The Illinois Railway Museum relies on donations and volunteer work and was wondering what the future plans are for the museum. I am aware that they plan on building new storage barns for all their equipment and possibly a new roundhouse and turntable on the property. Does those plans include a future backshop for future steam restorations? They could make money on the side repairing locomotives for other organizations. That brings me to another question. The Illinois Railroad Museum plans to show all forms of vintage railroading, but haven't heard of plans to rebuild a 19th century steamer or consist for that era. Even though T&D was built in 1914 it can represent 19th century steam. Then the superpower steam at the museum has no operational representative. I know money, time, manpower play into this alot, but what locomotives WOULD/COULD the museum possibly choose next to restore? CB&Q 3007 fits this bill and has no competition in excursion service and 1 of a very few hudsons that survive. Small enough to run excursions on the line and a great example of superpower passenger engines. Im sorry if im beating on a dead horse, but knowing what the future holds for the IRM would help some decide on where to donate money.

I am a long distance member; so should let someone closer to to reply to your steam question.

However, they have put all of their old issues of the Rail & Wire on their web site. It's full of information.

They plan to bring their J. Neil's Lumber #5 back to steam and have been working on the Union Pacific #428 for a long time.

Ted66

JayZee,

Yes, a backshop is in our roundhouse plans.

The main plan as far as operational restorations go is quite simple. Once Shay 5 is done, 428 becomes the main focus of the shop. As far as I am aware, no other locomotives will be brought in for an operational restoration until 428 is done. Other engines will be brought in for cosmetic work during that time. This of course could change, but 428 needs to be our main focus. She's been in the shop for a long time, and we want to see her steaming sooner rather than later.

Anything past 428 is speculation right now. It's not that we haven't been thinking about it, it's simply that we want and need to get 428 out of the shop. Any donations towards 428's restoration would help us accomplish that goal and would be greatly appreciated!

I hope this helps some.

Christian Ellis
IRM Steam Team Volunteer

I can speak to most of this.

"Future Plans" is a bit of a tricky topic. Everything, and I mean everything, at IRM depends on how many hours our volunteers can work and how many dollars we can raise. Maintaining a physical plant the size of ours (especially our immaculate right-of-way) is not cheap. However, there has been a long term strategic plan at IRM for years. One of those plans is to construct a "Main Street" area with turn-of-the-century style structures, housing a gift shop, model railroad displays, etc. Fundraising for Main Street has been underway for some time.

As Christian said, with regards to a backshop/roundhouse, yes, that is also in the plans (thus our procurement of the Rio Grande turntable from the Burnham shops). Preliminary CAD drawings of the roundhouse have been created and have been submitted to our B&G crew and (I believe) a Civil Engineer for evaluation.

With regards to 19th Century equipment, we have that area covered from a collection perspective. IRM is lucky to have IC 201, a commuter steamer from 1880, CBQ 637, a ten wheeler from 1892, a horse car, a cable car, and the innumerable streetcars from the turn of the century. There are no current plans, as far as I know, to create a 19th century operation consist.

And finally, with regards to steam and in particular 3007...

3007 has, at preliminary inspection, some pitting on the boiler. The lagging was never removed, and for all we know, there is worse rot under there. Anything can be fixed with enough money and time, but even if we had both, 3007 is much larger and more powerful than needed for our demonstration railroad. As for running 3007 in excursion service, that takes even more time and money, heavy insurance premiums, cars to pull, and of course, a railroad to host her. There are no plans at this time to restore her unless significant funding can be obtained. Our Shay should have a fire in her soon and 428 sees slow, but steady, progress. The problem is that we 1.) need a lot a machining work done, which is slow and requires skilled labor and 2.) the same team restoring the engines is the same team running 1630 on weekends and maintaining her when she is down.

To be perfectly frank, none of these "future plans" conversations even matter unless time, money, and labor can be procured. When those things ARE obtained, great things are possible. For example, NWERR 24 just returned to operation after years of restoration work, often delivered solely by one dedicated volunteer 5 days a week. But if anyone wants to see IRM to continue its reign as one of the premier railroading museums in the country, they need to, quite literally, put their money where there mouths are. We need people to open checkbooks and pick up hammers. In my mind, IRM experiences the same problems mainline steam programs do: railfans prefer to come out in droves, take pictures, and leave, as opposed to actually deliver financial or physical support.

