News

We were out of stock of the Three Room Section House and the 12x34 Portable Depot for a significant time. Our supplier would not cut less than 50 kits in a batch. These items are not high volume sellers, so 50 kits would be an eight to ten year supply. It would have been imprudent to tie up that much of the Society's money in slow moving inventory. The problem was serious because this supplier provided five different kits for us. Despite protracted negotiations we were unable to resolve the issue and the vendor withdrew. Fortunately, we have found an...

Happy New Year, As you know, we have discontinued selling hard copies of Goats, Reference Sheets, and Modeler's Pages. All of this information continues to be available in electronic format which is cheaper and quicker for you, and eliminates the need for us to spend volunteer labor hours to do the mailing. It will also make the rented space at Jackson Street Roundhouse used to store physical publications, available to the Archives for their important work.  In making this change, we found three color cards: Equipment, Frame Structures, and Depots 1965-1970. These have long been available as part of the...

We now offer the 24x48 'old style' depot in both left handed and right handed versions. Right handed means that the passenger waiting room is on the right end of the building as viewed from the track side. Left handed means that the waiting room is on the left. The Great Northern selected 'handedness' based on which side it expected people to approach the depot from, placing the waiting room on that side of the structure. 

If you model the steam era, you need one of these water tanks, with pumphouse. This design was built all over the Great Northern from 1915 to the end of steam. This is a model of a common part of the railroad scene in the steam era and it takes very little room. This model includes the pumphouse that protected the gasoline powered water pump that was typically used to keep the tank full. Because of its height, keep it away from edges and aisles to reduce the chance of inadvertently snagging it.

New to the store November 20, 2020 is our HO model of the 24x48 foot Standard Combination Depot built in Kandiohi MN in 1900 to plans dated 1899. This is an 'old style' depot built all over the system between 1889 and 1909. Two thirds of them were in Minnesota and North Dakota. This small model requires very little room and can fit on almost any layout. A tip of the hat to member Sean Murphy who ramrodded this project with a new vendor, Hidden River Manufacturing.