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  1. Illinois Railway Museum
  2. Exhibits
  3. Post Office Gallery

Post Office Gallery

Featured in the Post Office Gallery for a limited time during 2025 only, the Illinois Railway Museum presents Beebe and Clegg: Their Enduring Photographic Legacy, produced in cooperation with the Center for Railroad Photography & Art (CRP&A).

Lucius Beebe and Charles Clegg introduced railroad photography and the world of railroading to wide popular audiences. Their pioneering efforts at a time when railroad books were almost unknown helped establish wide appreciation for rail photography. Beebe's writing transformed the seemingly prosaic subject of railroads into books that beguiled the public, making Beebe and Clegg household names. Together, their photography and writing across more than 30 books demonstrated the importance of railroading in community life. With several prints never before seen by the public, this exhibition has been assembled by the CRP&A from source material of the book of the same title (CRP&A, 2018).

Beebe and Clegg: Their Enduring Photographic Legacy is a traveling exhibit that has been featured at venues including the Southeastern Railroad Museum, the Colorado Railroad Museum, and the California State Railroad Museum.

Additional permanent exhibits in the Post Office Gallery include a railroad handcar, a three-wheel "velocipede" track inspection car, and the famous Electric Traction Speed Trophy that was awarded to the Chicago North Shore & Milwaukee interurban railway in 1933.

Why the Post Office?

Main Streets across American almost always featured a post office, not only for sending mail but for for disseminating interesting information about the town and neighborhood. Located inside the (unofficial) East Union Post Office, just west of the museum main entrance, the Illinois Railway Museum's Post Office Gallery serves a similar purpose. It is available for adaptive use to inform and educate our visitors about subjects relevant to transportation history, and to display artifacts and documents from our historic collection. Enjoy your visit!

Previous Post Office Gallery Exhibits

Illinois Railway Museum

The Illinois Railway Museum, as you see it today, is the result of decades of effort by a dynamic group of dedicated volunteers. All of the buildings, track, locomotives and cars were assembled here at Union on what was once farmland. Our main line trackage was laid on the vacant right-of-way of the Elgin & Belvidere Electric railway. Why would rational adults freely contribute so much of their time and treasure to creating this repository of railroad history?

To answer this question, we must remember that at one time in our nation’s past the railroad industry was the largest private employer. With so many families supported by one enterprise, the widespread interest in that industry is understandable….manifesting itself in special interest groups devoted to various activities such as taking railroad pictures or publishing books on railroads, building railroad models or just “riding the rails,” The Illinois Railway Museum is probably the ultimate railroad historian special interest group. Originally formed to preserve one important piece of rolling stock, it has evolved into an educational and historic preservation organization recreating possibly the largest operating demonstration railroad showcase on the North American continent.

We welcome all to our Museum and encourage you to join in our education, restoration and preservation efforts. Only one prerequisite is recommended, a sincere interest in some aspect of railroading.

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