St. Louis County Depot begins renovations

4 hours ago

Jadie Jones,

DULUTH, Minn. — The Historic St. Louis County Depot will be seeing some major renovations and a new exhibit soon.

The project originally began as planning for a new HVAC system.

It has since grown into replacing plumbing, structural upgrades, and more.

The lobby of the North Shore Scenic railroad will get air conditioning for the first time.

While there may be changes throughout the entire building, most of it will be hidden behind the scenes.

But these upgrades will improve the space and extend the buildings life.

“This preserves the building. Built in 1892 on the National Register of Historic Places. This extends the usefulness for the people that come and enjoy all that the museums, all that the art here, everything that the depot has to offer to the community, is now preserved and enhanced.” said Ken Buehller, Executive Director of the Lake Superior Railroad Museum

Another major project will be making room for a massive model train.

The Seacrest model train will finally be making its debut in the museum.

A long stretch of rooms and former offices are being cleared out to make space for the train set.

“It is an O scale that’s about this big model train set depicting the Duluth Winnipeg and Pacific Railway all the way from Duluth across Minnesota’s iron range up to International Falls. Now a part of Canadian National. Historically accurate to 1955. Making the transition from steam to diesel power.” said Buehller.

The model was built by Jim Seacrest and donated to the museum after his passing.

Old photos and building blueprints were used to accurately depict the railway and surrounding areas.

The entire project is expected to take about 2 years.