The Illinois Railway Museum is presenting a new and improved trolley pageant for 2009. The pageant has moved from the slow and congested street car line to the open and photogenic mainline area. This year the pageant allows the Interurban to pose along side a traditional mid-western landscape. Equipment that cannot negotiate tight curvatures of the street car line, have a chance to participate in this years pageant. Electric Locomotives will be leading realistic freight trains of their time along with rolling stock sensitive to each background. The rare appearance of pantograph equipment such as the Illinois Central Electric MU "wicker baskets" and South Shore Line Interurban representing the south side of Chicago and Northwestern Indiana. Street cars line up as they did in down town Chicago and the Rapid transit fleet performs with quick de-acceleration and fast acceleration. The past pageant offered each piece of equipment to review while standing still, this year a number of pieces are selected to review during a run by.
Certain trains that have been selected to run by will set the scene of the electric era that many have never had the chance to experience. This year on the 4th of July at IRM the videos come to life, the pictures come to life and memories along with stories are seen. Please support the Trolley Pageant and join us at the Illinois Railway Museum for a step back in time. Other attractions - Trolley Buses operate, Street Car Service and Mainline Electric and Diesel Trains operate, also enjoy the West End Jazz Band playing live. Additional information can be found on the IRM website at www.irm.org.
The 2009 4th of July Trolley Pageant will be different than anything you have seen at IRM. It will be held on the main line and station tracks in front of the depot, much like Diesel Days. You'll see rarely seen pantagraph equipment running and electric locomotives doing actual work pulling freight trains. Trolley busses and streetcars will continue running during the pageant.
Equipment scheduled to operate (subject to mechanical condition):
Comments
Mon, 09-08-2025 08:22
Good job on the Burlington Nortern 9976. OK.
Tue, 08-12-2025 12:56
No new news that I have heard of thus far.
Tue, 08-12-2025 12:53
I'll also be doing another update on it soon. Keep en eye out for that.
Tue, 08-12-2025 12:47
A little work was done to it for Diesel Days this year. You'll see photos floating around for the temporary short term job that was done to make it [...]
Wed, 08-06-2025 13:01
Is steam car CN 15444 going to be coming to museum several times it was to be moved to muesum
Sat, 07-19-2025 18:56
Yeah, sadly it's still there as of 7/19/2025
Thu, 06-12-2025 19:14
Its been 14 years guys, where is the unit? Like really? Did you guys misplace it? Or are repairs taking that long? At this point be might we will have [...]
Wed, 04-09-2025 17:40
Jamie Thanks for the update. She's gonna shine like every thing else you guys do! Smeds
Thu, 03-06-2025 16:28
Yes, there is a wye. Those two have been MU'ed on diesel days a year or two ago.
Wed, 03-05-2025 14:04
7009 number boards look good. Is there a way to turn a locomotive around at IRM? In case you ever had a mind to connect 7009 and 6847?
Fri, 03-29-2024 21:26
We're slackers and spend more time working on the equipment in the shop than keeping all you readers updated. We'll work on it, but I'm sure updates [...]
Thu, 03-14-2024 08:02
What happened to the Department Blog? It's been over 2 years and I still regularly check for updates, but nothing comes...