What do an old railroad engineer, a former instructor from the Colorado School of Mines, and a jack-of-all trades have in common? It’s their love of the old trains parked on the tracks by Tower’s historic old train depot.

Add to that group the hard-working volunteers that make up the Tower-Soudan Historical Society (TSHS), and you have enough energy to restore a track-full of old trains to their glory days.

“I call it our yard prize,” said Mike Salo, about the original donation to the City of Tower of three train cars from the DMIR railroad in 1962. Salo’s love affair with trains began in 1957, when at the tender young age of 17 he went to work for the DMIR Railroad. The exact same steam locomotive (as far as Salo can tell) would deliver ballast material to the rail yard that Salo was working on, as a crew of about 200 worked to lay new track for a mine near Aurora. The “Constellation” engine is one of only a handful of this type of steam locomotive remaining in our area.

“Thirty-three were built between 1909 and 1913,” said Salo. “This one was the last one running and was dontated to Tower in 1962; the others had been sent to the scrap yard.”

I won’t go on with any more local train trivia. But if you have a hankering for more, stop by the Tower Depot between 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. The Tower-Soudan Historical Society operates the old depot as a museum and visitors center. Salo is one of three guides who work there in the summer, and while he is the one with actual railroad experience, both Jim Macomber and Bob Barclay can also satisfy your train history fix.

“This is just a great job for me,” said Salo, who left his DMIR railroad job at 19 and was hired on at Erie Mining as an experienced railroad man.

“I call my two years at the DMIR my college,” Salo said. At Erie, he worked as a brakeman, then as a qualified locomotive engineer, and was promoted to foreman at age 26. In his 40 years as foreman he did just about everything there was to do related to trains at the plant.

Tower’s most popular attraction

The trains are quickly becoming Tower’s top tourist stop.

“We’ve already had over 2,500 people through the depot this summer,” said Jim Macomber. “People are always very impressed with the train.”

Tower’s train collection includes the 1910 steam locomotive, a 1918 passenger car, the 1951 man car and the 1901 caboose. All of these trains have stories to tell, as do the people who stop by to tour the train.

Macomber grew up in Tower-Soudan, but spent 20 years in Colorado, working in the chemical engineering department at the Colorado School of Mines. After moving back to Tower in 2001, he and his partner Ann Flannagan both became active in the TSHS, which led to the fascination with the old trains.

Macomber is impressed with the interest shown in the trains.

“This is a really neat job,” he said. “I get to meet people from all over the world.” Visitors from Finland, Norway, Taiwan, France and England have stopped at the depot this summer. Almost everyone wants to talk about the train, Macomber said, as well as get directions to the Soudan Mine, and getting tips on catching Vermilion’s famous walleyes.

Renovation

projects

The passenger car has been ungoing extensive renovation this summer and is in the process of being put back together. A team of dedicated volunteers removed and refinished all the hardware from the inside of the car, stripping hundreds of metal pieces down to their original gleaming brass. The TSHS hired a professional contractor to refinish the interior of the car. And now volunteers are painstakingly putting back each brass screw, hinge, rack and plate that was removed and refinished. The cars from the smoker’s section will be reinstalled, and plans call for new upholstery when funds are raised. While the transformation of the interior of the passenger car is simply gorgeous, the work done on the old caboose is even more impresive.

The caboose dates back to 1901 and is one of the oldest remaining in the midwest.

“Caboose bring back a lot of memories for people,” said Ken Kube, who has clocked over 266 hours on the caboose project so far.

Kube said almost everyone has fond memories of seeing a caboose at the end of a long train, with a waving engineer.

Kube, with help from TSHS volunteers including Salo and Macomber, and some paid teen workers, has rebuilt the caboose inside and out. He restored the cabin inside, with benches, a desk and office, bathroom, sink and stove. A collection of old train memorabilia is now housed inside, along with photos of the caboose’s history.

Ann Flannagan restored the caboose’s exterior to its original bright yellow. The brightly-painted caboose is drawing more visitors off the highway into the depot parking lot.

But the process of restoring is also important, according to Kube.

“It’s not just the train,” said Kube, reflecting on his many conversations these past two years while working on the project, “It is restoring something and putting it back together. It is so the people of Tower can remember all these things.”

What’s next

Ken Kube is working on a display to feature the ore that was shipped from Tower on the train. Next on the list is restoring the interior of the 1951 man car. Once the interior is fixed up, it will provide a place to display items too large to fit in the depot museum. The TSHS is also still raising funds to complete the interior of the passenger car. Once the cars are finished, plans call for an exterior makeover for the steam locomotive.

Donations for the train project are welcome. There is information on how to make your donation online at the TSHS website at www.towersoudan.com. The Tower Depot is open daily from 10-5 through Sept. 15, then weekends through the end of September.