Illinois Railway Museum Blog

I did not get pictures but thought this might merit as a news item.

Best guess, trying to reconstruct events, a squall line of thunderstorms came through the museum site about 10-11 last night.  It appears that the trolley wire near Barn 8 got a hit and the current traveled inside the building to our newly installed safety switch and disconnect.  It totally destroyed that, a pile of molten metal in the bottom of the charred case.

Then it blew a hole in the back of the case and blew a hole through the metal barn siding.  From there the metal siding conducted the strike to the corner trim (all fasteners at the joints burned), then to the door trim (some burning at the lower hinge) and into ground.

When it blew through the building wall some of the wood timber and framing caught fire but self extinguished.  Also puzzling is that both of the five bulb clusters indicating barn power is energized had exploded bulbs, or bulbs blown completely out of the sockets, and the fuses for those were burned.  Either the current got there from ionized air inside the cabinet or a second branch of the lightning jumped the outdoor section insulators to get inside.  Those are only designed to insulate against 600 volts, far below the potential of lightning, but we may never know.

So for now, no 600 volt service is possible to Barn 8 and cars inside are in effect stranded.  They might be able to be pulled out with a locomotive, or moved with a heavy stinger, but there is no other place to store them, and this cumbersome process would have to be reversed at night.

Damage maybe in excess of $2K-3K and a significant lead time if we are to order and replace the cabinet, cables, fuses, etc.

Bob Kutella