Illinois Railway Museum

The museum was founded in 1953 by ten people who joined together to purchase Indiana Railroad interurban car 65. Originally called the Illinois Electric Railway Museum, the museum was renamed in 1961 to reflect its expanding scope. Initially located on the grounds of the Chicago Hardware Foundry in North Chicago, Illinois, the museum's entire collection was moved in 1964 to Union along the former right-of-way of the Elgin and Belvidere Electric Company. Two years later, operations began using Illinois Terminal Railroad interurban car 415; in 1967, the first steam locomotive was operated. The first storage barn was erected in 1971. In 1981, a one-mile (1.6 km) streetcar loop was constructed. A 4.6-mile (7.4 km) railroad line was built during the 1980s and early 1990s.

The museum's operations are primarily concentrated around its main campus just east of Union. Train rides are offered on the main line as well as the streetcar loop. Electric trains are operated from April through October, and diesel and steam trains from the beginning of May through the end of September. Trolleybus operation occurs on the Saturdays of the Memorial Day, Independence Day, and Labor Day weekends, as well as on "Bus Day"; the last Saturday in September or the first Saturday in October. IRM is one of only two railway museums in the country that operates both electric and diesel trains, and the only one to offer trolleybus rides on a regular basis.

The electrified mainline at the Illinois Railway Museum

The Illinois Railway Museum property covers more than 80 acres (32 ha),[3] the most extensive physical plant of any rail museum in North America. In 2009, the museum bought another 89 acres (36 ha) of adjacent land as a buffer against development.[4] The main campus is located at 42°13′40.0″N 88°31′38.08″W. In addition to the museum's revenue trackage, the main campus in Union includes:

• 11 equipment storage barns with a total of about 3 miles (4.8 km) of track under cover
• Two additional garages housing trolleybuses and motor buses
• A dedicated steam restoration shop
• A former Chicago and North Western railway depot from Marengo, Illinois, built in 1851
• A complete Chicago Rapid Transit Company ground-level station (50th Avenue station, closed by CTA in 1978)
• Five streetcar stations of varying design
• Several restored and functional neon signs and concrete entablatures on display
• An indoor dining facility built in 2003 (open seasonally)
• A 130-foot (40 m) turntable from the Union Pacific Railroad's Burnham Shops[5]
• 7 railroad crossings, with 5 wigwags. Two of the 5 wigwags are upper-quadrant wigwags from the Magnetic Signal Company, one from the Union Switch & Signal, and the other two are lower quadrant wigwag from the Western Railroad Supply Company. The other two crossings are from the Griswold Signal Company.

IRM also owns two off-site libraries; the Pullman Library in downtown Union and the Strahorn Research Library in downtown Marengo.

Among the locomotives preserved at IRM are:

• Amtrak 945: EMD AEM-7
• Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe 2903: 4-8-4 "Northern" type steam locomotive
• Burlington Northern 5383: GE U30C
• Chicago, Burlington and Quincy 114: Only GE U28B in preservation, and the only one in its original shape
• Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy 504: One of two EMD SD24s in preservation
• Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy 9911A "Silver Pilot": The only surviving EMD E5
• Chicago and North Western 1518: First EMD GP7 ever built
• Chicago and North Western 411: EMD F7
• Chicago and North Western 6847: EMD SD40-2 restored from Union Pacific
• Chicago South Shore and South Bend 803: 2-D+D-2 "Little Joe", the only operational "800 Class", only run during special occasions
• Conrail 4601: One of only two GE E33s known to exist, bought in 2015 from RMNE
• Grand Trunk Western 6323: Class U-3 4-8-4 "Northern" type locomotive, the last GTW steam locomotive to run on GTW rails
• Illinois Central 201: On static display, participated in the "Wheels A-Rolling" pageant at the Chicago Railroad Fair in 1949
• Illinois Central 3719: The railroad's only surviving 2-6-0
• J. Neils Lumber Co. 5: Three-truck Shay locomotive, restored to operating condition in 2018
• Metra 308: EMD F7
• Milwaukee Road 265: 4-8-4 "Northern" type steam locomotive, sister to 261
• Milwaukee Road 760: First diesel locomotive built by Fairbanks-Morse in Beloit, Wisconsin, restored to operating condition
• Minneapolis, Northfield and Southern 21: Only existing Baldwin DT-6-6-2000 road switcher
• Morristown and Erie 18: ALCO C424, Ex-TPW 800
• Norfolk and Western 2050: 1923 ALCO Richmond-class Y3a 2-8-8-2 "Mallet" type steam locomotive
• Pennsylvania Railroad 4927: GG-1
• St. Louis–San Francisco Railway 1630: 2-10-0 "Decapod" type steam locomotive, operational since 2013
• Southern Pacific 1518: First EMD SD7 built, operational
• Texas and New Orleans/Southern Pacific 975: One of two surviving SP 2-10-2s
• Union Pacific 18: 8,500-hp gas turbine-electric locomotive
• Union Pacific 428: 2-8-0 "Consolidation" type steam locomotive currently under restoration
• Union Pacific 1848: B40-8, the second Dash 8 to be preserved
• Union Pacific 6930: EMD DDA40X

