Illinois Railway Museum Blog

                 Many preservation railroad museums have a model railroad for the enjoyment of their visitors, especially the younger folks.     In another step in Irm efforts to broaden and diversify railroad themed displays the museum is going to  construct a building to house a large model railroad layout.  Here is your opportunity to help fund this building project.     Now that I have your interest let me give you some background how this concept came about.   It was in Oct, 2012 that Irm was given the opportunity to save a complete model railroad.  In this case in HO scale.  We made arrangements and carefully dismantled the full basement size "empire" and moved it to a storage facility at Irm.  That in itself was a large undertaking involving many, many, hours of volunteer work.   To complicate matters the layout was located  near Milwaukee, Wisconsin.  

                 Now the largest question you might have is "What has been done since then?"   In order to build a display hall to house this collection we have begun raising funds for construction.   This article is to inform you that we are 70% into accomplishing our goal.   The building will be constructed on the Main Street site.   We have a purposed building plan,  that includes the main display room  as well as support facilities.    The exterior is designed for a period appropriate façade in keeping with the theme of Main Street.    We have also received cost estimates from various  building contractors.   

   View of proposed Model Railroad building  

                 So what is keeping the Museum from breaking ground for construction?   Yes, you guessed it!   We need more donations before we can have that ground braking  ceremony.     Sending a donation to the restricted fund marked RMRD can speed up the building process.    With your help we can make this into a reality!      Just think of the possibilities... A layout of HO gauge, and maybe G gauge, S gauge and N gauge.   You can come out to the Illinois Railway Museum, ride real trains then stop by the Model railroad building and view model trains in  action.   It's a win-win day-out with trains.   What an exciting day it will be showing your children and/or grandchildren the excitement of model trains.

                Don't forget....  send your check or email your donation and mark it .... RMRD  for Restricted Model Railroad Development.       Please stop by and visit with Henry Vincent.     He is the Project Manager and will appreciate your interest and support.      Thanks  Roger Kramer