Well, I just got done riding the brand newrefurbish Nibco Central flier.

We're checking out one of theawesome places here in Michiana.

Over inElkhart is the Railroad Museum.

And we have with us.

Brant is going to tell usa little bit more about the place,right?

Yes.

This particular train right hereis an actual amusement train that was built around70 years ago by the National AmusementDevices.

We've had it totally refurbishedby a local, auto shop,and the mechanics were done by our central garagehere in Elkhart.

So this was all part of thistotal renovation.

You'll see a new loading area, a station house, and you'rebuilding benches to sit on.

We, of course,have plans for landscaping, perhaps a grassy areawith a picnic table.

Make this a real familyfriendly area.

Now, how long have you guyshad the central flier here?

This.

This has been herefor quite a few years.

Okay, but initially it just started out literallygoing around in a circle.

right in here.

Just it was just likea little carnival.

Right.

So we've been upgraded.

So it was upgradedlater on by the city until a, oh, probablyabout 1000ft, maybe 800ft track.

And then we expandedanother 700ft.

So now we're at around 1600feet.

the trip two times aroundtakes around ten minutes, something like that.

And I loveone of the things that that you probably just saw too,but you gave a little bit more of the fun factson the railroad route.

Well, we try to make sure that this is more than just whatI call a kiddy ride.

Yeah, we want to make sure that people enjoy it,but we're a railroad museum, so I think we're kind of obligatedto give people some history on how the railroads operatedand what types of artifacts were usefulalong the way on the tracks.

So tell us a little bit moreabout the artifacts that you'll see on the track.

Well, we have, first of all, I guess in a waywe'll call this an artifact.

We've got a working crossingsignal light bill, more folkssouthern actually donated the crossing signal lights,which is nice.

That came from the eldercrossing in Mishawaka area.

Oh, when they were redoing it.

And then they also donated tracksignal lights down there.

Those were just put in a couple weeks agoand so aren't operational yet.

But we at some pointwe'll get those operating and then we have some milemarkers, original mile markers that were made out of, kind of stone.

So I think yeah, we think it'slimestone probably, or sandstone and then concrete markersthat are land line markers along the way.

And then a Godfrey ConveyorCompany conveyor down here, which is a part of Elkharthistory.

Sure.

And then as we come upthe tracks, we're ableto see some of the rolling stock we have and stop and talka little bit about some of that as well.

Now for the museum here itself.

I mean, we have a number of peoplewho are interested in trains.

I feel likein the Michiana community, why is it important to havea facility like this here?

Well, particularly Elkhart,but this Michiana area, South Bend in Mishawaka, Elkhart wasa huge railroad intersection.

Yeah.

And in fact, in 1957, the yard,the rail yard switching yard was built and opened up in 1958,in March of 58.

So at the time was the largestclassification rail yard east of the Mississippiin the U.S. now it's the second largest.

So it is a,which is still fascinating.

It's second largest.

It's a major, majorhub for railroad history.

And having the museum next to the tracks heremakes it more authentic.

Because people, if you're a train lover,you come to the museum.

You can also see real trains.

Yeah, going by as well,which I love.

When I pulled up,one of the trains was going by and everyone was getting outof their vehicle and just stoppingand staring and taking pictures, and that's so interestingand so unique that you have that experienceto be able to watch the trains go by, but also experiencethe museum here too.

I love that.

Tell us a little bit more about what we can seewhen we're inside.

The museum is for everybody.Yes it is.

So we've got the outside stuff but we also have the insidestuff, other things in the outsidebefore we go inside would be this steamlocomotive here.

This is massive.

This is a 3001.

It's the road number.It's a mohawk.

New York Central calling Mohawk.

It's A482 configuration.

You can still go up into the caband pretend you're the engineer.

Okay.

If you have to do that, if you can climb the ladder,you can get in the cab.

Okay.

V8 diesel,which was built in 1953.

You can go in the cab up thereand the horn works.

You can pull the cord,pretend you're the engineer, and we have an old wood cabooseout by the street, which has opened upso people can see what a caboose would look like on the inside.

So very interactive.

Exactly.

And then when you go inside,we have your typical, I guess we'll just call it displaysand exhibits of railroad artifactsand information.

Railroad history of Elkhart coming through here whenit started up to the present.

And then we also have for kidswe have interactive things as well.

We've got a what we call a kids zone, which has a play trainwhich has a bell and a whistle.

They can go in and pretendthey have put in coal in the in the boiler and, and then we have, a Lego table they can play with and several of those Thomasthe Tank brio wooden things and they can create their owntracks.

