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I'd recommend the Lake Superior Railroad Museum in Duluth, MN. They have a magnificent display of RR dining car china and they manage to pack quite a bit of material into a rather confined museum space. The model RR is fairly good sized (but I'm a bit of a model RR snob and the level of detail is minimal and the scenery/landscaping is less than minimal, but it does seem to run smooth). They're very nice people to deal with and I've donated a few items to their inventory because of that (they're also very professional about handling donations which is important of course). On the opposite, however, I wasn't at all impressed with the Jackson Street Roundhouse in St. Paul. To me it seemed like a glorified "Thomas Tank Engine" playland and toy shop, and in their gift store they charge $50 for a Wisconsin Central book that anywhere else costs ~ $30. They have a few interesting displays (MILW dispatcher's control panel, for instance) but the access to the locomotives was extremely limited (you can only see the front end of the GN "Hustle Muscle" SD45). The model RR displays were non- functioning and damaged from allowing kids to handle the displays (no offense to kids in general). They have surprisingly few photographs displayed from the Twin Cities/Minnesota area (you'd think there'd be more than what they show) and even less verbage on the history of Minnesota/Twin Cities-area railroading (and what they have is quite generalized and simple). What bothered me the most about them was the management is so unresponsive to offers to donate equipment. They never have anyone answering phones, voice-mail and e-mails go unanswered (all with the excuse that they're run by volunteers who have regular jobs - then why publish contact numbers and e-mail addresses if nobody has time/willingness to respond?), and the one manager I did speak with at the museum didn't know what a switchstand was! Sorry for going off a little here, but it is frustrating when you want to help a local RR museum and can't...
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