All Aboard! Welcome!

By Ken Buehler

Bottled water, bananas and downhill skiing, all have something in common.

We enjoy bananas from Costa Rica because of a failed railroad in 1876. Bottled water is nothing new. The Northern Pacific Railroad operated an ice factory and bottling plant on the shores of Detroit Lakes, Minnesota, starting in 1903. Bottled water from the clear, fresh bubbling Pokegama Spring there was served year round on NP dining cars.

How popular would alpine skiing be without a chairlift? Union Pacific Railroad invented the first one for their ski resort in Sun Valley. (See more about these innovations and other Lake Superior Railroad Museum Train Stories at www.duluthtrains.com/videotours)

If necessity is the mother of invention, railroads created the necessity. As the industry was being developed and growing across America, everything railroads did was entirely new and had to be created through imagination. It’s no different here on the North Shore Scenic Railroad that you are riding on today. We have constantly looked for new and exciting ways to enhance your guest/passenger’s experience.

New this year is First Class Under the Glass service on all our excursions. With the addition of the BUDD-built full-length dome car SkyView, we now offer upgraded service every day on the Duluth Zephyr. Our other dome car, Silver Club, is on the Two Harbors consist. (See more on page 10.)

A cold blooded murderer pulls a North Shore Scenic Railroad train around a corner along the shore of Lake Superior in Leif Erickson Park. This GP9 from 1956 was one of the first generation of diesel engines that killed off the steam locomotives that had been the main motive power on the railroads since their inception. The #245 was originally a Northern Pacific engine. After several owners it ended up at the Lake Superior Railroad Museum and on the NSSR without modification, which is why it still has its high hood.

The mission of the North Shore Scenic Railroad is to provide SAFE, fun and educational train rides. We made a major investment by upgrading our professional GPS trigger narration. By telling the history of Duluth, Lake Superior, railroads and inclusive of all the people who envisioned and built the region, your train ride with us is informative and memorable.

EXAMPLE: On the train to Two Harbors you’ll learn what a flag stop on the railroad is and why the one at Larsmont was so unique. It wasn’t people the train was flagged down to pick up but fresh fish packed in barrels of ice.

Back at the Lake Superior Railroad Museum in the St. Louis County Depot we’ve brought on new customer service features and exciting and interactive exhibits.

Long a food desert around the Depot, the deliciously new Toasty’s Food Truck serves up a menu of favorites for lunch or snacks. Take your meal on the train. Enjoy it with an improved beverage selection of adult and soft drinks in our concession car. Grab a treat there for dessert.

Your admission to the Lake Superior Railroad Museum is discounted to half price with a train ticket.

Welcome

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Voted by USA Today as the “BEST Transportation Museum in America,” we have four new exhibits to show you.

Railroad Signal Lights explains what the reason for and the meaning behind trackside lights and signals. The exhibit is interactive and was funded by a SAFETY grant from the BNSF Foundation.

Big Mallet #227 vs. Little Mallet #225 is a new display that puts an exact, working model of these huge powerful steam locomotives right next to the real deal. There’s a kiosk explaining the incredible way these engines were built.

Ted Rose was a famous, Milwaukee-born rail enthusiast. His photographs and paintings are historic works of art. All summer a traveling exhibit from the Center for Railroad Photography and Art, featuring Rose’s works, will be on display in the museum’s air conditioned Gallery Car.

Located outdoors, behind the museum train shed, is the new Locomotive Gallery with more engines, trains and interactive displays. It’s also a nice place to sit, relax and be surrounded by railroad history on the bricks under the old passenger canopies.

We didn’t invent bottled water, import bananas from the rainforest or put chairlifts on hills so downhill skiers didn’t have to walk back to the top for another run. Our job is to collect, preserve and present the stories about and artifacts used by the men and women who built the railroads that built our great nation.

Thank You for coming to visit and riding our railroad!