JACKSON STREET ROUNDHOUSE

I think everyone knows that I always have had a passion for trains, so while in Minneapolis I dragged Betty to St. Paul to visit the Jackson Street Roundhouse Museum. The roundhouse has an interesting past. The original roundhouse was built in 1882 but later on was too small and the present structure was built in 1907. Eventually the Great Northern, BNSF was no longer using the roundhouse as they had become obsolete. Eventually the USPS took over the building filling in the inspection pits and the turntable, so they could use it as a bulk mail sorting facility. About twenty years ago the Museum took over the propery. They started acquiring equipment and restored a portion of the building into a working roundhouse so they could restore equipment. The first three pictures below are of a 100 year old steam engine that they are restoring to use on their operating excursion railroad in Wisconsin. As you can see they have a long way to go.

The Roundhouse and Turntable

Various rolling stock

And the new passes close by on the way to Chicago