Search Results for: interurban+car+
IRM Celebrates 70th Anniversary
The Illinois Railway Museum (IRM) is celebrating its 70th anniversary in 2023 with a number of special and expanded events throughout the year. Many of these events are unique to this anniversary-year celebration, so the public is encouraged to take advantage of these opportunities where special equipment is scheduled to
North Shore Line Day
In 2023, the Illinois Railway Museum will celebrate 70 years as an organization. On January 21st, festivities will kick off when IRM will commemorate 60 years since the abandonment of the Chicago North Shore and Milwaukee Railroad, an electric interurban which ran between its namesake cities from 1908 until a
Welcome to the Illinois Railway Museum
Welcome to the Illinois Railway Museum. The museum is the largest railroad museum in the United States. The Museum is an IRS Chapter 501(c)3 nonprofit corporation owned and managed by its membership. Most of what you will see today results from the efforts of volunteer members of the museum over the last 70 years. The
Barn 8
Barn 8 is one of our train exhibit buildings, or barns. In Barn 8 you’ll find restored ‘L’ cars from the Chicago rapid transit system, electric interurban cars from across the Midwest, and electrified freight equipment. Learn about the history of Chicago’s elevated railroad cars, from c1910 wooden cars to
Barn 7
Barn 7 is one of our train exhibit buildings, or barns. In our Barn 7 exhibit building you can tour the history of street railways in America, starting with horse-drawn streetcars and ending with the streamlined PCC streetcars from the 1940s that closed out streetcar service in Chicago and many
Barn 6
Barn 6 is one of our train exhibit buildings, or barns. In Barn 6 you’ll find interurban cars, freight equipment, and maintenance equipment from electric railways in the Chicago area and from across the Midwest. Exhibits in Barn 6 include: The elegant Talisman, a 1906 interurban parlor car that features
Springfield Avenue Shelter
The Springfield Avenue waiting shelter was built in the early 1900s for the Rockford & Interurban electric railway. It was located on the west side of Rockford at about the intersection of Springfield Avenue and State Street, on the interurban line between Rockford and Freeport. It is typical of hundreds
Chicago Day
Chicago Day commemorates the end of streetcar service in Chicago in 1958 with hometown streetcars, 'L' cars, and interurbans in operation. Join us and celebrate the transportation heritage of the Windy City.
Chicago Aurora & Elgin 453
Chicago Aurora & Elgin 453 is one of the last traditional interurban cars built in the United States. The CA&E ordered ten modern curve-side coaches in 1941 but the cars weren’t completed until 1945 due to World War II. Cars 451-460 featured lightweight design and newer electric control systems but
Union Pacific M35
UP M-35 is the museum’s only example of a “doodlebug,” the universal nickname given to self-propelled internal combustion-powered passenger cars built during the 1920s. Cars like this were intended to provide passenger service on very lightly-trafficked branch lines and short lines, where a steam engine hauling a passenger train would