The Illinois Railway Museum is located in the small town of Union, near Marengo, Illinois. It's just off Interstate 20 northwest of Chicago. This is among the best railroad museums in the country. It covers over 100 acres and has more old equipment than any I've seen. This refurbished station is used as the boarding place for rides on the trains and also houses much memorabilia from the golden age of train travel.

As we visited on Thursday, a weekday, only the electric equipment was running. We rode this old Illinois Terminal Railroad interurban on a 10 mile trip over the museum's own roadbed. If steam or old diesels are more to your liking plan to visit on a weekend day.

Below, I played 'strap-hanger' while Jackie chose a more comfortable seat.

Besides the long trolley ride we also rode this Brill streetcar that was used by the Chicago Surface Lines. The route at the museum travels throughout the property. It makes many stops at points of interest and you can get on and off at any of them. As with the long ride, all is included in the price of the entrance ticket.

One of the trolleys still being refurbished is an old St. Louis Car Company streetcar that came from Milwaukee. They even had the number 10 Wells-Downer nameboard showing. Most of the work is done by volunteers, so it usually takes a long time to bring these back to like new condition. I'd like to come back when this one is finished and running. Who knows, we may have ridden, or our uncle/dad may have driven, this bit of history.

That streetcar just above was one of the last to leave Milwaukee streets, as it operated on the Wells Street line. Here it is in it's last days, looking a little tired. The Wells Street line was the last in Milwaukee to have streetcars as it was very popular with sports fans going to Milwaukee County Stadium.

Besides the trains the museum has other artifacts from the past, including these two signs from the North Shore and South Shore lines. If you're from Milwaukee I'm sure you remember the North Shore Line. It was a quick, cheap way to get to Chicago or any of the cities inbetween. The South Shore was, and still is, the Chicago and points south and east interurban. It was owned by the same parent company as the North Shore.

The pride of the North Shore Line was the Electroliners. After the North Shore closed the two of them were sold to the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) where they were repainted as "Liberty Liners". When SEPTA took them out of service in 1980 the Illinois Railway Museum bought one and refurbished it back to its' North Shore identity. The other went to the Rockhill Trolley Museum where it awaits restoration. You can see a chronicle of the Illinois Railway Museum restoration efforts at the North Shore Line web site. The Electroliner was out of service when we visited. This picture is from a few years ago.

As the North Shore had only two Electroliners, most service was with standard steel interurban cars like this one. It's beautifully restored and is brought out of the barn occasionally, especially when the museum is busy. Hard to believe this car is over eighty years old.

This sign originally was at the Belmont elevated station in the heart of Chicago's loop. Today it's in the restaurant/snack bar at the museum. I read down the list of stops on the North Shore and it brought back a lot of memories.