Sept 2, 2019

For the longest time I had been thinking of going to the Hesston Steam Museum in Indiana but never got around to it. Well this labor-day weekend was different in that a friend of mine knew I had never been, called me up and scheduled a day for us to go for a look-see.

Now the Hesston Steam Museum is an outdoor museum operated by the Laporte County Historical Steam Society in Hesston , Indiana. It started out on 22 acres and now occupies 155 acres.

Some of the interesting items to see in working operation includes a steam powered sawmill, the first electric plant powered by steam to provide electric power (60 KW DC current) to the LaPorte County, IN courthouse, a Browning locomotive steam crane, and added several first steam locomotives.

Hesston now has four different gauge railroad tracks beginning with 7 ½” “real small” scale tracks & engines, 14” Miniature Railroad with 1/4 scale locomotives, and a 24” & 36” narrow gauge rails handling full size locomotives like the 1929, 67-ton Shay logging locomotive. As a side note to the trains, their rides are way longer than I would have imagined!! They go through the woods, over bridges, and through fields. It makes you feel like you are on a real train ride!

If this were not enough to go and see, they also have numerous other pieces of steam traction engines, sometimes referred to as a steam tractor, vintage farm equipment and a fully functional rustic blacksmith shop.

Add in Doc’s Soda Fountain, the market building, and concession stands, and you pretty much had everything you could want.  And yep, I’ll be going back there again!