In the early 1990s, the Illinois Railway Museum held two celebration events for the demise of the Chicago North Shore and Milwaukee, which operated over elevated tracks, in open countryside, and down city streets between the cities until abandonment was granted January 20, 1963. IRM has the most extensive collection of equipment (as well as structures, signs and other artifacts) from the line, and has a railroad where they can really be appreciated. I recall shop forces saying that running an event like this is hard on the equipment, so don't plan on it happening again (this was in the late 1990s).


https://marmarinou.tumblr.com/post/137911399604/north-shore-lines-last-day
(An Ed DeRouin photo of Lou Gerard)
https://www.flickr.com/photos/5632/8408285129/in/photostream/
More of Lou's photos

I was at Union for both events and sadly I don't have photos at hand, nor could find any taken at that time. It was amazing. I highly recommend visiting IRM to have a unique winter railroading experience. Here are the details of the event:
https://www.irm.org/event/north-shore-line-day/?event_date=2023-01-21

It appears they will be holding an Event to commemorate the 60th Anniversary of the shutdown this January 21st. https://www.irm.org/event/north-shore-l ... 023-01-21/

This once again proves to me that Illinois Railway Museum is the only one that gets what its mission actually is.

This is such a cool event that is being made available for the standard admission fee.

I wish all museums would take note and copy IRM.

Getting what its mission is and having the finances to pull that mission off can be two entirely different things. Congrats for IRM.

IRM takes in around 1.7M per year - nothing crazy. It’s what they choose to do with it that is notable. :)