The Jackson Street Roundhouse is one of the last working railroad roundhouses in America — and the Minnesota Transportation Museum makes it a playground of real iron. In St. Paul’s old Great Northern Railway shops, visitors climb into steam and diesel locomotives, ride the working turntable, and explore cabooses, passenger cars and a blacksmith shop that still rings with hammers.
The museum runs excursion trains, too — vintage rides to Osceola, Wisconsin, and special holiday trains that sell out fast. Restoration volunteers coax century-old machines back to life in full view, making every visit a backstage pass to railroad craft.
For train lovers it’s sacred ground; for everyone else it’s the most fun you can have in a hard hat zone. All aboard, St. Paul.
