Illinois Railway Museum Blog

            After all these years of waiting the coach dept is finalizing  plans to move CB&Q 1309 located in Denver, Colorado and the CB&Q Silver Beaver located in Madison, Illinois to our museum campus.  As some of you might remember, both pieces are complete and are "Q" baggage cars.  "What is the big hold up,"  you ask?   It's the usually answer:  $ MONEY!    Where as, moving lighter weight equipment is less expensive, these two pieces will cost much more than the usuall 3 to 4 thousand dollars each.  Yes, acquiring new equipment these days is very, very expensive.    

       Let me first explain the situation behind the heavy weight baggage car 1309.  The museum has owned this car since 2002 and has considered moving it a number of times but something always comes up to shove it to the back burner.    Now with a renewed excitement we are working on moving this car to Irm.  Our largest problem is $.  We are considering the possibility of trucking it from the  Denver area to Irm.  Please  consider supporting this acquisition!    It's about time to do something with this project!       Recently, I asked  Brian La Kemper  if he had any contacts in the Denver area so that we could have current pictures of the car.   His contacts sent us these pictures.   They are graciously supplied by one gentleman in the Denver railfan community.   His name is Nick Gully  and we thank him for his efforts and granting permission to use his pictures.          The 1309 will cost more money to move on account of its age, distance from the museum and weight.    Please consider a donation to the 1309!              Now to the Silver Beaver, and yes, that's its name.  Sister cars were named, the Silver Stag, Bear, Buffalo, Coyote and Antelope.  Do you see where this train of thought came from?  Unfortunately,  I do not have any current pictures of the 801,  Silver Beaver.  This car is also a baggage car but is a completely different configuration.   It is a light weight stainless steel fluted car and was built by the Budd Co in 1948 for service on the California Zephyr.  As some of you already know the Silver Pony, our Dome coach# 1108,  was also built for the California Zephyr.  This baggage car will fit perfectly with our Zephyr consist, as well as, our other stainless train set.    The Silver Beaver will cost less $ money to move because of its rather close proximity to Irm  and the age of the car.  The 801 has roller bearing trucks and will be shipped on its own wheels to the museum.   Estimates to transport this baggage car range from 5 to 7 thousand dollars!                                                                                                                                                                          Since its baseball spring training season; Here's the Pitch.....We would like to bring both cars home to Irm before......Before Opening Day or the World Series!   That will depend on you, our generous supporters of our museum.   To keep these two projects rolling to Irm, please consider donations to the CB&Q 1309 and The SILVER BEAVER.    The 1309 would look great on our steam train and the Silver Beaver would look equally magnificent with our Nebraska Zephyr!!         Thanks                Roger  Kramer