Illinois Railway Museum Blog

Today unofficially marked the beginning of 'the busy season' by inspecting the first portions of the mainline for its return to revenue service in the coming weeks.

Food started off the morning in Marengo with Frank Devries and myself. After arriving to the property we were joined by Bob Olson and began walking track from Seeman Rd working East. The priority was to walk and mark ties to be replaced this year as well as inspect for the usual defects; joint bars, bolts, breaks, culverts and anything else that isn't quite right. We walked a few hours before calling it lunch at Subway. Tom Hunter met us there and we were off for a few more hours of inspection.

We officially walked from Signal 201/202 all the way to the east end of the line. A few hard miles in full winter gear.

Totals from the day include 387 ties marked for renewal between West Switch Johnson to Four Mile Siding (+ a few more not yet marked), one center broken joint bar and two pull aparts. At least another 100 ties will be marked once we clear ballast off the track between Poles 39-46ish. The goal is 700 ties on the mainline this year which we will begin to distribute next weekend. Slow orders and O.O.S. bulletins ARE posted and will stay in place until repaired. We called it a day with dinner at Joe's and wrapped up a lot of loose ends.

Frank will be out tomorrow and next weekend we'll begin loading flat cars with ties for distribution and probably working on repairs as well as continued inspection. Come out and join the fun!

***If you're interested in helping out give me a shout at lzeje657@msn.com or find any one of us on most weekend and we'll get you hooked up!

Adam Robillard
IRM Roadmaster
lzeje657@msn.com