Minnesota Transportation Museum — Attraction in Saint Paul

Compared to various events (like "A Day with Thomas) and activities (like a trip via Union Station), MTM offers the dream for any parent with train-loving children: locality; admission to a museum (with various coloring, crafting, and play stations); story time (check the website for specific times); a gift shop; and a short train ride (about 15 minutes; check the website for specific times).

There are also all sorts of trains to explore, a train diorama with two battery-powered trains, and other relics from years past (we got to try out a typewriter!). If you're hungry, there are hot dogs and cotton candy for sale on site.

Right before you head out to the waiting area to board the train, there's a patio with plenty of tables and chairs. You can bring your own food and dine here in the shade or sun.

In the train yard is the waiting area to board the train. There's a single bench here--sans shade (we caught the 1230 train ride and the heat and scorching sun were unbearable).

Most of the train yard that's open for exploration houses several trains. You can walk around the trains and look at them in detail up close (there's no inside access to these, though).

For our train ride we had the option of riding in a caboose or passenger car. We boarded both just to see what there was to see and settled on taking the passenger car for our trip.

The ride is short and sweet, long enough to give my kiddos the train-riding experience without inducing restless-toddler syndrome.

My husband and I, neither train nor history buffs, both enjoyed our trip to MTM. We had fun learning about and seeing the different types of trains and train cars (story time is on a Power Point--which we thought was brilliant).

My kiddos loved pretty much everything about MTM except for the wait time for the train ride (there was a 15-minute delay). They enjoyed playing with the various toys and putting together projects at the crafts tables (complete with stickers for sticker-happy kiddos).

On Saturdays (the only day they offer train rides), admission for each adult costs $13 and admission for each child (ages 5-15) costs $11. Toddlers (ages 2-4) cost $6 and kids 1 and younger are free. We loved that they also offer a family deal (2 adults and 2-4 children) at $35. For all we saw and did, it was a great price.

We highly recommend a visit to MTM if your kiddo has upped the ante on train rides or simply loves all things trains. Make sure to grab one of those adorable conductor...

We had my daughter's third birthday party here, and it was great. The party was held in a train car that is separate from the museum. It has heat, so it is still a good spot for a winter party. Your guests do not have to enter the museum to attend the party. It is a good idea to bring signs or balloons to help direct your party guests to the train car. The party car has several stairs to climb to get in, and did not appear to be wheelchair accessible.

There are 25 museum passes included with party booking, but the train car holds much more than 25. You can bring your own food or have it delivered. The train car is big enough that you could set up a craft table or something for the kids. There were table cloths and a few banners already on the train car.

The museum provides a gift for the birthday kid (a train whistle) and party favors for the kids. If having a take home favor is important to you, I recommend bringing your own favor bags.

The MTM is a bit of a hidden gem, and so it was not crowded, and our guests pretty much had the run of the museum. The kids loved watching the model trains and playing with all the toys that were out. The adults enjoyed touring the old train cars.

We got our very own caboose ride for party guests. It was about 10 minutes long. Just the right length for little kids with short attention spans.

I recommend booking the earlier party time, so you can have your 2 hours in the train car and then your guests can enjoy the museum for as long as they like. If you book the later party, there just isn't enough time.

Overall, having a birthday party here was a great experience! It was inexpensive compared to other options, the staff is friendly and helpful, but did not hover or intrude. There was more space on the party car than I anticipated. This is a unique and special party location, and if you host a birthday party here, it's sure to...

Disappointed with my family outing at the train museum. The museum itself was okay but no one really talked and shared about the trains or the toy model trains. Only person who talked to us was the lady we bought our tickets from. It was disheartening because my nephew is very excited about trains and kept saying how cool and he went to say something to the model train people and was ignored, good thing was that he didn’t notice. There wasn’t much to see or there was little information. But what bothered me was the interaction with one of the volunteers was what I considered to be rude. I had the kids wait 3 times to go inside on a non working train. Each time we waited 5-10 minutes and the kids were getting antsy and we left twice and so I returned for the 3rd time because the volunteer took a family to the train. I waited in line again with the kids and the volunteer left with the family he took onto the train. Again I waited with the kids and he never returned. There was no signage around the train saying to wait or no entrance without a volunteer and all the other exhibition trains you just walk in and walk out. After waiting another length of time the kids wanted to take a picture. I had the kids go to the window in the train and they didn’t touch any of the gears. And then the volunteer comes up to lecture me about not having kids in the train. While I was taking a photo of the kids (who are in 1st grade and 2nd grade) I just walked away, I found it to be rude and we waited but no one came back to help and the museum was not busy at all we were among less then 20 people. If you don’t want people to walk into the train put up a sign or stay at your post.

I will not recommend anyone to go. It was not friendly or informative and quite honestly it was a...