Other equipment includes:

• Toronto Transit Commission CLRV #4034, the newest in the museum's streetcar collection. The streetcar is being regauged (truck exchange or Wheelset exchange) from TTC gauge (4 ft 10 ⁷⁄₈ in / 1,495 mm) to operate on IRM's 4 ft 8 ¹⁄₂ in (1,435 mm) standard gauge trackage.
• Nebraska Zephyr: Streamlined Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad passenger train
• North Shore Line Electroliner trainset: One of only two built, under restoration
• Two New York City Transit Authority IRT Division R28 Series subway cars from 1960 (numbers 7926–7927): Built by ACF in the Berwick, Pennsylvania Plant
• The museum's depot: Built in 1851 for the Galena and Chicago Union Railroad, the oldest train station west of the Appalachian Mountains in regular use
• 22 electric trolleybuses from Chicago, Dayton, Ohio, Cleveland, Des Moines, Iowa, Vancouver, Edmonton, Toronto, Milwaukee, San Francisco, Indianapolis, and Seattle;
• 8 motor buses: seven from Chicago and one from Montebello.

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  Frisco 1630 crossing Olson Road in front of the museum
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  One of only two surviving examples of Union Pacific's turbines is kept in display condition
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  SP 1518, the first EMD SD7 built
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  MILW 760, the first locomotive built by Fairbanks-Morse
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  IC 201, a 2-4-4
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  GBW 2407, an ALCO RSD-15
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  CBQ 1923, a railway post office car
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  IR Interurban operating within the museum
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  UP EMD DDA40X 6930, preserved at the museum
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  CBQ SD24 504 in 2009, after its 7-year restoration
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  A circa 1907 interurban train operating at IRM in 2003
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  ITC 1605, an EMD GP7, preserved in operational condition
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  CA&E car 431 sits in a barn at the museum
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  Chicago Surface Lines streetcar 3142
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  CNW 411, an EMD F7, pulls a train of CNW commuter coaches in 2006
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  AMTK 945, an EMD AEM-7, preserved at the museum
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  BN 3, an EMD E9AM, preserved and in operating condition at the museum
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  ATSF 92, an EMD FP45, preserved and in operating condition at the museum
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  CSS&SB RR "Little Joe" electric locomotive no. 803
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  BN 5383, a GE U30C
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  North Shore Line 801-802, an Electroliner train set
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  NYC Subway 7926, a R28 subway car
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  Union Pacific #1366, a FM H-20-44 switcher
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  PRR4927/Amtrak 4939, a GG1 undergoing restoration at the museum
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  BFIX #520, a railroad milk tank car
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  An ex-Veracruz streetcar preserved in operating condition at the museum
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  NP #325, a railroad passenger car
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  An ex-Chicago trolley bus operating at the Illinois Railway Museum in 2016
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  MN&S #21, a Baldwin DT-6-6-2000 transfer locomotive
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  Fort Wayne & Wabash Valley Traction Company #504, a wooden-bodied interurban car
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  CNW caboose no. 10304
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  Illinois Terminal Railroad #1565, a boxcab locomotive
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  CTA subway train no. 2244
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  Charles City Western Railway no. #300, a steeplecab locomotive
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  Former Chicago PCC streetcar operating at IRM
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  The ex-Montebello motor bus #343, preserved and in operating condition at the museum