The 8,000 square foot Model Train Gallery is designed, built and maintained by Union Station Volunteers. Because of these dedicated volunteers, the Model Railroad runs year-round and nearly doubles in size during the Christmas holiday season. Eight different train scales, ranging from the smallest Z-Gauge to the largest G-Gauge, run simultaneously. And more than 80 total trains are running daily to capture the imaginations of model railroaders and casual fans of every age.
Now let us look at the model trains at the Kansas City Rail Experience.
These pictures do not do justice to the level of detail and the excellent presentation of the displays. Next we will look at the National Park Room.
There are smaller model railroads here as well.
The Utah Canyons and the Grand Canyon.
Glacier National Park.
Another model railroad.
Yosemite National Park.
Another model railroad.
Yellowstone National Park.
One final model railroad and I ended my tour of the Kansas City Rail Experience and walked to Crown Center via the Skywalk.
Kansas City Union Station on my way to the Crown Center where I had lunch at Fritz's Railroad Restaurant. They have old-fashioned hamburgers made with 100% ground beef, grilled onions seared into the meat, toasted buns and always cooked to order. Just the way Fritz's dad served them at his Kansas City locations, dating back to the 1920's. After lunch I made my way back to the Freight House bridge.
CSX 9038 East was on a bare table train.
BNSF 5211 West came by my location next.
Kansas City Terminal came back with another train.
BNSF 4182 West was next.
Union Pcific 6674 East had a DPU on the rear.
Union Pacific 9376 East with Norfolk Southern 9138 in its consist.
Union Pacific 5963 East with former Southern Pacific, now Union Pacific, 6246.
The Union Pacific DPU was being chased by the next BNSF train.
BNSF 7495 East was chasing the Union Pacific freight.
That train had these DPU's.
BNSF 7424 West.
BNSF 7566 East came by next.
Union Pacific 5411 West with DPU's.
BNSF 4121 West.
BNSF 5745 West with DPU's.
Union Pacific 5139 West.
Amtrak Missouri River Runner 311 arrived at Kansas City. Once it was wyed, it would become my Missouri River Runner 316 bound for St Louis. I went back to the Amtrak area, retrieved my bag then put the pictures into the story and started the line for the train. At 3:44 PM, the door was opened and I led the passengers out to the train.
Missouri River Runner 316 9/30/2010This train had P42DC 190, Horizon coaches 54518 and 54581 with Amfleet Cafe/Business Class 48178. We departed on time and after escaping Kansas City, climbed the hill to reach Independence. I bought a hot dog and pretzels for my dinner, after which the train ran to Lee's Summit and Warrensburg as I worked on the story. We proceeded across open farming land to our next station stop of Sedalia then it was out across the rural farmlands towards Jefferson City, the state capital of Missouri.
The train ran through miles of cornfields.
The Missouri River at River Jct, where we met Amtrak Missouri River Runner 313 on its way to Kansas City. Our train would reverse onto the mainline and head into Jefferson City.
Jefferson City Amtrak station built in 1854 and is a restored hotel.
Our train at Jefferson City.
The dome of the Missouri State Capitol. We then became a night train, stopping at Hermann, Washington and Kirkwood before arriving at the St. Louis Amtrak station. I walked to the Drury Inn, an old railroad YMCA, and uploaded this story so far before having a well-deserved sleep.
