So Minnesota: All aboard! North Metro Model Railroad Club has one of the largest layouts in the state

A Twin Cities model railroad club hidden in a former grocery store basement has built one of Minnesota’s largest train layouts.

The North Metro Model Railroad Club has spent the last decade in the basement of a former Coon Rapids grocery store. Members said the location can be so hard to find that mail was once returned because the place looked abandoned.

“One day we started getting mail kicked back from people sending it to us, so I went to the post office and say, ‘Hey, what’s going on?’ and they said, ‘Well, it looked abandoned,’ so I said, ‘We are not abandoned, we are here,'” a club member said.

A club member said someone who had worked at the grocery store as a teenager remembered the room and talked to the landlord. The member said the club pitched its idea and got approval to move in.

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