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CALLING ALL TRAIN LOVERS AND COLLECTORS

by Madelyn Miller

If your favorite part of Christmas was not decorating the tree, but setting up and playing with the train…have I got a museum for you.

Located near the site of the original Valley Junction Depot in old West Des Moines, Iowa, the Valley Junction Train Station and Toy Train Museum has been designed and constructed to enhance its historical position—next to the tracks.

When you step into the Valley Junction Toy Train Station , you enter a collector and hobbyist shopping paradise. It is rich in nostalgia, teeming with action, steeped in spectacular scenery and filled with details to fascinate boys and girls of all ages.

The centerpiece of the museum is the colossal 1,000 square foot train layout, designed by renowned Broadway set designer, Clarke Dunham, and built in New York by Dunham Studios. Wouldn’t it be fun to have a job there?

Eleven trains, powered by state-of-the-art electronics, run on four different elevations where viewers, big and small, can inspect intriguing details with a birds-eye-view. And as much as I enjoyed watching the trains..it was almost as much fun to watch the children watching the trains.

Children are awed by the candy factory with its arteries of pipe, valves, tanks and Life Saver water tower. Adults marvel at animated figures working and playing in a four-season wonderland.

Connected by bridges and viaducts, over 2,000 feet of track loop through America’s rural and urban landscapes. Freight trains haul grain and deliver goods to industrial areas. Passenger trains carry workers and tourists to the towering metropolitan cityscape,

Surrounding the central layout are dozens of custom built oak and glass showcases where museum owner, Doug DuBay, displays his extensive collection of antique trains, tiny houses and railroad memorabilia.

I could have spent hours watching trains roar over massive concrete arch viaducts, tunnel through spectacular mountain terrains, and zoom past towns and villages. Be sure to peek at minute figures waltzing on ice in a deep ravine at the base of a lofty mountain side.

If you need a souvenir to remember this extraordinary collection, shelf after shelf of Lionel equipment and layout accessories invite undisturbed browsing and shopping. I bought myself a tiny little train set for under $5.00 that I plan to string on a chain as a necklace.

THE VALLEY JUNCTION TRAIN STATION and TOY TRAIN MUSEUM
401 Railroad Place, West Des Moines, Iowa 50265
515-274-4424

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