Steven Saine Railfan Productions | Illinois Railway Museum: Labor Day Weekend 9-2/3-2023 @stevensainerailfanproductions | Uploaded September 2023 | Updated October 2024, 12 hours ago.
Illinois Railway Museum: Labor Day Weekend 9-2/3-2023.
On Labor Day weekend of 2023, we travelled back to Illinois for a long overdue visit to the largest railroad museum in the USA. The Illinois Railway Museum (IRM). One of the best weekends to visit the IRM is Labor Day weekend. Every Labor Day weekend, they bring out a ton of their equipment to run for fun. A ton of the equipment they bring out is usually streetcars and trolley cars, although they have two operational steam locomotives and a ton of diesel locomotives.
In addition to the IRM doing their annual Labor Day weekend event, IRM is also celebrating their 70th anniversary. In honor of the celebration, they decided to run a lot of the equipment at night. You can see the night video separate from this video (this video is all the daytime operations).
I will talk a little bit about the two steam locomotives I focused most of my time on.
Frisco #1630 was built in 1918 by the Baldwin Locomotive Works as a Ye 2-10-0 "decapod" that was supposed to be exported to the Russian government. However, it and 200 other locomotives were to expensive for the Bolshevik government due to the Russian Revolution. As a result, 1630 was sold to the USRA, after a brief lease on the PRR, she was sold to the St. Louis-San Francisco Railroad (Frisco) in 1920. It would be a mixed traffic engine (mostly freight) until 1951 when she was sold to Eagle-Pitcher to haul lead ore from the mine to their smelter. 1630 was eventually donated to the Illinois Railway Museum in 1967 and was restored to operation five years later. 1630 has been the main power of the steam powered coach train ever since.
*For both the 2nd and the 3rd, 1630 ran into the night pulling the coach train.
J. Neils Lumber Co. #5 was built in 1929 by the Lima Locomotive Works as a Class C "3 truck" Shay type locomotive. She spent most of her working life in the Pacific Northwest (specifically in Montana and Washington). 5 was eventually brought to the Illinois Railway Museum in 1967 and was restored to operation one year later. Today the 5 is the main power for the museums caboose train and is also the locomotive used in the Take the Throttle program.
*5 was the first steam locomotive that operated at the Illinois Railway Museum.
*Normally 5 has an American made 5 chime whistle (I am not sure what type the main 5 chime is), although this weekend, she has a Chinese 5 chime.
*In addition to the steamers and the electrics, IRM brought out two of their popular streamliner diesels with their matching consists. The Chicago & Northwestern #411 with the Bi-level coach consist, and Chicago Burlington & Quincy #9911-A with the Nebraska Zephyr (which also ran at night).
Enjoy 70 years in the making at the Illinois Railway Museum during their Labor Day weekend event!
Illinois Railway Museum: Labor Day Weekend 9-2/3-2023.
On Labor Day weekend of 2023, we travelled back to Illinois for a long overdue visit to the largest railroad museum in the USA. The Illinois Railway Museum (IRM). One of the best weekends to visit the IRM is Labor Day weekend. Every Labor Day weekend, they bring out a ton of their equipment to run for fun. A ton of the equipment they bring out is usually streetcars and trolley cars, although they have two operational steam locomotives and a ton of diesel locomotives.
In addition to the IRM doing their annual Labor Day weekend event, IRM is also celebrating their 70th anniversary. In honor of the celebration, they decided to run a lot of the equipment at night. You can see the night video separate from this video (this video is all the daytime operations).
I will talk a little bit about the two steam locomotives I focused most of my time on.
Frisco #1630 was built in 1918 by the Baldwin Locomotive Works as a Ye 2-10-0 "decapod" that was supposed to be exported to the Russian government. However, it and 200 other locomotives were to expensive for the Bolshevik government due to the Russian Revolution. As a result, 1630 was sold to the USRA, after a brief lease on the PRR, she was sold to the St. Louis-San Francisco Railroad (Frisco) in 1920. It would be a mixed traffic engine (mostly freight) until 1951 when she was sold to Eagle-Pitcher to haul lead ore from the mine to their smelter. 1630 was eventually donated to the Illinois Railway Museum in 1967 and was restored to operation five years later. 1630 has been the main power of the steam powered coach train ever since.
*For both the 2nd and the 3rd, 1630 ran into the night pulling the coach train.
J. Neils Lumber Co. #5 was built in 1929 by the Lima Locomotive Works as a Class C "3 truck" Shay type locomotive. She spent most of her working life in the Pacific Northwest (specifically in Montana and Washington). 5 was eventually brought to the Illinois Railway Museum in 1967 and was restored to operation one year later. Today the 5 is the main power for the museums caboose train and is also the locomotive used in the Take the Throttle program.
*5 was the first steam locomotive that operated at the Illinois Railway Museum.
*Normally 5 has an American made 5 chime whistle (I am not sure what type the main 5 chime is), although this weekend, she has a Chinese 5 chime.
*In addition to the steamers and the electrics, IRM brought out two of their popular streamliner diesels with their matching consists. The Chicago & Northwestern #411 with the Bi-level coach consist, and Chicago Burlington & Quincy #9911-A with the Nebraska Zephyr (which also ran at night).
Enjoy 70 years in the making at the Illinois Railway Museum during their Labor Day weekend event!
