A train that reached Currie, Minnesota, had come to the end of its line. That simple fact explains the object at the heart of End O Line Railroad Park Museum. The 1901 turntable gave crews a way to face a locomotive back the way it had come in a space much shorter than a loop of track. Look from the round pit to the straight tracks leading into it. For the locomotive to roll away, the rails on the moving bridge had to meet those on the ground.
The 1900 Currie depot takes the story from the turning of an engine to the people and goods it served. A branch terminus was the end of the journey for the train and a transfer point for everything going farther by road. The surviving depot and the museum’s enginehouse, which houses a Baldwin steam locomotive dating to 1875, are a good pairing. Each was built to a different set of practical requirements, one to serve traffic and the other to protect and service machinery.
The park has cabooses representing the Grand Trunk Western and the Minneapolis & St. Louis. Look for the elevated lookout, where a crew member could watch over the train from the rear. The 1899 section foreman’s house, moved from Comfrey, broadens the work story. A section crew was responsible for an assigned stretch of railroad. The house recalls a time when the person in charge of the track and the family who shared the job’s demands lived close to the line.
A rural schoolhouse and an 1873 church set the railroad buildings among other institutions that once served the area. The variety makes it possible to spend a visit following a particular thread, from the depot and enginehouse to the track crew’s home, or to explore the wider park. A paved trail links the grounds to Lake Shetek State Park.
Visitor information
Researched November 2026.
Sources
More railroad museums in Minnesota
- Lake Superior Railroad Museum — Duluth: Major railroad museum
- Minnesota Transportation Museum — Jackson Street Roundhouse — Saint Paul: Railroad museum and historic roundhouse
- All 3 railroad museums and sites in Minnesota
Keep exploring
- All heritage sites — museums, stations and landmarks
- Midwest — the trains you can ride in the region