Illinois Railway Museum Blog

Here is a pictorial of two events that have recently taken place at IRM.   The first two are the beginning of the installation of crossing gates and flashers at the main entrance as you walk into our museum.  Bob Olsen and his crew have been developing this functioning display for about two years .  When completed this Summer we will have a set of working gates and flashing signals at this location.  In other words when a train is about to pass this location the gates automatically lower and the flashes flash red and the bell rings.    I must mention that this sound will be a real bell not the  crummy electronic ones you hear at other Northern Illinois  locations. Please help the signal department maintain and operate all our various signal by contributing a donation to the SIGNAL Dept.   Thanks        The museum has begun leasing its unused track space to shippers who need to store cars for a short duration in the winter.  This has become very beneficial to both parties.    We are now storing on our railroad more than three MT hopper trains for one customer.   It just so happened that I took these pictures of the  signal department as the first train of hoppers arrived.  Please refer to a couple of blogs ago referring to the maintenance and repair of the cab heater systems in these two diesels.  FYI  For those of you who are new to this "game" called winter storage, the museum is charging and receiving a fee for storing these hoppers.   The next blog will highlight the benefit of this winter storage!       Roger