The Illinois Railway Museum is pleased to announce that construction has begun on the Multi-Purpose Building (MPB), located along the museum’s Main Street Scene just west of the existing Schroeder Mercantile Store. The MPB will be the second building on the Main Street Scene and the first building constructed new,

The first scheduled public operation of J. Neils Lumber Company 5, the Illinois Railway Museum’s Shay steam locomotive, is tentatively planned for the Sunday and Monday of Memorial Day Weekend, May 26th and 27th. The plan is for the Shay to operate those days alongside Frisco 1630, the museum’s famous

The Illinois Railway Museum has been awarded a grant of $30,000 by the John H. Emery Rail Heritage Trust. The grant will fund the first part of a major rehabilitation and stabilization program concentrating on the museum’s network of overhead trolley wire and associated infrastructure. IRM has more track under

The Illinois Railway Museum is pleased to announce that its 2019 operating schedule has been finalized and published on its website at www.irm.org/calendar A list of special events planned for 2019 can be found on the museum’s hours and admission page. Popular first-time special events from last year including the

The Illinois Railway Museum is being featured on an episode of Museum Access, a PBS television program which goes behind the scenes of museums across the country. Episodes will air on PBS stations throughout the U.S. Past programs have featured museums including the Field Museum of Natural History, the Metropolitan

The Illinois Railway Museum is fundraising to move Milwaukee Road “Buffeteria” 126 from Chamberlain, South Dakota, to the museum’s campus in Union, Illinois. The 126 is being donated to the museum, and IRM needs your help to get the car to Union. Donations can be made here. Milwaukee Road 126

Starting in 2019, the Illinois Railway Museum will be accessible to public transit users through the McHenry County’s Dial-A-Ride program, MCRide. This service will offer transportation between the Metra stations in Woodstock and Crystal Lake and the museum in Union. MCRide added the museum as a destination option starting in

The Illinois Railway Museum (IRM) is pleased to announce that it has acquired an electric interurban railway car built in 1920 for the Chicago North Shore & Milwaukee, or North Shore Line. This car, number 172, carried passengers daily between Chicago and Milwaukee until the North Shore went out of

J. Neils Lumber Company Shay #5 passed its 1472 day Federal inspection on Sunday, October 28, 2018. It then made a short test run on the main line pulling three coaches. This is the first run by the steam engine at IRM since September of 1999. In additional to being

On Saturday, September 15th, the Illinois Railway Museum will be celebrating the 100th birthday of its most famous steam engine, Frisco 1630. This “Russian Decapod” was constructed by Baldwin in 1918 for export to Imperial Russia but was kept in the United States following the Bolshevik Revolution. It ended up