Turntable and Roundhouse
The Illinois Railway Museum is proud to announce its acquisition of the historic one-hundred-and-thirty foot turntable from the Denver & Rio Grande's Burnham shop complex. The turntable, installed in 1941, was removed from service and sold to the museum in 2016. Shortly before this, the turntable underwent a total refurbishment believed to have cost at least $500,000. Volunteers and contractors traveled to Denver to dismantle the turntable. IRM then had it moved to the museum's site, where it remains in storage.
Once installed, this historic turntable will present a fascinating visitor attraction, improve the museum's outdoor equipment displays, and facilitate the turning of equipment too large to traverse the museum's wye. More importantly, the turntable is the centerpiece of the museum's long term plan to construct a roundhouse. This facility will house and present our steam locomotive collection while drastically expanding the museum's indoor exhibit space. The roundhouse will allow us to present our steam engines to visitors in an authentic and immersive environment.
The installation of this turntable will be a substantial construction project. We will need your assistance in order to reassemble and preserve this amazing artifact. Preliminary work on this project is already underway, but we cannot break ground until full funding for this project is in place.
