking for a scenic train ride? Get tickets now at trainride.org

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Due to the heat, Jackson Street Roundhouse will be closing early today. We will open again on Saturday from 10am-4pm!

Wanna go visit Jackson Street Roundhouse? Admission today is only $5!

Special thanks to for creating this work of art!

This Wednesday is the 5th Wednesday of the month, which means $5 admission at Jackson Street Roundhouse!

Tickets are available at trainride.org

FLASH SALE!!

We have a few tickets left for our beer train THIS SUNDAY!

Get your tickets today at

Minnesota Transportation Museum Join our effort to keep the Roundhouse and Railroad alive and running. Your time, talent, energy and knowledge is needed. If you ever dreamed of being around trains, now is your chance!!! Learn about volunteering! …

Introducing this week’s volunteer highlight, Gary Sparr! Though he has been a member of the Minnesota Transportation Museum for some time, he started volunteering when the museum reopened after the pandemic in 2021. His interest in trains and history is what originally drove him to join the museum. However, once he began to volunteer he noticed a lack of groundskeeping. When Jackson Street Roundhouse opened back up after the pandemic, the grounds had been neglected and more hands were needed to spruce the place back up.

Gary came to MTM with not only an interest in history, but also a variety of valuable skills such as experience working with historical societies, being a tour guide, doing home safety evaluations with the Fire Department, and to top it all off a degree in Psychology! Outside of putting in the work to make our grounds look spectacular, Gary spends time with his family and volunteering at a variety of other organizations.

When asked why someone should volunteer with us at the Minnesota Transportation Museum, Gary says that it is important to keep history alive. There is so much to learn from the museum and from our volunteers. Jackson Street Roundhouse is a fascinating piece of history. He says that volunteering on the railroad in Osceola, Wisconsin is also a unique opportunity in which one can experience the landscape in a completely different way.

Gary, we hope you know how much you are appreciated. The outside of Jackson Street Roundhouse looks just as incredible as the inside, and that has been no easy feat! Thank you for all that you do.

If you’re interested in being a part of our team, send an email to [email protected]!

Come visit Jackson Street Roundhouse next Saturday, July 27th, to experience the world famous Oscar Mayer Wienermobile! The museum will be open from 10am-4pm and the Wienermobile will be visiting from 10am-2pm. We will also be offering museum and locomotive shop tours, short caboose ride, arts and crafts, and food provided for purchase by Deb’s Hot Dogs. We cannot wait to see you there 🌭

Our volunteers truly go above and beyond! Special thanks to Mike and Garry, who used their time and energy to create this amazing work of art. Much appreciation to all of our volunteers, MTM is nothing without you ❤️

Merry Christmas in July! Visit Osceola, Wisconsin this weekend on July 13th and 14th to ride on the Osceola & St. Croix Valley Railway with Santa!

Enjoy pictures with Santa, Christmas cookies and milk, arts and crafts, and more!

Tickets available for Ice Cream Trains, Pizza Trains, Marine Excursions, and more! Visit trainride.org to pick the time and experience that works best for you.

Introducing our volunteer of the week, Eric Hopp! Eric has been volunteering at the Minnesota Transportation Museum since 1997. He has had a fascination with trains since he was a kid. Two of his favorite books as a child were “The Little Engine That Could” and “Train Coming!” featuring a train named “Joe”. The book was incredibly beloved and his father read it for him all the time, finally getting to the point where Eric’s dad had the words memorized and knew exactly when to turn the page.

Since starting to volunteer at MTM, Eric has participated in a wide variety of projects. He has worked on mechanical, structural, and cosmetic restoration of cars. Now, the time has come for Eric to take a break from volunteering, and focus more heavily on his own restoration project. Despite not actively volunteering, Eric is often in the locomotive shop at Jackson Street Roundhouse working on his own train car that he bought in 2000.

Being originally from Des Moines, Iowa, Eric got the chance to experience the American Freedom Train which traveled through Des Moines in 1975. In a souvenir brochure he found information about restoring a locomotive and thought to himself, “I want to do that”. 25 years later he brought his own train car into MTM with the impression that he knew something about how to restore it. He quickly discovered how much there was to learn, and thanks to all of our incredibly experienced and enthusiastic volunteers, Eric learned most of what he needed to know from volunteering with us at MTM.

For Eric, the most rewarding part of volunteering is being able to give future generations a cool piece of history to learn about and enjoy. Like all of us, Eric wants to see MTM live on. If you’re looking for rewarding opportunities and a chance to learn new skills, then send an email to [email protected] to learn more about our volunteer opportunities!

Looking for a scenic train ride close to the Twin Cities? Take a ride on our Marine Excursion in Osceola, WI! Tickets available at trainride.org 🚂

Don’t miss out on our wine train this Sunday! Tickets available at trainride.org 🚂

Minnesota Transportation Museum Join our effort to keep the Roundhouse and Railroad alive and running. Your time, talent, energy and knowledge is needed. If you ever dreamed of being around trains, now is your chance!!! Learn about volunteering! …

Last Wednesday morning, volunteers from the shop climbed up on top of our historic steam locomotive #328 to put the whistle back on the mounting! This is likely the first time the engine has had its whistle on since it was taken out of service in 1999. The whistle is not the original Northern Pacific one. This whistle is a Milwaukee Road six-chime, meaning the whistle plays six musical notes! The six-chime was put on sometime in the mid 1990s and was worn through the last years of the engine's excursion service. Railfans may know this whistle from the Steam Fest In The Valley events from 1997-1999, where 328 ran in tandem with Soo Line #1003 and later #2719. The locomotives even ran a special triple-header in 1999!

To hear this whistle (and watch 328) in action, check out the Dynamo Productions video: Northern Pacific 328 Steam Train on YouTube, filmed by local Railfan Jeff Terry.

https://youtu.be/ApJeFF0wACk?si=b01o6bWlXrSoXRaY

PC and CC: Ruby Halbmaier

Thanks Star Tribune for a great article! Come and join us at the Minnesota Transportation Museum!! 🚂🚂

https://m.startribune.com/get-to-know-the-st-paul-museum-dedicated-to-preserving-minnesotas-railroad-history/600375936/?_gl=1*us2pm6*_ga*MTkxMTE4NDgyMy4xNzE5MzM4Njkz*_ga_SG3Y2YJFRQ*MTcxOTMzODY5My4xLjEuMTcxOTMzODcwNC4wLjAuMA..

Get to know the St. Paul museum dedicated to preserving Minnesota's railroad history Josh Hoaby, executive director of the Minnesota Transportation Museum, connects the state's railroad past with its present.

There is still room on our beer tasting trains!!!

Get your tickets today at trainride.org

Jackson Street Roundhouse is open today until 8pm! Come join us for live music, beer, caboose rides, crafts, and more!