Twin City Model Railroad Museum 668 Transfer Road, Saint Paul, MN 55114

"The Twin City Model Railroad Museum is a fun and engaging spot, especially for kids who love trains! The only other museum like this I've been to was in San Diego, and it had many small, self-contained rooms set up for some of the realistic scenes; this museum has most of their displays in a single massive room, and the emphasis is more on whimsy than realism. Signs encourage kids to not touch the sets, but there are buttons everywhere enabling people to start trains or trigger other accessories to move, like Ferris wheels or planes. An adjoining room shows a train set build in progress. The gift shop largely consists of older model train supplies and books/magazines. When we visited on a Saturday, we found the place to be busy but there was still plenty of room to move around. I appreciated that hand sanitizer stations were everywhere--a good thing, as lots of hands are pushing buttons! The museum itself is in a strip mall that's in a larger industrial area. Parking was free and abundant."

"Immense. One of the two greatest layouts I've ever seen (other was in Pittsburgh). The largest, of Minneapolis by St. Anthony Falls, was super. Really liked seeing all the wall mounted vintage train models, especially the Zephyrs. Kids will love it. Very clean restroom and convenient free parking. Recommend it."

"An awesome place if you are around the city and looking for quick 1-2 hr get away with kids aging 3-8 they would love the trains and also the freedom to start them"

"I highly recommend the model train museum. In addition the massive layout modeled after Minneapolis in the center of the building, there are a ton of additional tables/exhibits. The volunteers who run this place are supper friendly and love to share knowledge of trains and answer questions. They done a great job of making it interactive for kids including buttons everywhere that kids can push to start trains and operate different fixtures on the layouts. There are also several small tables where kids can operate the train controls themselves."

"Went to the Night Train session with Santa for Christmas. The dim lights made it a bit difficult to see all the details, but the lit up trains cruising around was a real treat! It's a great place to learn about train modeling and historic details about MN. Our 4 year old loved it and as an adult, you can tell they put a lot of pride and hard work in their museum."