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

The Jewell Road station is a small, unmanned station – essentially a large waiting shelter – that was built by the Chicago Aurora & Elgin electric railway. It was located on the west side of Wheaton where the CA&E Elgin branch crossed Jewell Road. It was donated to IRM in

This gateman’s shanty is typical of the ones used on the Chicago Rapid Transit system at its ground-level road crossings. Before the ubiquity of automatic crossing gates, railroad crossings needed to be staffed by a gate operator, and these men were given small buildings – known as gateman’s shanties –

The Central Diner, as it is known as IRM, is a roadside diner built in 1934 by the Jerry O’Mahony Company of Elizabeth, NJ. It was never a railroad car, but was built to imitate the appearance of a railroad coach. It was also designed to be picked up and

This rapid transit station was built in 1910 by the Metropolitan-West Side Elevated Railroad and was originally located where its Douglas Park branch crossed 50th Avenue in suburban Cicero, IL. As with many elevated lines in Chicago, the outer end of this branch ran at ground level, and stations like

This gateman’s shanty is typical of the ones used on the Chicago North Shore & Milwaukee electric interurban railway at its ground-level road crossings. Before the ubiquity of automatic crossing gates, railroad crossings needed to be staffed by a gate operator, and these men were given small buildings – known

This gateman’s shanty is typical of the ones used on the Chicago North Shore & Milwaukee electric interurban railway at its ground-level road crossings. Before the ubiquity of automatic crossing gates, railroad crossings needed to be staffed by a gate operator, and these men were given small buildings – known

The oldest major artifact at IRM isn’t any of the trains – it’s the museum’s depot. The East Union Depot, as it is known today, was built in 1851 by the Galena & Chicago Union Railroad, the first railroad built west out of Chicago. Originally this building was located in

At locations where railroads crossed each other at grade (i.e. at the same level), it was usually necessary to install an interlocking tower. This was a manned building, usually two stories tall for better visibility from the tower, where one or more “tower men” would operate the signals and switches

The Schroeder Mercantile Store is a typical commercial building similar to thousands seen in downtown areas all across the country during the 19th and 20th centuries. This building was built at an unknown date and was located very close to IRM, at the corner of Main and Washington Streets just