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 Post subject: Mendota, Illinois rail museum fills out its roster!
PostPosted: Mon Feb 13, 2017 2:21 pm 

Joined: Tue Aug 02, 2005 1:25 pm
Posts: 6400
The wife and I were heading e.b. on Amtrak train 4 (the Southwest Chief) last Saturday and I noticed that the museum in Mendota has received Illinois Central baggage car #508. This 50' single door baggage car was previously owned by the IC Historical Society and was located with other ICRR equipment at the societies ex-NKP Paxton, Illinois freight depot. The group in Mendota are in the process of scrapping their IC Highliners and needed another piece of equipment to represent the IC; one of the three railroads that once went through Mendota. I noticed some members around the car, so a future repainting into IC passenger train colors might well be in the works.

Les


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 Post subject: Re: Mendota, Illinois rail museum fills out its roster!
PostPosted: Mon Feb 13, 2017 8:20 pm 

Joined: Tue Aug 02, 2005 1:25 pm
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Found this photo of the car when it was still in Paxton, Illinois:

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPi ... id=3951476

The car was reportedly built in 1937 by AC&F. A couple of sister cars from the series, are also still in existence.


Les


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 Post subject: Re: Mendota, Illinois rail museum fills out its roster!
PostPosted: Tue Feb 14, 2017 12:06 am 

Joined: Sat Oct 17, 2015 5:55 pm
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The Amboy district of the IC (which I grew up about five miles from) lost its passenger service before WWII, so any modern passenger equipment would not have operated there except in MOW service. I am not sure why it lost passenger service so early, it was actually a secondary main for a long time.


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 Post subject: Re: Mendota, Illinois rail museum fills out its roster!
PostPosted: Tue Feb 14, 2017 1:46 am 

Joined: Tue Aug 02, 2005 1:25 pm
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PMC -

Thanks for that info about ICRR passenger service over the line that passed through Mendota. There are a lot of pieces of equipment that are preserved in areas where they never operated in regular service. I'm not sure how much "before WWII" the passenger service was dropped, but if not before 1937, then the car could have theoretically operated through there. The 508 DID end up in MOW service, so could have conceivably seen Mendota that way. The electric Highliners of course, were only in Chicago area commuter service, so absolutely could not have seen Mendota in regular service.

Les


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 Post subject: Re: Mendota, Illinois rail museum fills out its roster!
PostPosted: Tue Feb 14, 2017 9:22 am 

Joined: Wed Jan 11, 2006 6:12 pm
Posts: 109
[quote="Les Beckman"]
There are a lot of pieces of equipment that are preserved in areas where they never operated in regular service.
Les[/quote]

Good point, Les, although the IC did at least run passenger trains in the same state.

A far more egregious example is Saginaw Timber Co. #2, which you have been discussing elsewhere in connection with decisions involving the Mid-Continent Railway Museum in Wisconsin. There is certainly nothing "mid-continent" or "Wisconsin" about that locomotive's history, having served out its entire pre-preservation career in the state of Washington.

Should museums such as this one Mendota be doing the best it can to secure something a little more representative of a railroad that ran through the town than a set of Chicago commuter coaches, or should it have declined the baggage car in favor of an IC boxcar or caboose? Likewise, should a museum in Wisconsin dump further funds into the restoration and operation of a privately-owned locomotive that historically operated half a continent away, when that museum's collection includes several reasonably "local" examples?

Please note that these questions have nothing to do with what might be a logical strategy for a tourist railroad such as the Strasburg, the activity of any private individual, or even a museum with an intentionally national scope, such as MOT or Green Bay.


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 Post subject: Re: Mendota, Illinois rail museum fills out its roster!
PostPosted: Tue Feb 14, 2017 5:41 pm 

Joined: Wed Feb 02, 2011 9:40 pm
Posts: 840
This appears to be a case of a historical society and a museum working together to relocate a car. An event that is still a rarity in our business. Sadly.

Maybe it did run through Mendota when it was what IC called an Auxiliary Baggage car; maybe it didn't. Maybe it did when it was in green and was a m/w tool car. Maybe it didn't. At this stage in the life of the car, why would it matter, except to the most rabid purist? What is the harm being done to the artifact?

This looks to me like a win-win-win for both museums and for the car.

The current Mendota plan is to restore it to IC pre-streamliner colors (i.e. dark green and black, with gold lettering and numbering), as the car pre-dates the adoption of IC chocolate and orange.

So, the IC Historical Society should be acknowledged for saving the car in the first place and stabilizing it for over a decade and then giving it to the Mendota Museum for further display. And the Mendota Museum should be acknowledged for the time, effort, and money expended to load it, move it, and unload it.

This leaves a late-model IC caboose and a 50-foot ICG boxcar (actually exGM&O) on display at the ICHS HQ in Paxton, IL.


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 Post subject: Re: Mendota, Illinois rail museum fills out its roster!
PostPosted: Tue Feb 14, 2017 8:01 pm 

Joined: Thu Aug 26, 2004 2:50 pm
Posts: 2815
Location: Northern Illinois
George Jackson Churchward wrote:
Should museums such as this one Mendota be doing the best it can to secure something a little more representative of a railroad that ran through the town than a set of Chicago commuter coaches, or should it have declined the baggage car in favor of an IC boxcar or caboose? Likewise, should a museum in Wisconsin dump further funds into the restoration and operation of a privately-owned locomotive that historically operated half a continent away, when that museum's collection includes several reasonably "local" examples?


