The family of the late Ron Doerr, who volunteered at IRM for a period in the 1980s, has donated his photo collection to the Museum. These undated photos mostly appear to have been taken in the mid-1980s. Please help us by commenting with any insights into the pictures - dates, points of interest, people's names, etc. Thank you!
This page includes photos of passenger and baggage cars, sorted by road number.
All pictures are copyrighted by the Illinois Railway Museum and may not be reproduced without permission.
#100 - The Ely on display in Barn 3, in the same spot it's in now.
#420 - In 1984 the museum acquired an EJ&E MOW train consisting of ex-B&LE combine 25, shown here; ex-Pullman lounge car "Dover Strait," in the left background; an an ex-Army troop sleeper. The two heavyweights have since been completely restored.
#421 - Here's another shot of B&LE 25 not long after it arrived.
#016 - When DMI&R 84 arrived at IRM in 1985, it was lettered for the Marquette & Huron Mountain tourist railroad we purchased it from. Here, it appears to be on Station Track 2 as seen from across the C&NW.
#041 - MILW 37A, DMI&R 84, and GB&W 109 sit on the west wye in this view looking west. The 84 and 109 came from the Marquette & Huron Mountain in 1985 (along with C&NW 7700), and this view shows the 84 still lettered M&HR 103.
#054 - Marquette & Huron Mountain 103 is today known as DM&IR 84. To the right is GB&W 109, which arrived from the M&HR at the same time. This is looking west at the west wye.
#415 - Here's DM&IR 84 as it looked when it arrived at IRM in the mid-1980s from the Marquette & Huron Mountain tourist railroad. I'm tempted to say that this car was acquired by IRM at the M&HM auction almost as an afterthought, but I may be thinking of the GB&W car. Anyway, it's a beautiful car that has contributed years of service at IRM.
Richard Schauer: It was the 109 that was the unplanned acquisition. From R&W 118, page 3, the 100 (C&NW 7700) and 103 (DM&IR 84) were picked out of the offerings as being recommended for purchase. On the day of the auction, the 110 (GB&W 109) was available for "quite a reasonable price" and was also acquired.
#068 - Both of these pieces of equipment were later scrapped. Hines Hospital 4062 on the left was a gas-mechanical, while CB&Q 90 was a wood-body, steel-sheathed office car cut up in 1994. I believe the location is Yard 10.
#422 - Today it's extremely uncommon to see Chicago Great Western business car 99 outdoors, but in the 1970s it was used sometimes on passenger trains at IRM. I'm not sure of the location, but it's shown here with the Safety Shoe Store (aka Pullman troop sleeper 7271).
#258 - Looking west across the lawn south of the depot we see the three passenger cars acquired from the Marquette & Huron Mountain in 1985: DM&IR 84, GB&W 109, and (barely peeking out from behind the bushes) C&NW 7700. Talk about a good day at the auction: the two steel cars are mainstays of our passenger car fleet, while the 109 is currently the subject of a beautiful multi-year restoration effort.
#410 - Green Bay & Western 109 is on Station Track 2, probably not long after it was purchased at the Marquette & Huron Mountain disposition auction. On the M&HM it was number 110, confusingly enough.
#400 - On the right is C&IM camp car X117, which supposedly was built for the Wabash, but I've never found any information on what series it was part of on the Wabash - anyone know? To the left is the IC tender that for many years was paired with the C&NW pile driver, but recently was fixed up and now serves as the auxiliary water car for the Decapod.
#113 - The Zephyr is sitting in its usual spot in Yard 1, as seen looking northwest from the Central Avenue streetcar platform at the south end of the wye.
#416 - The Zephyr's dining car "Ceres" is on the west leg of the wye
#124 - The Zephyr is shown westbound passing the depot.
#419 - The famous "Juno" brings up the rear on the Zephyr, shown just north of the south wye switch
#166 - Lackawanna 556, which it looks like is headed up the west wye while the General American Folderol "water bottle" sits on the east wye.
#167 - And coach 556 again, this time sitting just west of the depot with the parking lot in the background.
#417 - Lackawanna "Boonton car" 556 is pictured in Barn 8, today Barn 9
#024 - Lackawanna 561 flanked by its two sisters in front of the depot in a photo taken looking across the C&NW. The remnants of the "Big Tree" are to the left.
