Thom in the Midwest: Altoona Wisconsin
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- Опубліковано 25 сер 2024
- Welcome back to "Thom in the Midwest," a series where I explore small Midwestern towns that I would otherwise probably never go. Along the way, we discover that many of these places have interesting railroad history. Today we are in Altoona, WI, next to the larger city of Eau Claire. It's very cold outside, but that doesn't stop us from exploring for a little bit. We finish it all off with a delicious burger from the local bar.
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Hi! I manage Golden Spike and was just made aware of your video! Thank you for stopping in, even in our freezing Temps, and for the great review! We've since updated and changed a few things. If you're ever in town again, please stop by!
Thanks for the comment!
Three cheers for a revival episode of “Thom in the Midwest”.
more midwest wisconsin places! :D
The last time I went to Wisconsin in the dead of winter I swore I would never make that mistake again. Thanks for taking me there vicariously.
I found myself sweating the same thing
Love the historical background you provide in you site visit videos! Thanks for braving the cold.
As someone who lives a block away from the golden spike, i can confirm the food is awesome. Cool vid, loved seeing my hometown.
Glad you enjoyed! Not everyone has been as happy about this video…
Tom if you come back in the summer you should do a video on Lake Altoona and the park. It’s a beautiful location.
Gee Thom the things you do since you hate the cold & yet you stood out there in what appeared to be a desolate & freezing place. I was surprised that some people had ventured out & were inside the bar. It was good that the burger almost made your freezing journey outside worthwhile. Stay warm.
It’s good to hear from you again! Freezing for a few minutes was better than watching tv in my hotel room!
I’ve live next to Altoona forever! I never knew all this information! Thanks, and stop by in the summer or fall next time!
Eau Claire is a great escape destination from the twin cities. Just far enough away to feel like you've gotten out of town but close enough to get back for work the following day without waking up early. My wife grew up there and worked for a few years at the NBC affiliate - yes, 60 miles ftom MSP and they are a partially separate media market.
Getting worse with massive "Migrants" now.
As a Altoona Wi Resident: I aporve
Hey Thom! I am a local railfan and live in Eau Claire! You picked the absolute worst time of year to visit haha! Things have been pretty quiet lately in terms of UP traffic on the Altoona sub, hopefully we see a pickup someday once the line starts hopefully seeing some intermodal relief traffic soon. If you ever find yourself in the area or west-central Wisconsin, hit me up! -Jacob
I was in Altoona for work, decided to make the most of my night there. I’d definitely love to come back up under more pleasant circumstances! Thanks for the comment
I love a good simple burger, enjoyed this video.
Glad you enjoyed!
Hello Thom, thanks for all you great work!!! I like your Midwest videos allot, since I've been to that part of your country quite often. I've even been to Altoona more than once.
Greetings from Germany
Jörg
As someone that lives about a half an hour south and frequents there a lot, us locals pronounce it “AL-(like the name Al) TOON-AH. Hope you come back durning the summer when it’s a little warmer. There’s also a bridge that takes you to lake Altoona that overlooks the tracks.
3:22 My cousin,his mother and grandmother were the postmasters in Altoona for a stretch of almost 80 years and his uncle owned the Golden Spike for over 40 years plus his dad was mayor for several years in the 1960’s. A lot of history in town by his family. They always referred to Eau Claire as suburban Altoona.
So cool!
So weird. My cousin Mark Hagen was postmaster, also. My great-uncle Harry Duszynski owned the 400 and my grandparents moved in with them upstairs as newlyweds. We calculate that my mother was conceived above the bar. My cousin Ray Henning owned the Spike and he also did a stint as mayor of Altoona. Small world. We're probably shirt tail cousins.
Did a quick G-maps tour of Eau Claire: counted three, 3! old railroad bridges converted to pedestrian/bike/trail use.
This video and trains are awesome!!! Thank you for braving the cold to bring us Altoona!!! Very interesting!!!
Glad to see “Thom in the Midwest” is back 👍
I thought people might be :)
Wow, yeah, -13F is a bit TOO chilly for this NY guy transplanted to Georgia.
