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Illinois Railway Museum

60180 Union, IL, United States of America (USA) (Illinois)

Address 7000 Olson Road
 
 
Floor area only roughly guessed: 250 000 m² / 2 690 978 ft²  
 
Museum typ
Railway


Opening times
Please see: www.irm.org/schedule/index.html

Admission
Please see bottom of page: www.irm.org/schedule/index.html

Contact
Tel.:+1-815-923-400   

Homepage www.irm.org

Our page for Illinois Railway Museum in Union, United States of America (USA), is not yet administrated by a Radiomuseum.org member. Please write to us about your experience with this museum, for corrections of our data or sending photos by using the Contact Form to the Museum Finder.

Location / Directions
N42.227780° W88.527244°N42°13.66680' W88°31.63466'N42°13'40.0080" W88°31'38.0798"

The museum is located 55 miles (89 km) northwest of Chicago.

From Chicago
Take the Illinois Northwest Tollway (Interstate 90) to U.S. Route 20, Marengo exit. Drive Northwesterly on Route 20, about 4-1/2 miles to Union Road. Take Union Road north and follow the signs.

From Milwaukee and Eastern Wisconsin
Take Interstate 43 west to U.S. Route 14. Take U.S. Route 14 south to Illinois Route 23. Continue south on Illinois Route 23 to Illinois Route 176 to Union Road and follow the signs. Or take any road south to Illinois Route 176, Route 176 west beyond Illinois Route 47 for 5-1/2 miles to Union Road and follow the signs.

From Rockford and Western Wisconsin
Take U.S. Route 20 (or Interstate 90 and exit at Route 20 at Cherry Valley-Belvidere) through Marengo. About 1 mile east of Marengo, turn left on Union Road. Take Union Road through Union to Olson Road and follow the signs.

Description From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:
The Illinois Railway Museum is the largest railroad museum in the United States. The museum was granted its tax-exempt status in 1957 and its mission is to demonstrate the vital role railroads have played in the growth of the Chicago area as well as the United States as a whole. There are over 450 pieces of prototype equipment in its collection as well as numerous displays. Visitors may ride on some of the museum's electric, steam and diesel powered trains from April through October.

Operations

The museum's operations are primarily concentrated around its main campus just east of Union, Illinois. 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. Trolley bus operations occur the first Saturdays of June, July, September and October.

Physical plant

The Illinois Railway Museum has the most extensive physical plant of any rail museum in North America.
In addition to the museum's revenue trackage, the main campus in Union includes:
* ten equipment storage barns with a total of about 2 miles (3.2 km) of track under cover
* a dedicated steam restoration shop
* an 1853 train depot
* a complete Chicago Rapid Transit Company elevated station
* four streetcar stations of varying design
* several restored and functional neon signs and concrete entablatures
IRM also owns two off-site libraries, the Pullman Library in downtown Union and the Strahorn Research Library in downtown Marengo.

Notable equipment

* Retired Metra F7 locomotive 308.
* one of only two North Shore Line Electroliner trainsets ever built(under restoration)
* Illinois Central steam locomotive 201 (static display), participated in the "Wheels A-Rolling" pageant at the Chicago Railroad Fair in 1949.
* Nebraska Zephyr
* St. Louis-San Francisco Railway 2-10-0 "Decapod" steam engine 1630 (under overhaul)
* Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway 4-8-4 "Northern" steam engine 2903
* Norfolk and Western Railway 2-8-8-2 steam locomotive 2050, a 1923 ALCO (Richmond) class Y3a
* Milwaukee Road 4-8-4 "Northern" Engine Number 265. Sister Engine to No. 261
* Milwaukee Road 760, the first diesel locomotive ever built by Fairbanks Morse in their plant in Beloit, Wisconsin (restored to operating condition)
* Chicago Surface Lines 84, the oldest operational trolley bus in the world
* Chicago and North Western Railway 1518, the first EMD GP7 ever built (under restoration)
* Chicago and North Western Railway 411, an EMD F7 restored from Metra service
* Chicago and North Western Railway 6847, an EMD SD40-2 restored from UP. The first SD40-2 donated to a museum
* Southern Pacific Railroad 1518, the first EMD SD7 ever built (operational)
* Union Pacific Railroad 6930 an EMD DDA40X
* Union Pacific Railroad 18, an 8500 hp gas turbine-electric locomotive
* Two New York City Transit, Interborough Rapid Transit Company R28 Series Subway Cars from 1960 (operational @IRM 17 April 2009), Built by ACF. in the Berwick PA Plant.
* Minneapolis, Northfield and Southern 21, the final Baldwin DT-6-6-2000 road switcher in existence.
* the museum's depot, built in 1851 for the Galena and Chicago Union Railroad, is the oldest train station west of the Appalachian Mountains in regular use.
* the museum also maintains an historical collection of 20 electric trolley buses from Chicago, Illinois; Dayton, Ohio; Cleveland, Ohio; Des Moines, Iowa; Vancouver, British Columbia; Edmonton, Alberta; Toronto, Ontario; Milwaukee, Wisconsin; San Francisco, California; and Seattle, Washington.

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