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Located in the old Duluth Union Depot (built in 1892), the Railroad Museum shares space with three other exhibits maintained by the St. Louis County Arts Center: the Duluth Children's Museum, the Duluth Art Institute, and the St. Louis County Historical Society. One admissions ticket gets you into all four museums. We spent almost 3 hours in the Railroad Museum alone and felt like we only scratched the surface of all the interesting pieces of railroading history that is on display. You can climb aboard several of the trains and see how things were from the early days to the glory days of railroading. Fascinating interactive exhibits are sprinkled throughout the museum depot. While I think almost anyone would find fascination in the railroad museum, the package deal that the Depot offers makes this a terrific family and all ages event to include in your visit to Duluth. Kids and their parents will enjoy the Children's Museum for it too has lots of interactive stuff. Art enthusiasts will get there fix with the exhibits and galleries maintained by the Art Institute. History buffs will enjoy the Immigration Exhibit, the Forest History Gallery, and the Veterans Memorial Hall. The Union Depot Railway Museum
While the Depot now is primarily a home for four museums, it does continue to function as a train depot - for the excursion trains of the North Shore Scenic Railroad. > > > There are about 25 pieces of railroad locomotives, passenger equipment, cabooses, and service equipment on display. . . plus other railroading artifacts, hundreds of photographs, and several interactive exhibits. I had difficulty capturing good photographs because the lighting is subdued and a camera flash only travels so far. And some of these pieces of equipment were a country mile long! On my next trip, I'll bring my old film camera with high speed film so I won't need a flash.
With all the equipment located on adjacent tracks it was impossible to stand back far enough to get an entire shot of this gigantic workhorse. The 227 is an articulated locomotive - actually two engines and two sets of driving wheels operating off of one boiler. The boiler was attached to the rear engine, leaving the front one free to pivot freely from side to side. This enabled construction of larger and longer locomotives that could still safely navigate curves in the track.
A few of the valves, gauges, and controls the engineer and fireman had to master. > > >
A shot of the engineers cab - not quite as complex as No. 227.
A view of the inside of the pilot house.
Furnished as a home away from home for trainmen, it had bunks, sink, wood stove, cooking facilities, a desk, chairs, and closets for personal belongings.
The railroad museum also has a Gift Shop with railroad memorabilia, an ice cream soda fountain, and an old tyme movie theater. The above is only a small sample of the exhibits. As I said earlier it will be easy to spend hours here. Lots to see. Here's the link to the Lake Superior Railroad Museum website. 
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Visitor Information - Duluth, Mn
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Continuing your Travel & Trekking
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