Travels with Children

Union Pacific Railroad Museum

• 200 Pearl St, Council Bluffs, Iowa
• 712-329-8307
• http://www.uprrmuseum.org
• Hours: Tuesday through Saturday
10 a.m. - 4 p.m.
Closed Sundays & Mondays
• Free
• Stroller & handicap friendly - ramps & elevators available

This isn’t the first location of the Union Pacific Railroad Museum. It used to be located in Omaha at UP’s headquarters building. The museum was founded in 1921 after the discovery of some silver serving pieces from President Abraham Lincoln’s funeral car. There are now a LOT more pieces in their collection that showcase the history of the Union Pacific Railroad from 1862 until now. The museum opened at this new location, the former Council Bluffs Free Public Library, in 2003.

The bathrooms were on the first level (basement) as you go into the museum. There was an elevator available or you could take the numerous stairs.

We saw an exhibit titled “Dining in Railroad Style” that showed what dining aboard a Streamliner was like. The kids wrote and decorated their own circus-themed children’s menu to take home. There was a real dining car chime that explained what the call for dinner sounded like and you could try to make the same sound yourself. My kids were more partial to playing it like a regular xylophone.

There was a huge section on building the transcontinental railroad - including one of the spikes from Utah! On the top floor, there were various safety and other railroad equipment exhibits. In one corner was a locomotive simulator where kids could supposedly sit in the engineer’s seat to control the route. (Mine were a bit disappointed that it didn’t turn the way they were turning it and didn’t stop when they pushed the brake.)

One of the brochures we received as part of Railroad Days included a little section on how this display (shown) was not of a buffalo - but instead a bison. Do you know the difference?

Also, just for Railroad Days, there was an incredible 20+ foot layout of N-track model trains. My kids were fascinated - and there wasn’t enough room for them to rope it off, so I spent most of my time keeping the children from touching! It was the closest they got to the model trains that were exhibited at the different locations as part of Railroad Days. Sorry, I don’t have a picture!

There are many photos available of the museum, but I thought it best just to include a link to the archival photos.

There is a lot more to this museum than what I’ve listed. The kids were not overly interested in most of the in depth things. We only spent about an hour here and you could easily spend several and not read (or, in some cases, hear) all of the exhibits. This was the only regularly “free” stop as part of Railroad Days. Not my first preference for a field trip, but we might head back when we are studying this time period in U.S. history.

This post was submitted by a guest blogger who regularly writes for Learning As I Go.

The following is a guest contribution to Travels With Children. You can read more from the author at her blog, “Learning As I Go“.

Mark next year’s calendar now.
“Road trip! June 20-21, 2009. Railroad Days.“

If you are within a day’s drive of Council Bluffs, Iowa and Omaha, Nebraska, you really should plan to make next year’s “Railroad Days.” What is this Railroad Days? Why should you go? What’s so special?

• http://www.omaharailroaddays.com
• $10 for two adults and unlimited dependent children

Railroad Days is a five-for-one deal. You can visit five different (mostly “train-related” attractions in the Omaha-Council Bluffs area in the two day event for only $10. Not $10 per person. But $10 per FAMILY (two adults, unlimited children). You park at one of the locations and FREE bus or TROLLEY service will take you between the other locations. Here is what the website has to say about RR Days:

“Celebrate our region’s railroad heritage and spend the day visiting some of the best railroad-themed attractions that Omaha and Council Bluffs have to offer. Explore Lauritzen Gardens, The Durham Museum, the RailsWest Railroad Museum, the Union Pacific Railroad Museum and The Historic General Dodge House. You can leave your car at any of the five locations and take free trolley service to each destination. ALL ABOARD for $10 per family!”

These attractions EACH normally cost at least $5 for each adult and $3 to $4 for each child. The event is sponsored by Union Pacific Railroad and the Iowa West Foundation with donations from a variety of other local businesses, individuals, and foundations. The third annual Railroad Days took place on July 12-13, 2008. In the follow-up installments, each attraction will be featured in “Traveling With Children” fashion.

For now, here are some general comments:
The trolleys were great, although we didn’t get to ride on any of them until the second day because of none of them were available after 2 p.m.

The ride across the Missouri River between Omaha and Council Bluffs (and back) took an hour each way. If I were to do it all over again (and what we did the second day), was ride the trolley back to the place we parked our vehicle and drive ourselves across the river. It would have been much faster. The trolleys don’t cross over, so we rode a “tour bus.” All of us would have rather rode in our own vehicle and used the saved time to pick up some cheaper food along the way.

The attractions were very diverse - some were stroller friendly and others were definitely not. Some took a fairly short time to go through and we could have stayed at a couple of the others all day long.

There was definitely some hit-and-miss on the bathrooms and water/food availability. Plan ahead, use the facilities when they are provided, and be flexible. There is some more detail in the follow-up installments.

Four of the five attractions have admission fees. Only the Union Pacific Railroad Museum is free to the public. For Railroad Days, my family of two adults and four children got into all five for only $10. It would have cost us $74 for entry to these places normally. Railroad Days is a great experience for the whole family at an even greater price!