Want a cheap date? Try the Illinois Railway Museum
No, this isn’t Chicago, it’s in the middle of farm fields in Union Illinois.
But of course, the Illinois Railway Museum has everything to do with Chicago and its history, since that city’s history is all about the railroads, and vice versa.
Actually Union, Illinois in only about 25 minutes from where we now live, but we haven’t been there since we moved to McHenry County. We’ll have to get a membership and come more often (it’s really cheap and supports the whole operation which is all volunteers). If you’re into trains, there’s more than you can see in one or two visits!
They have tons (literally!) of old Chicago commuter streetcars and trains.
Everything has great descriptive plaques.
They even have an old CTA station,
tons of signs,
and just about everything railroad. I probably have ridden on one or two of these cars.
Now this is really scary. I remember when these trains were new, and now they’re in a museum!
Remember these?
When I was a kid and we lived off of Lincoln Avenue, all the main streets had the overhead wires for the trolly buses. They dissappeared almost overnight (that has an intersting history of corruption and conspiracy having to do with the auto makers and gas companies.)
Many of the old streetcar tracks still remain under the existing pavement on many of Chicago’s main streets. You can still sometimes see the tracks exposed in underpasses (the reason is that they can’t build up the pavement because they want to keep the clearance as high as possible for trucks to get under, so the thin pavement deteriorates quickly).
Lots of pictures in this post. Enjoy. Everything from rusty old steam engines to nicely restored ones, street cars to commuter trains, locomotives of all kinds.
Some great restored interiors!
When you get tired of walking, which you will – on different days they offer rides on a different train.
They even have old buildings and structures related to the railroads, all brought here from somewhere else.
