Dennison Railroad Depot Museum

Day 1 of our Labor Day Weekend trip if you missed it. Part 1 of Day 2 of our Dennison adventures:

Nobody fell out of their bunk overnight. In the morning we brunched on goodies from a cute local cafe called Timi's that had been left in the corridor outside our door. Since we had a multi-day stay and converting the lower bunk back into seating was out of the question, I regretted the decision to book only a single sleeper compartment on the refurbished Pullman train car. (A double compartment, conjoined by an inner door, allows one side with bunks for sleeping and one side with a table on the bottom and a bunk for storage on the top--next time.) Thankfully the weather was warm and dry enough to use the patio outside, and anyway, we didn't spend much time at the AirBnB.

Our first destination was our host: the Dennison Railroad Depot Museum, where the visit begins with a video featuring old interviews with locals who had worked at the depot and historical photographs. You can see that the older exhibits are often much simpler, sometimes without explanations or even labels. But the newer exhibits are often quite well done, with the central train cars offering interactive lessons clearly designed for families with children (and enjoyed by child-like adults).

Above: There's a whole room with a model train set up with buttons you can push.

Below: Of course I was interested in the details about the Salvation Army Canteen run for servicemen during World War II.

One of the more intriguing (and heartbreaking) details mentioned in the videotaped interviews was the woman who ran the exchanges talking about the time she alerted the dispatchers in Pittsburgh about a Pennsylvania National Guard Troop train that kept breaking down, but the dispatchers wouldn't give her person to direct it to a separate track. It was behind schedule, so there wasn't time to give the troops refreshments while the engine was watered in Dennison. Just 25 miles farther west, the train stopped again--and was hit from behind by the Spirit of Louis, a civilian passenger train that had ignored its warning signals. 33 soldiers died, and at least twice as many were injured. Curiously, the West Lafayette collision was not mentioned in any of the exhibits that we saw. Here's a short history; and a long, detailed one from a Korean War history website.

One car described railroad travel including dining, a second whole car was devoted to hospital trains. Another was given over to local train-related culture, like signal operators, train jargon and hobo chalk signs.

The most recent exhibit was "Shoes to Fill," using different kinds of old shoes to describe the roles the people who wore them had during WWII. The last cars were about Dennison and Uhrichsville, including the Depot and the home front.

All in all, well worth the visit and cheap for the ticket price. They also do train rides, so maybe we'll come back some time to do one. But for us the day was only half over, so click to the next post to see what we did on Sunday afternoon.