Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan
Sometimes, when traveling, you stumble into a great travel find. Because of increased security at the Sault Ste. Marie locks, visitors have to park a fair distance from the entrance. I dropped Adrienne and the boys off at the entrance and drove around to find parking on Portage Street in downtown Sault Ste. Marie. Close to where I parked, I found myself walking past the Chippewa County Historical Society. Walking down the street, I was quickly captivated by the model railroad on display.
I’ve loved model trains my whole life, so it was a treat to see an O scale model of the Soo Railroad in Sault Ste. Marie in the 1950s. Typically, because the O scale is associated with Lionel Trains, most displays in this gauge tend to focus more on the toy aspect of the hobby rather than realism. I was immediately impressed with the attempt to model realism at the O-scale level, from realistic scenery to the scratch-building of some local structures from the time period. Historically, the Soo Railroad was an important economic driver of the Upper Peninsula area. Today, the Soo Railroad operates as a major subsidiary of the Canadian Pacific Kansas City Railroad.
I did not spend a long time in the museum, as I had to catch up with the rest of my family, but the museum contains many other artifacts from Chippewa County’s history. The museum is worth a quick stop if visiting Sault Ste. Marie, thank you for taking a few minutes to see the model railroad layout. Model railroading is a hobby that can effectively teach history, economics, geography, architecture, art, and electronics. It was great to see this display bring these concepts to life in the exhibit.