Tuesday, December 17, 2013

All Aboard! This is your last chance to see The Railroad Museum before we close for the season.

If you have been planning a trip to The Railroad Museum, Sioux City your time is running out. The museums last day of operations for the season is this Sunday, December 22nd. Your next opportunity to visit will be when the museum reopens to the public on Saturday, March 1st, 2014.

Even though, the museum will be closed to the public, life at the old Milwaukee Road roundhouse complex in the north Riverside neighborhood of Sioux City, Iowa will be brisk with activity. The staff and volunteers will be busy over the winter months continuing the restoration efforts, designing and building new displays and creating new and exciting interpretative and educational experiences for our visitors.

We have come along way since 1995 when we first moved out to the roundhouse complex and started the long hard process of converting this rail yard turned salvage yard back into a working rail yard and tourist attraction that not only the Siouxland region can be proud of but, a nationally recognized historical site and tourist destination. Please keep up with our progress through the winter by returning to this blog site for updates or following us on our Facebook page.

If you can still make it out for a visit before we close for the season please do so. We would love to have you stop out and visit with us. Thank you for your past and continued support and we look forward to many more happy years of entertaining and educating our wonderful community.

Big Sioux River Recreational Bike Trail through the Railroad Museum complex

We intend to submit a grant application to the State of Iowa to assist with the construction and development of a hard-surfaced interpretive trail system at our museum complex and the Big Sioux River Recreational Bike Trail through the museum complex.

We are collecting public input and comments to submit with our application for funding. If you are interested in leaving a comment for the need of the trail system or would like to show your support, please visit our petition site to register your support and comment. Please encourage your friends to also visit and sign our petition. THANK YOU.
 
 

Tuesday, December 3, 2013

Santa's Coming to The Railroad Museum, Sioux City!


Santa's Whistle Stop Tour has been revised and re-opened!

WOW! You guys are GREAT! We love our supporters and guests so much! We have been overwhelmed by calls, letters, e-mails, and comments since the announcement that we were cancelling this event for this year due to construction issues. However, with such amazing support we cannot find it in our hearts to disappoint so many people. SO... We have brought the event back to life. It will be somewhat downsized due to a lack of available space but we are going to make this happen and Santa is so happy that he will be able to meet all the childern at the roundhouse.

Santa to make Whistle Stop Visit Next 3 Saturdays at Sioux City’s Railroad
Museum


Sioux City, IA - The Railroad Museum - Sioux City announces Santa will be
making his 2013 Whistle Stop Tour at the Milwaukee Railroad Shops Historic
District on Saturdays, December 7th, 14th, and 21st. Admission to the Railroad
Museum will be free during Santa’s Whistle Stop Tour.

COLD TEMPERATURE ADVISORY - The Railroad Museum advises visitors to dress
their children and themselves warmly and appropriately layered for the colder
weather ahead, as the interior of the buildings will be very cool.
Additionally, everyone is encouraged to wear shoes appropriate for rugged
terrain and long distance walking between the roundhouse building and the
model railroad exhibit center.

Santa will arrive by diesel locomotive and caboose at 1:15 p.m.; and will
greet visitors in the Preservation Gallery of the roundhouse building from 1:30 to 3:30.
Santa and his train will depart the Railroad Museum at 3:30 p.m.

Visitors are welcomed to bring their own digital device or camera to take
photos of Santa and his young believers. In addition, the Railroad Museum will
take pictures for $5 each for those who do not have a camera and wish to have
a photo print before they leave the railroad museum complex.

Pending availability, Santa may bring a special guest with him from the North
Pole – The Conductor - if he is not making a train run. The Conductor will
do a special story book reading from The Polar Express in the roundhouse atrium.

Motor Car rides may be purchased for $1 per person during Santa’s Whistle
Stop Tour. This “ride on the rails” is the Railroad Museum’s version of
a Christmas time horse and sleigh ride. Visitors are encouraged to be bundled
up for the ride with the much colder temperatures expected.

Santa, small electric trains and Christmas are a natural holiday coupling.
After visiting Santa at the Railroad Museum, children and grownups will have
the opportunity to watch and enjoy the operations of an HO-Scale model
railroad exhibition featuring the Nebraska Central Railway. In addition, there
may be an O-scale and N-scale layout operating in the Model Train Exhibit
Center.

The Railroad Museum - Sioux City is located in the Milwaukee Railroad Shops
Historic District at 3400 Sioux River Road, along State Highway 12 – Loess
Hills National Scenic Byway – in the north Riverside neighborhood of Sioux
City.