That said, we ALWAYS welcome new help. In the steam department alone, we have welcomed 2 new regular volunteers in the past few months. One had absolutely no experience before joining the team, and is now regularly helping with restoration and morning prep work on 1630. I, for one, live in Kansas City, but come back monthly to work in the steam department and support research and proposal efforts from my home. If you live far away, we always welcome your donations, which can be submitted through this website: https://www3.irm.org/store/index.php?ma ... jc7q7e5116.

DISCLAIMER: I am a volunteer at the Illinois Railway Museum and my views do not necessarily reflect the views of the museum.

I know it's all preliminary, but where would the turntable/roundhouse/backshop go? How many stalls?

I'm not sure about the number of stalls, but it would go where the current steam leads are, to the East of barn 9.

Borrowing a map from the internet:



Where the three tracks run diagonally in the center of the property, are the roundhouse leads... Since track is easier to build than turnouts, once the ladder was in, the tracks were just temporarily extended full length. The turntable is planned to go more or less at their midpoint, with the roundhouse nestled inside the streetcar line.

As I recall, the roundhouse is 28 stalls in the design. The first 5 stalls will be for operational engInes and are 135ft long. The rest of the stalls are display stalls. The first set of display stalls, I think the first five but I don't remember for certain, are also 135ft. The rest would be 120ft.

I attended IRM's museum showcase weekend a few years ago and really enjoyed myself, so please take these comments as friendly constructive criticism.

IRM really needs to update their website. For example, the equipment roster appears to be seriously out of date. An example is this listing under Roster of Equipment:

Rapid Transit Cars
Total in the collection: 27

Chicago Rapid Transit 1024
Chicago Rapid Transit 1268picture includedphoto album available
Chicago Rapid Transit 1754picture included
Chicago Rapid Transit 1797photo album available
Chicago Rapid Transit 1808picture includedphoto album available
Chicago Rapid Transit 2872photo album available
Chicago Rapid Transit 2888picture includedphoto album available
Chicago Transit Authority 22photo album available
Chicago Transit Authority 30photo album available
Chicago Transit Authority 41photo album available
Chicago Transit Authority 52
Chicago Transit Authority 2153picture includedphoto album available
Chicago Transit Authority 2154picture includedphoto album available
Chicago Transit Authority 4146photo album available
Chicago Transit Authority 4290photo album available
Chicago Transit Authority 4321photo album available
Chicago Transit Authority 4410photo album available
Chicago Transit Authority 4412picture includedphoto album available
Chicago Transit Authority 6125
Chicago Transit Authority 6126photo album available
Chicago Transit Authority 6461picture includedphoto album available
Chicago Transit Authority 6462
Chicago Transit Authority 6655photo album available
Chicago Transit Authority 6656photo album available
Illinois Central 1198photo album available
Illinois Central 1380photo album available
Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority 55photo album available


When I was there back in 2012, I saw and photographed a pair on New York City R29 cars. I see no mention of them on the web site. Given the size of the collection, I realize it is hard to keep collection information up to date, but a disclosure that additional equipment is on-site would be helpful.

BH

There, you and I definitely can agree. The website is run by one volunteer...who also happens to be our GM, Diesel Dept. Curator, Line Dept. Curator, and a father. His priorities are usually elsewhere, as they should be. Most of the current updates are in the blog section, Rail and Wire magazine, or Facebook. Frank Hicks, one of our stalwart regular members, has a very good blog at hickscarworks.blogspot.com

About the Main Street project, I know of the Schroeder store, gas station, streetcar line, and model railroad exhibit. But are there any other buildings/infrastructure currently planned for main street? Like a visitors center?

The Chicago & Northwestern Historical Society is planning a Archives building as a part of the IRM Mainstreet.

-Hudson

IRM is donor project guided, money and volunteer, each project has its own "money slot", you donate to that that project can move on. I guess if you general donate they will slot the money as needed.

They had a huge benefactor donation, but don't rely on that, its still all the same.
The website should have a donation project list. They usually have a list in the magazine. There is plenty going on.

The website DOES have a list of things you can donate to.

https://www3.irm.org/store/index.php?ma ... ex&cPath=1

Jeff

I thought I had heard there was specific interest in acquiring an AEM-7.

So far, a single unit has found its way into preservation at the Pennsylvania Railroad Museum.

Considering the fact that they are being actively cut and scrapped, though some survive and still operate on Marc?, and SEPTA - is there any thing in the works to "get one" before there are none left to get? Certainly "fits" the collection and would be "nice" to have a second preserved. Would an operable unit be able to run on the Museum's line without too much fuss?

/Mitch