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 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 3.25 miles (5.23 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)
• The Multi-purpose Building completed in 2021 housing the Model Railroad Display, the Revolving Exhibit Gallery and the Milwaukee Road Historic Association.
• 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: A 4-8-4 "Northern" type steam locomotive
• Burlington Northern 5383: GE U30C
• Chesapeake and Ohio 2707: A K-4 class that is the only 2-8-4 in the IRM's collection
• 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, Burlington and Quincy 3007: The only 4-6-4 "Hudson" type steam locomotive in the collection
• Chicago, Burlington and Quincy 4963: A 2-8-2 "Mikado" type steam locomotive that was saved from scrap in the early 1990s
• 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
• Detroit, Toledo and Ironton 16: A 4-4-0 type that is known for being one of only two DT&I steam locomotives left to be preserved
• Grand Trunk Western 6323: A class U-3 4-8-4 "Northern" type locomotive, the last GTW steam locomotive to run on GTW rails
• Grand Trunk Western 8380: A class P-5-g 0-8-0 switcher locomotive that was briefly used by the Northwestern Steel & Wire Company.[7]
• 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
• Lake Superior and Ishpeming 35: An SC-1 class 2-8-0 "consolidation" type that was acquired by the IRM in 1986
• Metra 308: EMD F7
• Milwaukee Road 265: 4-8-4 "Northern" type steam locomotive, sister to 261
• 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
• Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific 938: A 4-6-2 "Pacific" type
• St. Louis–San Francisco Railway 1630: 2-10-0 "Decapod" type steam locomotive, operational since 2013
• Southern Pacific 975: An F-1 class 2-10-2 "Santa Fe" type steam locomotive that was cosmetically restored in 2019
• 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 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
• 23 electric trolleybuses from Chicago, Dayton, Ohio, Cleveland, Des Moines, Iowa, Vancouver, Edmonton, Toronto, Milwaukee, San Francisco, Indianapolis, and Seattle;
• 13 motor buses: from CTA (3), Janesville, WI (2), RTA (1), CMC (1), CSL (1), NSL (1), StL Public Service (1), Connecticut Co (1), Bee Line (1), and Montebello (1).

• Bessemer and Lake Erie 154: A 2-8-0 that was traded in exchange for Detroit, Toledo and Ironton 16 in 1989, and it is now at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan.[8]
• The IRM had traded five Grand Trunk Western 0-8-0s 8306, 8328, 8372, 8375, and 8379 to a scrap dealer in exchange for Chicago, Burlington and Quincy 4963 in 1991. All of them are either in storage or on static display across the Midwestern United States.[9]
• Lake Superior and Ishpeming 34: An SC-1 class 2-8-0 that was purchased by the Western Maryland Scenic Railroad in 1991 for use in excursion service as 734, and it is now awaiting a cosmeitc restoration in Ridgeley, West Virginia.[10]
• Norfolk and Western 475: An M class 4-8-0 "Mastadon" type that went through several ownerships, including the IRM between 1980 and 1982, before being restored to operating condition at the Strasburg Rail Road in Strasburg, Pennsylvania.[11]

• 
  The electrified mainline
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  Interlocking Tower that once protected a junction just east of Elgin, IL. The tower was closed in 1980 and was donated in 1988.
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  CBQ 1923, a railway post office car
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  A circa 1907 interurban train operating at IRM in 2003
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  AMTK 945, an EMD AEM-7, preserved at the museum
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  CSS&SB RR "Little Joe" electric locomotive no. 803
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  BFIX #520, a railroad milk tank 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 2200 series #2244 and #2243
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  Charles City Western Railway no. #300, a steeplecab locomotive
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  Ex-King County Metro (Seattle) trolley buses nos. 4020 and 4123 at the museum's trolleybus garage in June 2018
• 
  The ex-Montebello motor bus #343, preserved and in operating condition at the museum