How would you rate the Illinois Railway Museum? On a scale of :
1–Bad
to
10-- Excellent
??
You Decide!
What are we basing this on? Or I guess I would re-phrase that, who are we comparing to?
Comparing IRM to, say, the C&TS wouldn’t be a fair comparison, at least in my mind. While the former does do a little operating, it’s more of a collection of stuff. The latter is very much an operating entity. The former is in nice countryside, and the latter operates in some terrific scenery that’s hard to top. The former covers many aspects and types of railroading, while the latter is pretty much an example of mountain narrow gauge steam railroading. See what I’m getting at?
Comparing to others that you have visted.
I’ll give an 8.7… The IRM has a very good and varied collection that is on display and operates on small trips. The location of IRM is also very good. Not too far from Chicago, Milwaukee, Madison or Rockford. Also, how can you go wrong placing a railroad museum next to the original main line in the rail capital if this country? It would be nice though if the UP let the IRM use that line (Belvidere Sub) for some longer excursions. I’m sure that insurance and other stuff works against that idea.
CC
I would give it a 9, but realize that comparing railroad museums is like comparing apple to oranges, given all the variables you can consider. I have been an IRM member for years, and live about 25 miles east of it, so I get over there 5 or 6 times a season. IRM has a large campus, and a very dedicated volunteer staff. It has a 4 mile mailine and a 1 mile trolley loop. It has a good amount of its collection under cover in “barns”, although a large amount of the collection is outside, subject to the vagaries of northern Illinois weather. All its departments (electric, diesel, steam, etc.) have significant examples of locomotives and rolling stock, much of it in operating condition. (The steam department has nothing running this summer, however, but both the Frisco Decapod and the Shay are in the process of being recertified, I believe.) IRM is a trolley-and -interurban lovers delight, as such a high percentage of those collections either run, or are being prepared to run. IRM does not get the state funding that the big California and Pennsylvania museums get, so I think comparison to those fine museums is somewhat unfair. Funding issues aside, IRM is one of the best, and any railfan on the planet should plan on visiting. The website is http://www.irm.org . Check it out!
I’d put IRM near the top of the museums I’ve visted, which includes some of the larger ones like the B&O museum and Baltimore and also some of the more reginonal ones like the National Railroad Museum in Green Bay, Wis, and it is probably a 8.5 or so. They’ve got a really nice collection, most of it is in good condition, and amazingly a good majority of it operates, which is something you don’t always see at many museums. I was down there for their deisel days celebration about a month ago, and that was pretty nice too, I came away very happy. If you are the area, I would definately recommend a visit. Once they get steam up and running there too, it will be a top notch place, even more so than it is already.
Noah