Oh, neat.

and we also havea very large scale model layout that we can runfive tracks at a time on.

And we've had peoplethat will sit there for 20 or 30 minutesand just watch the trains go by.

Oh, so there's a little something for everybodyof all ages and backgrounds, and especially for the trainlovers too.

We also have two, rental centersinside this end of the building.

The West End has a large eventspace here.

They move in there.

They are this live in actiontaking up a little slack going into the yard.

The trains are now so long that even thoughthe art is several miles down, some of the trains are stoppinghere and switching further down their trains.It can be up to two miles long.

Oh my gosh.

So that's why sometimes the trackscan get blocked temporarily.

I'm sure people who drivethrough Elkhart know that yes, we have ways around.

We have a denim underpasson the Prairie overpass.

but we have a rental space here that can hold up to 80 to 100people.

Wow.

So if you wanted to do,like, a wedding.

Oh, sure.

If you wanted to havea birthday party or we've had graduationparties, we've had actually, we had a pop up store event a couple years agowhere we had a half a dozen pop up stores in here,and people would come and shop.

So you had the opportunityto rent the space here to and enjoy some of the ambiance of whata railroad museum is like.

And I love thatthis is also outdoor, so people can actually walkin between here.

Yes.

And just for for the motherand me, this is separatedfrom the actual true trains that are running by.Right?

Exactly.

Okay.

There there is a fence.

Nobody is getting stuckunderneath the train.

No, there's a fence.

Yeah.

Okay.

Got to get the most popularevent space that we have I think is the observationcar on the far end.

It's an actual railcar built back around 1939,I believe, by Budd Corporation.

And we have that with almostturned into like a dining area.

And we have a lot of kidsbirthday parties in there because we want to havea birthday party in a real train car.

Yeah.

And it's got windows.

So during the party,when trains are going by, the kids rush to the windowsand watch the trains.

I love that.

And then they can come outand they can really come century train ride.

And this is really a projectof the community.

Oh, definitely.

Yeah.

We've had the cityof course, is pitched in quite a bit, helpingget some things done.

The museum is actually owned and operatedby the city of Elkhart, but we have a 501 C3 support groupthat raises funds for projects like getting this stationhouse built.

they also help to supportpart of the track.

And we have a sign down herethat that basically shows all the corporations and businesses,whether it be Nibco or Lippert and Thor and the CommunityFoundation of Elkhart County.

I hate to start naming thembecause I know I'm going to leave some outand it's all on the sign.

Maybe you can take a picture of the sign and show people in itso no one gets left out.

But it is reallya community thing.

And this I'm sure peoplecome from all over the country to see what you have to offerhere.

Actually,even all over the world, we've gotten some from the Ukraine,believe it or not, Australia, we have what'scalled virtual real fan cameras that are both overon the passenger station and mounted nearthe outside of our gift shop, and that's broadcastedon YouTube.

24, sevenpeople can watch trains go by here in Elkhartanytime they want to.

All around the world.

And they alsothen see the museum.

So we'vehad people who have from whether it be Oregonor California or whatnot, they're coming through and they know about the museum because they've been on virtualreal cam.

And so that's awesome.

Well, how can peopleget more information about the hourswhere they can visit, how to get ticketsto ride the Century Flier?

Well, they can go most of that.

They can get on to our Facebookpage.

Okay.

And National New York CentralRailroad Museum Facebook page.

It's aa black kind of oval logo.

Okay.

That's on Facebook.

It turns into a circle,but that's us.

And we post updates.

That thing on there.

But our hours are 10to 5 Wednesday through Saturday Wednesday to Saturday.

Got it.

So we're closedSunday, Monday and Tuesday but open Wednesdaythrough Saturday 10 to 5.

And sometimeswe have special events like in August, wehave a Rocking the Rails event which will bring in life bandsand have food trucks in here.

That's August 24th.

We have a big Halloween trunkor treat event even better.

And last year we had over400 people show up on one day for our trunkor treat.

We ran this train nonstopfor five straight hours.

Oh my gosh,it just kept coming and coming.

and then Santa Claususually comes the first Saturday of December.

Oh, cool.So you guys open all year long?

Yes.

You are.

Okay.

Fantastic.

Well, anybody can come out, get more informationon their Facebook page, but definitely comecheck out the railroad museum.

There's lots to see.

And even the trainsrolling on by, And we even ran this for Santa Claus Daybecause the weather was in the mid 40s last yearand you never know.

All right.

As long as the weatherholds, we'll keep running it.

Perfect.

Thank you.

Yeah.