You never know what you’ll find.

 Over this Memorial Day holiday I paid a visit to the Twin City Model Railroad Museum. It’s a place I used to volunteer at when I first arrived in the USA over 20 years ago, until I got a proper job. I haven’t been back much since then.

A few years ago, the museum had to move from their old premises in Bandana Square, the old Great Northern Railroad Como Shops, to a new premises a few miles away. 

The Mississippi River bluffs scene on the TCMRM Ow5 layout

The main layout is a large Ow5 layout that has featured in Model Railroader. It features a nicely detailed area based on the St Anthony Falls milling district of Minneapolis and a super Mississippi River bluffs section. 

In the years since I offered my help there, the museum has expanded and now a visit offers layouts in all scales.From Lionel standard garage to Marklin Z scale. All layouts are set up for “push button” operation. You can push a button and watch the trains run. A great feature for the kids.

A couple of scenes from the old G-Whiz gang layout that was very popular at shows hereabouts for years

LEGO models can be pretty neat, not like I used to make as a child.

While I was there, I took a look on the members sales shelves, and came across this for the princely sum of ten dollars.

Weaver Railbox “kit”

A Weaver boxcar kit. A Railbox. I like Railboxes. It’s a “kit” in the sense that you have to assemble it yourself. Much like the old Athearn “blue box” models. It’s lightly weathered and came without wheels, trucks, and couplings so I have my choice there.  I have one of these kits already, and started off improving it until my protocrastination phase set in about eight years ago. That project was going really well, and if I can remember how I did what I was doing.  I should be on to a good thing with some nice boxcars, and if not? Well, I am supposed to be modelling a scrapyard layout. So they might find themselves modelled to be waiting for the cutters torch.

I think it was a good idea to head over to the TCMRM.