Search Results for: civil war

Pullman ‘Pawnee’

“Pawnee” is the very last traditional heavyweight private car ever built new by Pullman. It was constructed in 1930 for Harry Payne Bingham. It was named for the U.S.S. Pawnee, an 1860 sloop of war aboard which Bingham’s grandfather had served during the Civil War. Bingham sold the car in

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Atchison Topeka & Santa Fe 2903

Santa Fe 2903 is the largest steam locomotive, by both weight and length, in the IRM collection. It is also one of the fastest, designed for top speeds exceeding 100mph. This type of locomotive was built for mixed passenger and express freight use and ran for some 15 years before

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American Creosote Works 7

American Creosote Works 7 is the smallest steam locomotive in the IRM collection and the museum’s only piece of equipment built by the Vulcan Iron Works. It is a tank engine, meaning it carries coal and water in tanks attached to the locomotive rather than in a separate tender. Vulcan

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Graysonia Nashville & Ashdown 26

Graysonia Nashville & Ashdown 26 is a small freight engine built for branch line use on the GN&A, a short line in Arkansas. This wheel arrangement was among the earliest used for freight engines, with the first 2-6-0s built around the time of the Civil War. By World War I,

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Chicago Burlington & Quincy 637

Chicago Burlington & Quincy 637 is the second-oldest steam engine at IRM and the museum’s only engine with a Belpaire, or square-top, firebox. It also has a “deckless” cab, in which the engineer sits alongside the firebox and the fireman is stationed outside the back wall of the cab. The

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Louisville & Nashville 2726

L&N 2726 “Galt House” is an all-steel heavyweight dining car. Dining cars like this were used on long-distance passenger trains to provide meals to riders. The car is designed with a built-in kitchen where full meals were cooked and prepared while moving. FUN FACT: The L&N named its dining cars

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Terre Haute Indianapolis & Eastern 50

Terre Haute Indianapolis & Eastern 50, named the “Clinton,” is an all-wood combination passenger-baggage car designed for service on the THI&E interurban lines radiating out of Indianapolis. It was modernized and given its name by the THI&E in the 1920s. The car was retired in 1933 and the body made

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Baltimore & Ohio 374065

B&O 374065 is a rare example of a “wagon-top” boxcar, a design constructed exclusively by the B&O with an all-steel round-topped body. It was built as a modernization of an older wooden boxcar and was used for general freight service on the B&O system. Builder: Baltimore & Ohio Year Built:

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Railway Post Office (RPO) Weekend

Operations and Demonstrations of Railway Post Office railway cars with on-the-fly mail pickups. See how railroads played a major role in the handling of the U.S. Mail.

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Phase 5 Reopening Update

We are thrilled that the State of Illinois has moved into Phase 5 of their reopening plan, and we very much look forward to welcoming back so many of our friends and supporters. Some of our health and safety guidelines are changing starting June 12th. Even with almost all of

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