It would depend, I should think, on the organization's mission statement. If their purpose is to portray the railroads of Sauk County, Wisconsin, in the years 'tween the wars, then I guess they have to run the R-1, or nothing. If they view their mission as portraying sauk Couty railroads during the Civil War era, I guess they just can't run anything, because nothing exists.

However, if they view their purpose as being more national in scope, then maybe not. Here is their mission statement, lifted verbatim from their web site:

Mission Statement

Our mission is to educate the public by recreating as accurately as possible the Golden Years of Railroads, from the Civil War days until after World War II, by operating a living railroad with vintage equipment from those times.

We will collect, preserve, restore, and operate artifacts from those times so as to inform the public about the development of railroading from wooden equipment to steel, and from steam power to internal combustion. We will give our visitors a firsthand experience on this equipment. We will do our best to accurately portray this Golden Age.


I don't see anything about Sauk County, or Wisconsin either, for that matter. I suspect the case can be made that Saginaw No. 2 dates from "the golden age of railroading." It may not be a high stepping mainline passenger engine, but is totally in character for the line they run on.

I think we should let them run it, if they choose.

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 Post subject: Re: Mendota, Illinois rail museum fills out its roster!
PostPosted: Tue Feb 14, 2017 10:02 pm 

Joined: Wed Feb 02, 2011 9:40 pm
Posts: 840
Re: the previous posts.

What the heck do Wisconsin, #2, and MCRM have to do with Mendota and an IC baggage car?


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 Post subject: Re: Mendota, Illinois rail museum fills out its roster!
PostPosted: Tue Feb 14, 2017 10:42 pm 

Joined: Sat Oct 17, 2015 5:55 pm
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It likely would have passed through Freeport about 40 miles away so the baggage car is not inappropriate. I really hope they don't put any foreign line equipment there painted for the IC though. If they really wanted to portray the line as it was known in the 20th century an IC or ICG Paducah Geep would be the best way to do so, and they are being scrapped all the time.

A nearby group in a town on a stretch of abandoned Rock Island wanted a Rock Island diesel to put next to the surviving depot but found a Santa Fe Cleburne Geep with the distinctive cab nearby and decided it would do just fine, and had it painted for the Rock Island. So now they have a piece of equipment that is obviously not Rock Island in a place it never passed through. I understand the sentiment, but it would have meant so much more to have an actual Rock Island diesel there, even if it were harder to move. Accuracy is its own justification.


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 Post subject: Re: Mendota, Illinois rail museum fills out its roster!
PostPosted: Tue Feb 14, 2017 11:05 pm 

Joined: Thu Mar 13, 2014 2:34 am
Posts: 535
Location: Granby, CT but formerly Port Jefferson, NY (LIRR MP 57.5)
I've ridden through Mendota several times on Amtrak trains 3 and 4, and have always enjoyed seeing the equipment on display there. It looks like a nice little museum and I'm glad to hear they're adding to their collection again, even if it follows some earlier deaccessioning and scrapping.

-Philip Marshall


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 Post subject: Re: Mendota, Illinois rail museum fills out its roster!
PostPosted: Tue Feb 14, 2017 11:13 pm 

Joined: Thu Aug 26, 2004 2:50 pm
Posts: 2815
Location: Northern Illinois
Lincoln Penn wrote:
Re: the previous posts.

What the heck do Wisconsin, #2, and MCRM have to do with Mendota and an IC baggage car?


Mr. Churchward was using the Saginaw No. 2 situation to make his point; I should have quoted one prior paragraph of his post:

"A far more egregious example is Saginaw Timber Co. #2, which you have been discussing elsewhere in connection with decisions involving the Mid-Continent Railway Museum in Wisconsin. There is certainly nothing "mid-continent" or "Wisconsin" about that locomotive's history, having served out its entire pre-preservation career in the state of Washington."

Mendota's mission statement

Union Depot Railroad Museum Mission Statement

The purpose of the Union Depot Railroad Museum is to preserve and share with others the Mendota area's rich railroad history which includes the CB&Q, the Illinois Central, and the Milwaukee Road. We hope to accomplish this through providing an assortment of varied railroad related experiences including interactive displays and fresh programs and displays. This will attract more people to our facilities, grow our membership, and continue to raise the funds necessary for our museum to succeed long into the future.


The highliner cars definitely didn't belong, but maybe they acquired them just to raise funds through the scrapping. At any any rate, they are gone now.

The baggage car... well, we can assume that baggage cars ran on the IC there at some point in time, just maybe not this modern. Care to point out where they can acquire a turn-of-the-century IC baggage car? Maybe they'd be open to a trade.

Like any of our groups, there is a preferred collection, and there is what was available. Substitutions only become a problem when the group can't bring themselves to let them go once they have a more appropriate piece.

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 Post subject: Re: Mendota, Illinois rail museum fills out its roster!
PostPosted: Tue Feb 14, 2017 11:43 pm 

Joined: Tue Aug 02, 2005 1:25 pm
Posts: 6400
Dennis Storzek wrote:


The highliner cars definitely didn't belong, but maybe they acquired them just to raise funds through the scrapping. At any any rate, they are gone now.



Well, not quite gone yet. The Highliner hulks are still sitting there, just off of the museum itself and looking pretty bad. When I pointed the cars out from Amtrak number 4 last week as we went by, a fellow passenger exclaimed that they were "NEAT!" Beauty is in the eye of the beholder I guess!

Les


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