The Illinois Railway Museum (IRM, reporting mark IRMX) is the largest railroad museum in the United States. It is located in the Chicago metropolitan area at 7000 Olson Road in Union, Illinois, 55 mi northwest of downtown Chicago.

Overview

History

The museum was founded in 1953 by ten people who joined to purchase Indiana Railroad interurban car 65. Originally called the Illinois Electric Railway Museum, the museum was located on the grounds of the Chicago Hardware Foundry in North Chicago. In 1961, it was renamed to the Illinois Railway Museum to reflect its expanding scope. In 1964, the museum moved to Union, Illinois along the former right-of-way of the Elgin and Belvidere Electric Company. In 1968 the first steam locomotive was operated at the museum. The first storage barn was erected in 1972. In 1981, a 1 mi streetcar loop was constructed. The right-of-way the museum was constructed next to still had back taxes into the 1980s. To gain full use of the track, the museum paid the back taxes, and gained the 4.6 miles (7.4 km) of railroad track to add to their property portfolio. In 2016, the IRM purchased a 130-foot turntable from Union Pacific's former Denver & Rio Grande Western Burnham Shops complex in Denver for $10,000. The turntable is large enough for any locomotive in their collection, and will be used to store their steam locomotives, along with a planned roundhouse. There are over 500 pieces of equipment, and over 100 acres of land owned by the museum.

Operations

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.

Equipment and structures

Museum site and structures

The Illinois Railway Museum property covers more than 80 acre, the most extensive physical plant of any rail museum in North America. In 2009, the museum bought another 89 acre of adjacent land as a buffer against development. The main campus is located at 42.22778°N, -88.52724°W. In addition to the museum's revenue trackage, the main campus in Union includes: IRM also owns one off-site library; the Strahorn Research Library in downtown Marengo. The Pullman Archive, formerly located in downtown Union, IL moved on campus to the Multi-purpose Building in 2021.

Equipment

Locomotives

Other equipment

Formerly owned locomotives

Organization

The Illinois Railway Museum is an IRS Chapter 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation owned and managed by its membership. Museum management includes a board of directors, elected by the regular membership of about 160 active volunteers. A board president is elected by the directors. The board oversees the general manager, a volunteer who in turn has oversight over an array of department heads. Major departments include Steam, Diesel, Electric Car, Passenger Car, Freight Car, Track & Signal, Buildings & Grounds, Trolley Bus, Motor Bus, and Operations. Other departments oversee the museum's libraries, electrical infrastructure, and display and education functions. Most department heads are volunteers. All workers at the museum fall under the direct authority of one of the department heads. The vast majority of workers are volunteers. Anyone who is interested in trains or other collections/aspects of the museum is actively encouraged to volunteer, with required training done by the museum.

Use in film

IRM has been used in several films, due to its proximity to Chicago and its extensive collection of historic railroad equipment. In the 1992 film A League of Their Own, starring Tom Hanks, Geena Davis, and Madonna, the museum's depot was used for several small-town depot scenes; other scenes featured with the Nebraska Zephyr and only surviving EMD E5. The 1993 movie Groundhog Day featured the museum's EMD SD24 diesel locomotive. The museum's grounds and some of the passenger cars were used in the movie The Babe, starring John Goodman. In late 2005, the Burlington 9911A and several coaches operated to Chicago for filming in Flags of Our Fathers, a Clint Eastwood film. Transformers: Age of Extinction (2014) made IRM the host of several scenes. Many television shows' railroad sequences have been shot at the IRM. Scenes depicting steam era operations in the late 1920s were shot for the 1993 television series The Untouchables. The show Chicago Fire features the IRM onsite in the season 2 episode "No Regrets".

Special events