#199 - So I'll admit, this one has me stumped. I have no idea where it is. Lackawanna 561 is shown (with a mystery gondola on the left, I might add) but the odd thing is that it looks like West Towns 141 is off to the right, at a 90-degree angle to the Lack car. For years the 141 sat on the south side of Central Avenue facing north-south, but that doesn't make sense for this. Anyone know?
Olin Anderson: The west towns car was always south of central avenue. This is likely yard 7 before the barn and was the first yard in that area circa 1984ish.
#425 - Lackawanna "Boonton car" 561 appears to be on the turntable leads
#028 - Lackawanna 567 in front of the depot with the skeletal remains of the "Big Tree."
#164 - Lackawanna 567, which looks pretty much like this today, though it's been shined up recently. Between the picnic tables in the foreground and the CTA 6100s and unidentified 4000 in the background, I'm guessing this is just north of the Central Avenue streetcar stop looking west.
#428 - Lackawanna "Boonton car" 567 appears to be on the turntable leads, coupled up behind one of the Milwaukee Road E9s.
#401 - Of the three C&NW wooden baggage-RPO cars acquired from the Chicago Hardware Foundry and moved to Union in 1964, the oldest, smallest, and least fortunate was this one, car 1131. This was the only one of the three with four-wheel trucks. By the 1980s it was in rough shape, as can be seen, and it was scrapped in 1998.
#431 - The four-wheel trucks betray that this is C&NW baggage car 1131, which was scrapped in 1998. It's one of three wooden North Western baggage cars we acquired from Chicago Hardware Foundry and moved out to Union, but was the only one of the three that didn't have six-wheel trucks.
#172 - At first I thought this was C&NW 1131, the baggage car we scrapped in 1998, but I believe that instead it's actually C&NW 1236, the baggage-RPO that long served as the gift shop storeroom and is currently available to a good home (or any home, for that matter). Obviously this was taken before it was plinthed near the depot and painted yellow.
#399 - Here's C&NW baggage car 1236 after it was moved up to the tracks next to the depot and when it was starting to be cosmetically spruced up for use as the gift shop storeroom. As of this writing, in early 2023, this car has been deaccessed and is for sale.
#136 - The Santa Fe lounge is shown on display in Barn 3, on track 31 near the west end. This car has been a static display piece ever since I can remember; I'm not sure whether it ever ran at IRM.
#144 - Here's a somewhat unusual broadside shot of the Santa Fe lounge. I'm not sure this is Barn 3 - it could be Barn 8, now Barn 9.
#230 - The Santa Fe lounge doesn't make it outside very much any more, but here it is in all its glory just south of Central Avenue, I believe.
#413 - Here's the Santa Fe lounge sitting outside of Barn 8, now Barn 9. That car to the left is DM&IR 84 when it was still lettered Marquette & Huron Mountain 103.
#393 - IRM owned no fewer than five ex-Wabash N&W heavyweight coaches at one time, but they were rough and were all either scrapped or sold. I'm not sure which two are shown here. This is Yard 5, of course, looking west toward the office.
#426 - Rock Island car 2524 is looking a bit disheveled, particularly with its step wells missing and what appears to be a CTA 'L' car truck under one end. It also looks suspiciously like it might be missing a lot of its seats. It arrived at IRM in 1984, so this may have been taken not long afterward. It looks like the car is sitting just west of the diamond on the Yard 5 lead. The car has since been restored and is used regularly.
#395 - Santa Fe 2544 is a very attractive heavyweight baggage car that is normally part of the walk-through exhibit in Barn 3, I believe, though as far as I know it's operational. Here it looks like it may have had its windows removed but it's hard to say. This is in Barn 8, today Barn 9.
#427 - Rock Island 2555 is another one of our Rock commuter coaches. It has since been restored and sees regular use at IRM.
#406 - Rock Island 2571 is one of several identical commuter cars at IRM from that railroad.
#014 - Rock Island 2582
#141 - Rock Island 2582, which has since been restored, and C&NW 7700, which has had the weird "nearly black" letterboard it wore for many years repainted to match the Marquette & Huron Mountain medium green that the rest of the car is painted. It looks like that's the doghouse on the 1630's tender barely visible over the "water bottle."
#429 - Rock Island commuter car 2582 looks like it may be on the steam shop lead here.
