“All Aboard!” Granite City Train Show Runs Saturday

(KNSI) – There is a magical connection between children and toy trains.

Ed Olson is a local dentist but also a longtime hobbyist and principal sponsor of the Granite City Train Show. He says many of the vendors at Saturday’s show do what they can to make it so that the youngest guests won’t want to leave the River’s Edge Convention Center.

“The kids…they’ll come here. Some of them will stay all day long. It’s kind of heartwarming in a way, because now and then Mom and Dad have to take one of them out kicking and screaming. They don’t want to leave.”

Grant Dossetto/KNSI News

The show runs from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. in St. Cloud. Tickets are available at the door. Admission is $6 with those 10 and under getting in free.

Up for grabs for those in attendance is a Lionel Hogwarts Express “O” gauge set. There is also a children’s play area that will let them put together their own wooden train layout.

Saturday morning this display will be full.
Grant Dossetto/KNSI News

Olson and several other vendors are hard at work to prepare the variety of tracks and displays that will be set up for Saturday’s event. Olson says the Granite City Train Show started from humble beginnings.

“Originally, the show was a very small flea market type thing that I was involved with another club which has since disbanded, but I saw some potential in the show and wanted to make it a community event.”

Now done twice a year, the show attracts about 1,000 people from established hobbyists, the young at heart, to young kids who are fascinated by the model locomotives. It regularly attracts guests from five states, but they’ve had folks “pull into the station” from as far away as Montana before.

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