Forwarded from the IRM Yahoo discussion list... no real "news," just a nice aerial photo of the Illinois Railway Museum taken last September. Since it was taken a barn has been constructed over Yard 11 (the graded area next to the closest barn to the bottom right corner) though work on the barn has not been completed. This photo shows off recent property development including paving and gravel work in the parking lot as well as the south end development project (on the right side of the photo).

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mike_miley/2877195631/sizes/l/

And for bonus points, can you find the C&NW bi-level train? :-)

Where are the interurbans and mainline electric locomotives stored? (things that care about pantograph friendly wire).

I have not been to the IRM since 1988 and it is good to see so many buildings and things being put inside. While I was there looking around I saw a drawing for a master plan that included a roundhouse and from the looks of that photo the space for a roundhouse is being filled up.

I didn’t see anything on the IRM website about future building plans so I was wondering if there are still plans for a roundhouse.

Steve Black

While I'm not privy to the latest revision of the master property plan, as far as I know the roundhouse has not been written out, and the area is still undeveloped.

If you look at the aerial photo:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mike_miley/2877195631/sizes/l/

You will see a set of tracks running diagonally in a basically square field located to the right (south) of the majority of the buildings. These are intended to be the turntable leads; the table itself would be at about their midpoint, with the roundhouse to the east, south, and west, with the streetcar line running behind the back wall of the building. At some point, since the switches were in for the leads, it as deemed easiest to just extend the tracks full length for additional storage. There is no reason the tracks can't be removed in the future, should money for the turntable become available.