(with apologies to Peter Schmidt for the butchery I commited to his fine map of IRM)

Having a bit of spare time here and there, I spent some time "what if-ing" a future version of IRM, with no financial or zoning constraints...
The results are attached

Jeff

Funny... like minds I guess. My plans prepared in high school study hall, a couple decades ago, appeared very similar. You may have forgotten, Jeff, that there is a significant grade to the south edge of the property west of Olson Rd. On my plan, the L went into a cut-and-cover subway as it passed through the donut parcel and actually ducked under the road, and remerged somewhere near the roundhouse location. From that point it returned to the original property and ran as L over several areas to a stub terminal or loop, depending on how many gaggillions of Monopoly bucks you threw at it.

Oh, and don't forget to include a route for the 2' Chicago Tunnel Co line.
O.

Nice layout. A subway, eh? How's the water table?

I don't doubt that 90% of this could eventually be achieved by IRM. The site is simply amazing, with all the acreage that has been added over the years. The mere fact of almost 2 1/2 MILES of under-cover track is so far ahead of everyone else.

From what I see, the biggest departure from reality is "Nick's Yard". You do know that is merely a fraction of the size it really needs to be.

Howard P.

Wow! Somebody really likes wyes. The problem is, they are all shown drawn as tight as the east leg of the existing wye, which is really too tight for most steam power. I know the 1630 (Frisco Decapod) has been around the east leg, but it didn't like it.

The three tracks that run diagonally through the field south of the depot are on the site of the proposed turntable and roundhouse... which would be accessed off the west leg of the existing wye, with it's more generous curvature. Since it's become apparent that IRM really needs a bigger table, this might not be enough space, but it will likely be cheaper and easier to relocate the streetcar line, maybe even the creek, than to fit a roundhouse anywhere else on the property and still have it on the same campus with the rest of the display barns.

Is the plan at Illinois to continue collecting? That is becoming easier these days as almost everything is becoming the same!

Why don't you just buy the UP line and run dinner trains or something? Imagine the Nebraska Zephyr on that line (regularly)!

IRM stop collecting? That's heresy!

However looking at the past roster growth year-by-year indicates that the net growth rate may be dropping from 10 units/year over the last 30 years (one new car every 5 weeks on the average) to "only" five per year. Of course past results are no guarantee of future growth.

BTW, Jeff I am surprised how pessimistic your map is. How can the future IRM get by with only one 360 deg, roundhouse? There are still a lot of park engines out there!

Delhaye's vision is on....
LAND ...
IRM already...

owns.

No small plans, indeed.

IRM may well need space for a larger collection. Much of it will come from museums that for some reason or other, are forced to downsize or liquidate. The Brookins collection yielded 6 cars directly to IRM, one more on a resale, one car that became available at the same time due to lack of space at the former owner, and one car being stored for another operation that does not have space for it.

We will see more of this happening, particularly as private collectors die off, leaving their heirs with a yard full of stuff that has to be liquidated to settle the estate.

The westernmost 2 wyes both have their west legs drawn to the curvature of the current west wye. As there are no current steam restorations at IRM for 10 drivered, or LARGE 8 drivered locomotives, the curvature as drawn should suffice for many years, unless 844 or 3985 stops by for a visit (unlikely due to bridge restrictions over the Fox River in Elgin)

The eastern 2 wyes are not intended for large steam, and are drawn to the approximate curvature of the current east wye.

You are correct about 1630 disliking the east wye when traveling in reverse, but it has very little difficulty traversing this trackage forward (the pilot truck rebuild in the late 80's helps quite a bit!)

As for the current track curvature being "adequate" for large steam...
..I can distinctly remember Nick yelling "JEFF, JEFF, STOP! STOP!!!!" after the brakes were already in emergency when ATSF 2903 went on the ground at 2mph on the carline adjacent to the barn 9 leads....it dragged that poor little GE 45 tonner behind it as it bounced over 3 or 4 more ties. Thankfully, MILW 760 was nearby and was able to be put into service in less than an hour, because there was no way that little GE was going to pull 2903 back up onto the rails!

Jeff

Nicks yard? Yeah, I know, but I restrained myself to land IRM owns already, with the exception of the triangular section north of Nicks yard.

The "subway display" is intended to be a simulated underground station, built at grade underneath the elevated "Wilson yard". Entrance and exit would be thru simulated 'stairways" at each end (forced perspective stairs painted on the far walls of each), with the eastern exit having a removable "hallway" built over the north track, to allow occasional changes of the equipment stored on that track. This would allow ADA access to this exhibit without the expense of elevators or lifts.

Drainage at the subway will be the least of the problems, as that is actually near the high point of the property!

Jeff

I realize this discussion is simply a flight of fancy, but that statement above does inadvertently illustrate what is wrong with much of railway preservation. Everything does not have to run. In fact, for the amount of steam that IRM has run these last five, six seven years... (how long has it been, anyway?) a two car garage would suffice.

The purpose of the roundhouse is to display the engines in a setting more befitting than coupled trunk to tail in an agricultural building, while still keeping them out of the weather. A roundhouse has the advantage that it spreads the interesting end of the engines apart, and would allow plenty of light if the back wall was mostly glass. Therefore, the roundhouse has to have at least some stalls long enough to display the largest engine that might ever need to be displayed (which I suppose would be a UP Big Boy). By extension, the curvature leading to the building needs to be able to accommodate these large engines.

On the old master plan adopted in the seventies, there were to be three tracks leading to the turntable, which would allow the three stalls across the table to house engines too large to be turned. Considering that these displayed engines will seldom have to leave their stalls, moving engines and tenders separately into other stalls is also viable.

Of course, since the collection continues to grow, and even the inexpensive building space just barely keeps pace, I don't suppose there will ever BE a roundhouse, so I suppose you can draw as many as you want, any place you want.

Agreed....and in the past I have.....
2 year old rendering of a 20 year old Autocad 10 drawing...thats barn 9 and the steamshop over to the right side..I just wish I had the software and time to update it to include the rest of the property.

Jeff (who is quite grateful to no longer have to wait 28 hrs to do a "hidden line removal" on a 8 Mhz 286 processor!)

Another view: (yes, it fits without moving the creek, or the carline!)

Jeff

You ran ACADr10 on a 286? I well remember trying to not prompt a re-gen as I worked... if I did, I'd get up to go get a cup of coffee, knowing full well that it would just be finishing when I got back.

What you've drawn is pretty much what I recall being discussed. Note that there is a lot of open land behind the stalls opposite the leads (all three of which could be connected) so those stalls could be longer. Indeed, several stalls to each side of those could also be sized for long engine and tender combinations, the limiting factor being the wheelbase of the engine w/o tender, to be moved into those stalls in two pieces.

My buddy Phil Hehn and I did a little head work twelve or fifteen years ago (maybe twenty) on how common pole barn construction could be adapted to a roundhouse shaped building, but it didn't get any traction... the powers-that-be were content to keep putting up rectangular barns while waiting for Big Daddy Warbucks to walk through the door...

Now it looks like Jerry will have his roundhouse in Ohio while IRM is still pounding sand, but such is life, I guess.