Here #261 returns home from a week in the Chicago area.  View is looking south-east with St. Paul about a mile behind me, Dayton's Bluff to the left, and the Mississippi River off to the right.

Boarding passengers at the Wayzata station (ex-Great Northern; used by AMTRAK until 1971) for a run to Howard Lake.

Behind the station is a public boat dock on Lake Minnetonka.  The passenger boat (built about 1908, scuttled about 1935, restored early 1990's) is run by the Minnesota Transportation Museum and makes trips between Wayzata and Excelsior.

Kids and their Big Wheels!

One of the Milwaukee Road's last steamers, number 261 is operated in the summers out of the Minneapolis area.  This picture was taken in 1999 in Wayzata, Minnesota during J.J.Hill Days. ("JJ" was the founder of the Great Northern Railroad.)

Head'n on down the line...

Daughter Julia and others enjoy the view inside the Cedar Rapids observation car, originally used on the Hiawatha trains between Chicago and Minneapolis.

Things aren't always as they seem!  Here 261 is running backward - note the red EOT light - on the return leg of the trip.  Too bad there aren't more places to turn a train instead of dragging it backwards.

Some of the cars in 261's consist.

Heading into St. Paul, Minnesota with Dayton's Bluff in the back-ground.  Notice the double tenders; there aren't many water towers left along the line - you have to bring your own.

With the engine on one side of the station, cars on the other side line Lake Minnetonka.

A view forward of the train west of Minneapolis.  A BNSF SD-40 is pulling us during this return leg of the trip. The steamer is several cars (and two tenders) behind us.

No matter how you look at it it's a big machine.