Museums in Northwest Illinois

Last week we were on a brief vacation in the northwest corner of the state, mostly hiking and sightseeing.  We passed by a few railroad-related museums, though none of them were open at the time.  During the middle of the week in April that's not surprising.

I've posted some pictures of the depot at Oregon before.  Some more work on the building has been done, although the paving hasn't started.  There's a small museum inside with some artifacts, and a long G-scale model of the Cal Zephyr that I could see.

Elizabeth is home to a Chicago Great Western museum, part of the local historical society.  The depot is a standard CGW design, similar to the one I'm familiar with in Elmhurst.  It's only open on weekends during the summer.

And nearby is a Milwaukee Road caboose.  In this business, you have to take what you can get.

The IC depot in Galena was built in 1857, only slightly later than our Marengo Depot.  It serves as the local visitor's information bureau.  There isn't much railroad-related on display, but it's good to see that the building is well maintained.

And in Amboy, #8376, a GTW 0-8-0 from Sterling is on display, along with a wooden caboose from the Norfolk & Western.  This is located along the right-of-way of the IC Charter line, which is long gone.

The IC depot here was built in 1876 and houses the local history museum.  It has been nicely restored.

So those were mildly interesting, but there's no place like home.