And I'm a little surprised you're old enough to go into a bar! :)
I mean I’m well into my twenties
Maybe it's called Altoona because of the town's only sushi bar. It's not a very good sushi bar, because they can get only one kind of fish. Maguro tuna, of course. So their sushi is all tuna. And so that's the name of the town. 😊
Altoona, WI was an important passenger train junction where passenger trains were taken apart and put together
In the Netherlands there is a place named Altena. There it will be much warmer.😉🥶
Welke provincie ligt dat in?
@@Thom-TRA Noord-Brabant
I live right near there; watch fireworks at Cinder City Park and I did the window graphics on the Nostalgic Bean coffee shop right there in the video
That’s so cool!
Al Tuna!
🐟🐟
Altoona, PA is home to the oldest roller coaster in the world, although it went through periods where it was basically abandoned so a scenic railway in Australia has operated more constantly
I’ll have to check it out!
@@Thom-TRA It is just off the Pennsylvanian after all, and there is a bus connection. There is another park slightly closer to Tyrone that is not accessible by transit though. From a coaster enthusiast perspective its an extra +2 and both can be knocked out in a day on a road trip between Hersheypark and Kennywood
That burger looks so good.
It was shockingly delicious
It’s crazy how I live 5 minutes away from there
As someone who doesn’t like the cold, I think you’re crazy! 😂 jk hope you enjoyed the video
i lived in ALTOONA i live in eau claire now
that town looks so empty, something out of a movie
I did feel like I was walking in a movie scene
Diesel Fume City has a nice ring to it. Maybe Houston deserves a rebrand.
Houston's nickname should be "If our air doesn't kill you out drivers will."
Damn auto correct our not out.
Was that a Uber or Lyft that you took in the video? It was involving that black car.
I always take Lyft
@Trains Are Awesome Oh ok. I mostly use Uber but I sometimes use Lyft, only in emergency situations.
When I was a kid and told my mom that I did not like her tuna salad, she gave me all tuna .... HA! .... Okay I'll leave now.
Bye 😂
dang dude how did you even get there? looks like a ghost town
I hitched a ride in a company car. Which died in the cold the next day.
I live there. altoona is connected to eau claire. its basically a suburb of eau claire. the downtown is rather dead during the winters at night. during the summer when its nice out there is a lot of activity there. the night life of eau claire is much larger. there is the downtown which has a bunch of bars and water street which is about 2 blocks length of different bars.
That said, it kinda depends when he was in either place. on the weekends the bars in altoona have a lot more people there. he was probably here during a week night when the bars are rather dead, especially when its super cold outside.
@@thorodin3631 There are other bars/resorts and parks, the outdoor activities in summer are a attration over any business in town for sure.
Is that -13.C or -13.F (-25.C) either way makes my 7.C seem positively tropical. I don't function below 7.C!
AHH you answer that later in the video.
I like these off the beaten track places. Especially the traditional wooden bar. Pity it only 1hour 30 from Minneapolis in a car but over three hours by bus. Would be perfect for a passenger link to Minneapolis but I guess crossing from state to state makes this politically difficult to organise, plus all that freight traffic having priority.
Oh trust me, it's most likely -13f
altoona ia? home of adventure iowa
There are, I believe, 36 springfields in the US, including two in the same state
Downtown altoona is dead and run down. The only lively area in the city is the river prairie
Thom I never heard you swear don’t do it bruh
You can’t hear me swear in this video either
Never heard of either Altoona.The name might be of Scots origin as toon is used for town? Looks really cold whatever the origin of the name.You should get up to Alaska if you haven't already been and bash out the Alaskan Railroad.-25c/-13F also 248 Kelvin cold by any measures although it's -42c in Yakutsk, Russia right now!
Alaska is one of the three states I have yet to visit!
@@Thom-TRA I think that the Alaskan Railroad and Yukon and White Pass don't run in winter for passengers although a freight service is run but sort of irrelevant as you couldn't go on them unless you became a freight train driver!
1:29😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂🤣