The Illinois Railway Museum has been awarded a grant of $25,000 by the John H. Emery Rail Heritage Trust. This grant, which follows an initial grant awarded in early 2019, funds the second part of a major rehabilitation and stabilization program concentrating on the museum’s network of overhead trolley wire

Due to the rapid progression of the Corona Virus public health crisis in the State of Illinois and the Chicago Area, the Illinois Railway Museum will immediately undertake the following protective measures: The Bunny Trolley Hop event scheduled for April 4-5-11, 2020, centered around the Easter Holiday, will be cancelled

The Illinois Railway Museum is pleased to announce that it has finalized its 2020 operating schedule. The schedule is available at www.irm.org/calendar A list of special events planned for 2020 is on the museum’s hours and admission page. Popular family-themed special events including Bunny Trolley Hop, Day Out With Thomas™,

Union, IL – The Illinois Railway Museum (IRM) is pleased to announce that it has acquired the historic Pullman private car Pawnee. The car arrived at the museum on its own wheels on Thursday, December 12th. This historic railroad car was built in 1930 and is the second-to-last traditional “heavyweight”

At about 4:45 p.m. on the evening of November 30th, at the peak of our Happy Holiday Railway event, Commonwealth Edison suffered a failure in their supply system that deprived the museum of electrical power. Power was not restored until approximately 8:00 p.m. While we were able to operate the

IRM is pleased to announce that it has achieved its initial fundraising goal for Toledo Peoria & Western 800, the Alco C424 locomotive acquired in 2018 from the Morristown & Erie Railroad. This initial goal, to raise $60,000 to fund the purchase of the locomotive and transportation to Union, was

The Illinois Railway Museum is pleased to announce that it has acquired one of the last traditional single-unit streetcars ever built for service in North America. This new addition to the museum’s collection allows IRM to trace the history of urban rail transport from 1859 all the way to the

One of the museum’s most popular events, Happy Holiday Railway, is being expanded and improved for 2019. The boarding area has been moved from alongside Barn 9 to the historic 1851 East Union Depot, the oldest railway station in use west of Pittsburgh, following building improvements made since the beginning

A piece of Illinois history has returned to the Land of Lincoln after an absence of more than half a century. The Illinois Railway Museum is pleased to announce that Chicago Aurora & Elgin 453, an historic electric interurban car built in 1945, has returned to its home state of

On September 17, 2019 the Illinois Railway Museum reassembled the iconic North Shore Electroliner after a three-year period of rebuilding work on the articulated train’s trucks and motors. The train’s four cars were lifted from their temporary “shop trucks” and placed on their original trucks by a crew of museum