Illinois Railway Museum Blog

The museum is sponsoring two important fundraisers next month.  First is the "Straight Out of the 70's" charter trip on the CTA 'L'.  Due to unscheduled CTA track work, this trip is in the process of being rescheduled.  It will most likely be on Saturday, June 27, leaving at 9:00am from the conveniently located Dempster Station on the Skokie Swift/Yellow Line (plenty of parking available adjacent to the station).  This is a rare opportunity to spend the day riding the CTA's special retro/historic 2400-series cars throughout the city, seeing lines that you might not ordinarily ride on your daily commute.  Proceeds will help fund acquisition, restoration, operation and storage of newly acquired/soon to be acquired high-performance CTA cars.   UPDATE:  Due to the collapse of the embankment on the CTA Yellow Line the Straight out of the 70s charter has been cancelled.  The 2400 series historical cars that were chartered are stored at CTA's Skokie Shops which is located beyond the location of the collapse. Once the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District and the CTA finish repairs to the line, the charter will be rescheduled.  The Illinois Railway Museum apologizes for the inconvenience and looks forward to seeing you on the next charter.

CTAs Historic 2400s at the new McCormick Place Station

The other event will be the following day, on Sunday, June 28.  The 5th Annual Steam Department Concert will be held at the magnificent Sanfilippo Estate beginning at 1:00pm.  If you have not had the opportunity to attend one of these previously, it is a MUST SEE event!!  You have a chance to tour the Sanfilippo estate which features an incredible collection of music machines, coin operated machines, antique phonographs, art glass, steam engines, clocks, and many other functional antiques.  The highlight of the event is a concert by Dave Calendine, resident organist at the famed Fox Theater in Detroit, playing the world's largest restored theater pipe organ.  After the concert the carousel building will be open for you to enjoy.  It features full size train cars, huge music machines, collections of antique machinery, and a fully operational antique carousel.  This is an event that has to be experienced to be believed.  There will also be a raffle for a cab ride in steam locomotive 1630 and NEW THIS YEAR to be raffled off - a "take the throttle" opportunity on 1630.  All proceeds from this event goes directly to the Steam Department, helping to keep steam running at IRM.

Dave Calendine at the controls of the mighty Wurlitzer

Tickets to both events are now available on the IRM website (www.irm.org).  Please consider purchasing your tickets to one or BOTH today and spend a fun weekend supporting your museum - THANK YOU!!!