Projects
embers and guests of the Rogers Park/West Ridge Historical Society “rode the rails” on Sunday, August 8, 2010 in a special trip to the Illinois Railway Museum. Located in Union, Illinois—which is just a quick and scenic hour and a half drive west of Chicago—the Illinois Railway Museum (IRM) harbors the largest operating demonstration railroad showcase in North America.
Our visit was enhanced by an impressively detailed book, The Trains That Ran Through Rogers Park which was written by our own resident expert Hank Morris, who also served as our guide through the exhibits.
The IRM had several trains, trolleys, and streetcars actually running on its tracks on the museum campus. When we arrived, a two-car North Shore Line interurban train was waiting to take us over the museum’s 5-mile main line. Later, the museum operated a diesel-powered 1920s-era passenger commuter train over the main line, where we saw that no matter how many years have passed, some things never change. In today’s CTA we don’t have wicker seats or windows that we can open, both of which made for a comfortable ride, but we do still have the occasional wisecracking conductor and a few inexplicable delays while the conductor scurries around to attend to some minor (or not) mechanical failure. Still, we got where we were going, and we enjoyed the camaraderie of our fellow passengers and train aficionados.
