SUDBURY -- The Northern Ontario Rail Museum is turning out to be the little museum that could when it comes to dealing with COVID-19.

In the last two weeks alone, since being allowed to re-open as part of phase 3, they've seen about 200 visitors to their museum and heritage centre.

"We're seeing a real good uptick in our numbers, we have approximately 3 to 4 of our 5 tours a day are booking up," said Operations Manager Derek Young.

The not-for-profit has served to educate even the most novice train enthusiast about trains and their vital importance to the town of Capreol, the city of Sudbury and what it's done for mining and the economy.

"We've broken up the tour session into three different areas so we have our museum house, Prescott Park and the Heritage Centre. All three venues have a dedicated tour guide and so far it looks like it's working really well and people are responding really good to it," he said.

During their downtime, Young says they used it to refurbish some exhibits and finish some Capreol 100 projects, like the new train on the town's welcome sign and a mural on the side of the CN building.

Eryn Roy is a student at College Boreal who is also part of the Summer Students Program and has been working as a tour guide facilitator.

"We have really good staff members, volunteers and really good board members as well but also the visitors that come, you get to meet people from all over the place that have an interest in trains and the museum," said Roy.

The museum is now open and accepting visitors six days a week but tours are being done only by appointment.

"Shop at our stores, visit the waterfront, there's some beautiful trails here with the Rainbow Routes program - so it's a destination and we've seen upwards of 16,000 visitors - so you're not just experiencing the museum but come and experience the whole town of Capreol," said Young.