Illinois Railway Museum Blog

We witnessed the greatest ever display of operating trolley cars and exhibits over this past holiday weekend.  CONGRATULATIONS to the Electric Car Department, for the Curator and to every volunteer who helped, big and small, with the planning, preparation, staging, execution, and of course putting away the equipment after the special runs.  I could not help but attend on site for these days, who could miss it?  So here is a short BLOG EXTRA.  One of the most popular special displays was our CNS&M Electroliner which was spotted at the 50th Avenue station with its high level platform.

Booster

Here is Tom Sharrat on Sunday morning going to enter the station which had special signage advising that the train was to be available for tours.  Tom is a team leader for the Electroliner Campaign to raise funds for restoring it to operation for its 75th birthday, and has long been a fan and booster of the train.

The Liner

Here is the 801-802 trainset early, before the tours started.  As I said, it proved to be very popular, with waiting lines to get in for the tour and presentations for much of the day.

Memorabilia

Many items of North Shore memorabilia were on sale that one day only, all proceeds to benefit the Electroliner Restoration.  Julie Piesciuk is seen setting up the sales table under the canopy on the station platform.  No rain, but I bet the shade was very welcome for it was a hot and humid afternoon.

SURPRISE

Just one perfect afternoon with one surprise after another.  The CNS&M 354 was pulled from its Barn Space and spotted in front of barn 4 for display and many visitors ventured inside.

Not All Play Time

While it was an excellent opportunity to show what IRM is capable of, and there were many friendships renewed and new ones made, Victor Humphreys and I (and Bill Peterson) accomplished some more progress on the Chicago Great Western X 38 snowplow.  Victor is setting new hinges for the south door.