The GNRHS Company Store now offers the Wayzata, Minnesota, depot in HO scale. The model is made by Hidden River Models. A brief history of the relationship between the railroad and the town is given below for your enjoyment.
The first train came to Wayzata on August 24, 1867 when the town was the end of the line of the St. Paul & Pacific Railroad, predecessor of the Great Northern Railway. The first depot was located four blocks east of the present depot, near Broadway Avenue. The town grew up on both sides of Broadway.
By the 1880’s the railroad was providing frequent local passenger service to Wayzata. Twin Cities residents and visitors from Southern states came to the village by train to enjoy the cool summer breezes on Lake Minnetonka. Large steam boats transported visitors to the numerous hotels built to accommodate the Southern guests, and Wayzata flourished and grew because of the railroad.
Community leaders complained loudly to James J. Hill, President and a major shareholder of the Great Northern Railway, about the noise his switch engines made during the night. In response to the town’s demands, in 1893 Hill built a new depot a mile to the east, and closed and razed the Broadway Avenue depot. The first train to pass through town to the new depot did so with such speed as to start a fire due to sparks from the engine. Local tradition has it that Hill threatened "Wayzata residents can walk a mile for the next 20 years!" Still, to accommodate his influential friends, Hill provided the Ferndale pavilion and platform stop on the west end of the town, about one block west of the present depot.
After years of Wayzata residents trudging through marshy terrain to reach the train, Hill relented and the Great Northern Railway built the present depot in 1906, and renamed the old station, which was torn down in 1911, Holdridge. The English Tudor structure, designed by architect Samuel Bartlett, was noted for its hot water heat and indoor plumbing and at one time was considered the handsomest depot on the line.
In 1971, Amtrak abandoned passenger service through Wayzata. The Burlington Northern donated the unused depot to the city of Wayzata. Currently, Burlington Northern Santa Fe coal, grain and mixed freight trains pass through Wayzata.