The heritage line was originally developed in the 1970s by the Minnesota Transportation Museum which spun off streetcar operations in the winter of 2004–2005.

It originally made only short trips along track at and near a roundhouse in St. Paul owned by the Minnesota Transfer Railway.

On August 28, 1971, after track had been laid and a small carbarn constructed under the Queen Avenue Bridge, which passed over the original right-of-way, public operations began.

The original streetcar station at Linden Hills was built one block north of the intersection of Queen Ave and 42nd Street in 1900.

As time progressed TCRT desired to make Lake Harriet an entertainment destination in an effort to increase recreational ridership.

By the time the Minnesota Transportation Museum began construction of the heritage line, all that remained was the concrete slab used as a platform for loading and unloading passengers.

Today, the station is used for purchasing tokens to ride the streetcars, souvenir sales and the display of Twin City Lines history.

The car, which now appears much like it did in the 1930s-1950s era, was built by Twin City Rapid Transit as a fast interurban streetcar in 1908, with a top speed of about 35 miles per hour (56.35 km/h).

1239 was built at the 31st Street Shops in Minneapolis and has been restored to the configuration it had when it was constructed in 1907 with a private door to the motorman's cab in the front and double (later triple) stream wire gates for passenger access in the rear.

But a number of faster and more modern streamlined vehicles were purchased in the 1940s to better compete with the growing prevalence of the automobile.