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.

 

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/big-sioux-river-dike-trail-milwaukee-railroad

 

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.

Gift Shop stocked with holiday gift giving ideas - FREE ADMISSION

The Railroad Museum Gift Shop has gifts and stocking stuffers for all ages.

We have a variety of gifts from apparel to puzzles, mugs, books, toys, gift cards and more. 

We accept cash, checks, Visa, MasterCard and Discover.

Admission to the museum is waved for folks just wanting to shop for Christmas!

The Gift Shop is open Tuesday thru Saturday, 10am - 4pm and Sundays Noon - 4pm.

Get GREAT gifts and ideas while supporting our non-profit museum!!

 

See you soon!!

The Railroad Museum - Sioux City

Santa's Whistle Stop Event Canceled for 2013

It is with heavy hearts that we have to announce the cancellation of this years Santa's Whistle Stop Event, but it is not being canceled for bad reasons. Due upcoming construction projects and the prep work that we need to acomplish before the contractors can start there will not be enough usable space to hold our event this year. We are entering the final phases of our reconstruction efforts and unfortunately this event needs to be canceled so that your visitor experience in the future will be better and more comfortable.

The construction slated to start soon will include our Engineers Tools Shed (main entrance), Car Shops Building, Sand House and south end Water Closet Building.  Theses buildings must be emptied and the items currently stored in these buildings will have to be moved into the remaining buildings for temporary storage and protection while the construction is on going.

We thank each and everyone of you for your continued support. And appreciate your understanding of this unfortunate hic-up, but the overall end result will be a wonderful new addition to the overall visitor experience in the very near future.

The museum will still be open for normal daily business so if you were planning on a visit please continue to make your plans to do so. Also, our gift shop will still be open and is being stocked up for the holidays so if you have any gift giving ideas or plans we will still be able to help you out.

From the staff and all the volunteers at The Railroad Museum, Sioux City we wish to extend warm and heartfelt thank you and the best of wishes for the happiest holiday season.

2013 Halloween-at-the Roundhouse - Recap

 

What was once a foresaken parcel of history has now become one of Sioux City's destination attractions for children and family-oriented edutainment. Who would have thought a former junk yard could be transformed into a vibrant place for Halloween fun?

On Saturday, October 26th, the Railroad Museum hosted its fifth annual Halloween-at-the-Roundhouse event. City Council Member Rhonda Capron served as Traveling Engineer (similar to a parade marshall) and drove Sir Topham Hatt into the complex for the Halloween fun. Both Council Member Capron and Sir Topham Hatt greeted children and their families throughout the complex.

An estimated 7,619 people visited the historic site during the afternoon - based on visitor registrations. Among those visitors, approximately 3,886 were children and teenagers.

New to this year's event was the Cobweb Car Shops Haunted House. There were children's activities throughout the complex, hay rack rides, and tours of historic railroad equipment. Costumed witches, hoboes and railroad characters interacted with visitors - casting spells and handing out candy. The kids were also able to enjoy the pony rides and petting zoo.

We would like to thank the railroad museum volunteers, boy scouts, hoboes, and the Children's Museum volunteers for helping to staff and run the event. A special thanks to all the railroad museum volunteers who provided most of the financial investment to put on the event. And we would like to thank all our business sponsors.