Minnesota Transportation Museum
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The Minnesota Transportation Museum (MTM) is an organization that operates several heritage transportation sites in Minnesota and just across the border in Wisconsin. The museum primarily focuses on preserving and restoring portions of the railroads that once crossed through the area, but a unique steamboat and a few classic buses are also in the collection. The organization was first formed to save a streetcar that had been built and operated by Twin City Rapid Transit (TCRT) in the Minneapolis-St. Paul region of Minnesota. The museum was officially organized in 1962, and followed in the footsteps of the Minnesota Railfans Association, which had organized railfan trips in the 1940s, '50s, and '60s.
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Como-Harriet Streetcar Line
The Como-Harriet Streetcar Line is the museum's site in Minneapolis. A short stretch of track runs alongside Lake Harriet up to Lake Calhoun. Three different vehicles currently operate on the track, although only one or two are running at any given time. Rides have been given at the site since 1971. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places (along with two arches over the route, the Interlachen Bridge and Queene Avenue Bridge, both added in 1989), and is operated in conjunction with the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board. Rides are given during the warmer months of the year.
TCRT #1300
The first vehicle to be restored was Twin City Rapid Transit streetcar number 1300. The car, which now appears much like it did in the 1930s, was built as a fast interurban streetcar in 1908, with a top speed of about 65 miles per hour (105 km/h). TCRT #1300 typically went on routes between cities, often going between Minneapolis and St. Paul along University Avenue or along a path that took it past Minneapolis's western lakes and into the suburbs.
As Twin City Rapid Transit dismantled its street railway system in the 1950s, TCRT #1300 was donated to the Minnesota Railfans Association. It was stored outside for several years until MTM acquired it in 1962. The streetcar was restored to operational status with in 1963, but there was not much track available to run it on. It first ran along track at a roundhouse in St. Paul owned by the Minnesota Transfer Railway Company. Over a period of several days when the public was able to view the streetcar, more than 10,000 people mobbed the site.
Linden Hills station
Since public interest was so high, the museum examined options for putting #1300 on its own set of rails somewhere in the area. The Minneapolis Park Board had acquired the former right-of-way streetcars had used as they ran along the city lakes, so in 1970 a lease was arranged for use of the land by the museum. Track was laid and a small carbarn was constructed to house the trains.
The car first ran on this track in 1971, although no overhead wires had been strung to provide electricity to power the vehicle. An electrical generator was mounted on a small trailer towed behind the streetcar until the overhead electrical system was completed 1973.
A small period structure based around what existed on the site in the 1900s, known as the Linden Hills station, was completed in 1991. Previously, all that had remained of the site was a concrete slab that was used as a platform for loading and unloading guests of the trolley line.
Duluth #265
Other streetcars were also added in later years. A streetcar once operated in the TCRT-owned Duluth rail system was put in service after nine years of restoration work as Duluth #265 in 1982. It had originally been built in 1915 by Twin City Rapid Transit and numbered TCRT #1791, but was moved to Duluth the next year. It operated there until the line closed down in 1939.
The car had been turned into a summer cabin, a fate that was not unusual for old wooden streetcars that managed to escape being burned up as rail lines were torn down. The interior had been removed, so important pieces like the railroad trucks, the electric wiring, and other parts had to be scavenged from other old streetcars or rebuilt from scratch.
Duluth #78
Another streetcar from the Duluth Street Railway appeared in 1991 after a rebuild period that took more than six years. Duluth #78 is the oldest streetcar in the museum, having been built by the LaClede Car Company of St. Louis, Missouri in 1893. The car, which was retired in 1911, is one of the oldest working streetcars in the country. It is a first-generation electric car, so it highly resembles the horse-drawn streecars it replaced. It has been operating on the Excelsior Streetcar Line (described below) since 1999.
TCRT PCC #322
Twin City Lines had built most of its own streetcars throughout the company's history, but a number of faster streamlined vehicles were purchased in the late 1940s to better compete with the popularity of the automobile. TCRT #322 was a PCC car built by the St. Louis Car Company in 1946. It served in the Twin Cities until it was sold in 1953 in a batch of 30 streetcars that was sent to the Newark City Subway. It later became one of two cars sold by Newark to Shaker Heights Rapid Transit in Ohio in 1978. After the car was acquired by the museum, it underwent ten years of restoration, finally entering service in 2000.