#198 - Rock Island 2602 in front of the station, in a view from across the C&NW.
#251 - Rock Island coach 2602 is shown in an unknown yard. It's since been repainted and restored. I think it still has that telltale dent in the end of the roof, though!
#072 - Three Rock Island coaches, and what I think is the HH660, sitting on the main line in front of the station.
#112 - Here's an unusual shot: the Galt House before it was painted Pullman Green. Yes, it did indeed arrive at IRM in L&N blue. It's in front of Barn 8, today Barn 9.
#407 - When the "Galt House" arrived, it was painted in the L&N's later blue streamliner livery with ornate script lettering. I believe that for the condition it's in, this is actually the only authentic paint scheme it can wear, but it fits in better with the rest of the coach train in Pullman green.
#180 - This is not exactly a terrific photo, but it does show our IC heavyweight coach, 2804, at the museum before we painted it Pullman Green. Again, the walkway says this must be Barn 3.
#408 - Speaking of faux paint jobs, IC 2804, shown here, arrived painted in classic IC brown and orange, and I believe that it too would only be truly correct if painted in this livery (or heavily rebuilt to backdate it). It is also in Pullman green for the sake of a matching consist.
#403 - CGW 4061, which looks like it's on the steam shop lead in this photo, has since been repainted in this color scheme. It was built for the C&O and later ran in passenger service on the CGW before being converted for MOW use.
#064 - And next to it, this may look like CGW 4061, the combine that was later repainted and is currently (I think?) on display in Yard 5, but it isn't! It's actually sister car 4062, which we sold in 1994 to the Pere Marquette 1225 group (thanks to Tim Fennell for the correction on that). I have no idea whether it's still there.
#074 - Here's a photo showing CGW 4062, the combine we sold to the Pere Marquette 1225 group in Michigan. I believe this is the throat of Yard 10 and that's the Springfield Avenue platform on the right. However this would have been before the Springfield Avenue shelter was there, I think - does anyone recall what this car line stop was called then? Was it just Barn 8 South?
#086 - Here's another photo of CGW 4062, the "other" CGW combine.
#402 - CGW 4062, later in MOW service on the C&NW, was built for the C&O and was later used by the CGW in passenger service as their 286. It was sold in 1994 to the Pere Marquette 1225 group.
#418 - The "Minerva" is one of two straight coaches in the Zephyr consist
#106 - GTW 5316, the "Melanie," after it had been retired as the theater car up by the depot and put in Yard 10.
#414 - Grand Trunk Western 5316, the "Melanie," is shown out in Yard 10. For a time this car sat on the stub-end track just east of the depot and was used for showing movies, but by the mid-1980s that track held baggage cars used as the gift shop.
#394 - I assume this is Yard 3, and we're looking at CB&Q 7128, a coach rebuilt for MOW service that was later victim of an accidental fire. That led to it being cut down to the belt rail to be turned into the "Vista Kallas," an open-air car, though that work was never completed.
#232 - Unfortunately I don't know what year this was taken, but it was obviously when the tracks next to the depot had just been fully "loaded" with what became the longtime bookstore/gift shop car arrangement. The Pullman troop sleeper has a sparkling coat of Pullman green on it, while C&NW 1236 in the right background sports primer and yellow paint.
#351 - This is what our Pullman troop sleeper, car 7271 that for many years served as the bookstore annex, looked like when it was acquired. If memory serves, it was discovered in West Allis, Wisconsin, where it was in use as (obviously) a safety shoe store. Its original Allied Full Cushion trucks were nearby, sitting in the weeds. Here it's seen in Yard 1, likely in the final days of Yard 1 before it became 50th Avenue.
#409 - This is presumably the early days of the bookstore/gift shop cars sitting next to the depot, as the Pullman troop sleeper is being painted and the C&NW baggage car behind it is in primer. There's also no Depot Street shelter yet.
#430 - Pullman troop sleeper 7271 is gleaming in fresh paint not long after it was moved into position on an isolated piece of track east of the depot to serve as the bookstore. It would end up sitting here for roughly 35 years.
#107 - A view of the south end of the wye from the old entrance, showing C&NW 7700, the Pullman troop sleeper (when it was still the "safety shoe store"), and an unidentified heavyweight. I wonder if this was taken during the changeover from Yard 1 to 50th Avenue.
