Choo-Choo Bob’s is back in St. Paul.
And in a location that appears made in heaven.
The ribbon was cut at the front entrance of the children’s interactive play store at the historic St. Paul Union Depot.
It’s not the wide-open area that attracted train lovers young and old to the original location on Marshall Ave. and its short stop in St. Louis Park.
“The folks here at Union Depot were very excited about creating more of a destination location, so they actually recruited us to come back here,” said long-time employee Paul Howe, known to many as the guitar-slinging story teller Engineer Paul.
“We packed up all of our stuff and moved it down here,” he said.
The first transition happened during the pandemic, when hands-on features were pretty much shut down.
The wooden trains and tracks and tables and plastic locomotives small enough for a kid to ride had been in storage before the St. Louis Park site opened.
And now, Choo-Choo Bob’s is back in St. Paul, and what many feel is the perfect spot.
“People are excited, they still remember us from the old store,” said Engineer Paul, who’s also featured on the Choo-Choo Bob’s TV show that’s now being streamed.
Instead of the wide-open room that was the old place’s trademark, Choo-Choo Bob’s Union Depot site has a broken up floor plan, with each room providing a specialty.
“We can have a different purpose in each of the rooms,” said Engineer Paul. “This is already a transportation hub, so we’re hoping a lot of people are able to use public transport.”