Classic Buses
A few buses from the 1940s and 1950s are also operated at the Lake Harriet site. Most of the buses in the collection were built by the GMC division of General Motors, and represent the vehicles that replaced the streetcars in the Twin Cities. There is also a Mack-built bus, and a Yellow Coach dating to 1935 that once operated in Rochester, Minnesota, but it has not been restored.
As the museum has acquired much of its bus collection from Metro Transit, the bus company sometimes requests the use of the old buses for special events.
Minnehaha Depot
After TCRT #1300 was successfully restored, other restoration projects were examined in the time before the streetcar could be put on its own set of rails. The Minnehaha Depot was a Milwaukee Road depot at Minnehaha Falls. The station, built in 1875, was nicknamed “The Princess” because of its delicate architecture. Trains running on special routes have sometimes stopped at the station, and it was eventually integrated into the area streetcar system. Tracks owned by the Canadian Pacific Railway reach the station, though it is at the end of a rarely-used line. In 1967, this was the first building restored by the museum and outfitted with exhibits inside. Today, the Hiawatha Line station serving Minnehaha Park is located across the road from the old depot.
Osceola & St. Croix Valley Railway
There were several attempts to venture into the world of steam power in the 1970s and 1980s. After several false starts, largely due to community opposition to the idea of fairly noisy locomotives trundling by, the museum finally managed to start up a train system along with the historical society of Osceola, Wisconsin. This location is about an hour away from the Twin Cities. Trains operate on track owned by Wisconsin Central Ltd., currently a subsidiary of Canadian National.
A number of locomotives and pieces of rolling stock are in operation. Most of the locomotives that are currently in running condition are diesel-electric, although steam locomotives have occasionally been used to pull the trains. Many are currently undergoing restoration work.
The train route runs past several train depots that have been restored by MTM. They include stops in Copas, Minnesota, Dresser, Wisconsin, and the main station in Osceola. The northern end of the line is in Dresser, and the southern end is in Marine on St. Croix, Minnesota.
Express Boat Minnehaha
From 1906 to 1926, Twin City Rapid Transit offered a very unique transportation alternative to visitors of Lake Minnetonka, a large resort destination to the southwest of the Twin Cities. The vessels were essentially “streetcar boats,” steamboats that highly resembled the venerable streetcars of the region. When business on the lake soured during one of many cycles of boom and bust, the boats were sunk in deep water. One of them, the Minnehaha, was eventually located by divers and brought to the surface in 1980. It was restored in the 1990s and returned to the lake in 1996.
The ticket office for the steamboat has some exhibits, and a train depot in Wayzata is near one dock used by the Minnehaha.
Excelsior Streetcar Line
The Excelsior Streetcar Line began operation in 1999 in Excelsior, Minnesota, on the shore of Lake Minnetonka near Excelsior Bay, where the Minnehaha is docked. Initially, the line was only occupied by Duluth #78, but another streetcar is set to begin service shortly. It is operated in conjunction with the Hennepin County Regional Rail Authority.
TCRT #1239
TCRT #1239 was built in Minneapolis and has been restored to the configuration it had when it was constructed in 1907. The streetcars used in the Twin Cities in the early 20th century were “gate cars” which used metal gates on the rear of the car both for embarking and disembarking. Only a small door was on the front, and it was only used by the motorman. This configuration required “two man” operation, with a motorman in front and another worker at the rear who handled fares and helped with backing up when it was required.
Most Twin Cities streetcars were converted in the 1930s to add a large front door and allow just one person to operate the vehicle (“one man” operation). A few streetcars built by TCRT for the University of Minnesota's own small line between campuses in Minneapolis and St. Paul remained in the gate car configuration for many more years.
Jackson Street Roundhouse
The main base for the museum is the Jackson Street Roundhouse in St. Paul. It is the site where the large locomotives and rolling stock come for maintenance and restoration. There are currently some small exhibits at the roundhouse. The building was put up by the Great Northern Railroad in 1907 and is on a site that has been used for rail transportation ever since trains first came to Minnesota. For a time, the building was used as a warehouse, but the turntable has now been restored and track laid to allow restoration activities to take place.
See also
- Other places with Twin City Rapid Transit hardware:
- Seashore Trolley Museum
- East Troy Electric Railroad Museum
- San Francisco Municipal Railway's Market Street Railway
External link
- Minnesota Transportation Museum (http://www.mtmuseum.org/)