#231 - A shot of C&NW 7700 passing Spaulding Tower on its way into the depot
#404 - C&NW 7700 was acquired in 1985 from the Marquette & Huron Mountain, a tourist line in Michigan which had repainted it and lettered it as M&HM 100. It's shown here in the condition it arrived at IRM in.
#405 - Before too long, C&NW 7700 had its Marquette & Huron Mountain name and number painted out. I have no idea why it acquired that black (or very dark green) letterboard, but for many years it had this slightly odd appearance until sometime - maybe c2010? - someone repainted the letterboard to match the rest of the car.
#061 - Here's the view looking north from Depot Street back before it had a shelter, and before there was a second track next to the depot.
#432 - Before the second track was added east of the depot and the number of gift shop/bookstore cars was doubled to four, there were only these two cars at the location. The lightweight baggage-RPO is C&NW 8202; to the left is "shorty" heavyweight baggage car C&NW 8728.
#087 - C&NW X301008 is better known as C&NW 8609, a 1910 Pullman-built steel baggage/RPO. My best guess is that it's shown here on the single track along the south edge of Yard 10.
#190 - C&NW 8609 is a 1910 Pullman-built steel baggage/RPO. I'm guessing it's shown in Yard 10, and that's the Springfield Avenue car line crossing in the foreground.
#350 - A Rock Island car, a URTX Oscar Mayer reefer, and C&NW baggage car 8609 meet in Yard 10...
#423 - C&NW heavyweight baggage car 8609 is shown in Yard 10
#424 - Part of the EJ&E MOW train acquired in 1984 was our "other" Pullman troop sleeper, EJ&E 8726 (original number unknown). It actually looked pretty sharp when it first arrived. This car had its interior hollowed out by the railroad when it was converted for MOW service and it was used as a bunk car for years at IRM.
#433 - C&NW heavyweight baggage car 8728 was used for many years at this location as the bookstore. Note that this photo was taken at a singular moment in time when the depot was in the middle of being repainted from white to brown.
#434 - Our best-known heavyweight RPO is Burlington 1923, but we have a second of generally similar design shown here: Grand Trunk Western 9695. It's Pullman green on one side and CN black-and-white on the other, which I'm told is left over from the railroad.
Logan Smith: We managed to disprove the myth with why 9695 was painted two colors. We took some of the paint off the Pullman green side and managed to find the CN black and white scheme. I believe Johnson painted it shortly after it arrived but I have no proof of that
#073 - I'm pretty sure this is the southernmost (maybe) track of Yard 10 looking west/northwest. There was one standalone track maybe 100' south of the rest of the yard, so the photographer is probably standing just north of that track. L-R (and I'm using other photos in the collection for guidance here!) are two Soo Line single-sheathed boxcars, the Hines Hospital engine, CB&Q 90, the "Melanie," the pile driver (including its tender, which today serves as the 1630's auxiliary water tank), C&M X117, and I think MT 200.
#412 - I believe this is the "Dover Strait," which of course has since been fully restored to its New York Central lounge car configuration. When it arrived at IRM it was an EJ&E work car.
#142 - We're in Barn 3 looking west near the northwest corner of the barn. I believe that can only be the Inglehome on the right, and I'm not sure what's at near left but I believe that's the Toledo-Detroit 4-4-0 at the west end of the track. That engine arrived at IRM in 1984.
#397 - The "Inglehome" was a popular exclamation mark on the coach train for many years. It looks like it's just south of Central Avenue here, next to the empty lot that today is home to the diner annex.
#042 - I believe this is looking south-southwest across the Yard 10 throat, with the "King Cotton" in between various storage boxcars and reefers. For a number of years, Yard 10 was mostly located about where it and the "caboose track" are now, but there was also the single track shown here about 100' south where today Yard 11 is.
#411 - The "King Cotton" is shown in what I suspect is Yard 10
#078 - We're at Depot Street looking west at the Zephyr sitting in Yard 1 while the 415 approaches.
#098 - Looking west across the throat of Yard 4 west, with the Zephyr sitting in Yard 1. The "Goddess head" hasn't yet shown up in the little grove at this spot.
#396 - The Venus, the power car of the Zephyr, appears to be on the west wye here. It looks the same today.
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