Illinois Railway Museum Blog

                                              This is the latest progress report on the transformation of the RI coach 2612.    For those of you new to this blog, we received the coach in mid-February of 2013.    The efforts are slowly paying off and the interior is finally looking like the interior of a Rock Island commuter coach.   I, with help from Brian Paterson,  have been working on it almost once a week for the past few months.                                                                                             My lastest efforts have been aimed towards the lighting.  I have reinstalled two missing light sockets [ I have extras in stock].   Then I found enough glass shades[also in storage] and installed all  26 of them.      Lastly, I tested the lighting circuits and the lights came back on without any blown fuses.  What a beautiful sight!   We now have the capability of having a five car RI train that can be lite during our famous "Night time" operations.    Not many people can have five cars lite up for night operations!!                                                                                              The next post will show even more progress, for there were five volunteers that worked on it over the three day Memorial day weekend!             Please remember to send a donation to the RI 2612 fund to cover the costs related to the TRACK STORAGE FUND!                                                                                                                           You should be receiving your new Rail and Wire in the mail any day now!   Please enjoy it.   Its has a very informative article about the early years of building the museum in Union, Illinois.