Robert... yeah I don’t count the Super 8 as a legit hotel option for me, I looked at the reviews and said “nope where is the next hotel!” The nearest standard hotels like Hampton Inn, Comfort, Fairfield seems to be in Elgin area. I was just pointing out to those who have never been to Union, it’s not in a prime location tourism wise... you have to know about it and want to go there. But as you said that’s part of its success as well!

Even more amazing that they have bought up surrounding farms to keep the atmopshere. That’s another point to all that was on the list. Indeed racing through a modern subdivision on a 1900’s intereurban would not have the same appeal!

I also agree that a nice hotel and restaurant in Union would certainly get my business!

IRM is an amazing place, and there is more every time I go there.
By putting in the playground they have made the target market more for families with small kids - which I fall into.

re: the location: I think they have actually been very fortunate with it. In the 1970s there were many places closer to Chicago that were cornfields - such as most of Naperville, the east side of Aurora, most of Arlington Heights, etc. Today, these are all densely-packed suburbs, where soon every small sliver of land will be built on. If they had located in say, Naperville, in the 1970s, they would now be on land that is far too valuable to let sit open, and boxed in by development by (likely) unfriendly neighbors. So I think the location is OK where it is. And, they are fortunate to still be on an active rail line - imagine if they had located on the CGW back in the 1970s - they would have lost their rail link.

My only concern is: on a regular basis - not counting special events - I don't think IRM gets the crowds they had back when I first starting going 25+ years ago. I wonder if this is true.

Chris.

As mentioned before, IRM benefits from many things other museums do not get to enjoy. They are near the nation's largest rail hub of Chicago, on a site that does not suffer from the development that a site anywhere closer to Chicago would have suffered from. The organization of the museum ensures that members generally get along and that no "dynasties" or "factions" form. Some have complained about IRM snatching up too much equipment, but their policies of paying for track space and their heavy emphasis on putting equipment under cover generally ensure that a piece of equipment is well-cared for once it arrives at IRM.

The museum benefits from always having a long-term vision in place, with such things like the Main Street project and the turntable and roundhouse project. IRM does special events well to bring in income; even as Thomas events seem to be declining across all railway museums, IRM has been supplanting this with their Happy Holiday Railway, Pumpkin Train, and Bunny Trolley Hop events.

Finally, IRM can do a lot of things that other museums just can't do. Who else has a signaled main line good for 40 mph operation? Who else can recreate a complete 1950s streamliner, or a complete 1970s Chicago commuter train, or a 4-car wooden MU interurban train? This is pretty much unique only to IRM, and certainly adds to it's appeal.

For those of involved.... is IRM 100% volunteer? 95%?

So many museums seem to whine about a lack of volunteers, irm seems to have them and while yes Chicago is close by... many other museums have major cities close by as well.

Folks,
I am a long distance IRM member; the reason I give them money year after year is that great collection of just about everything railroad. And most of the collection is in barns; this means the collection will be around long after I go to the great beyond.

They also publish a great magazine for their long distance members and anyone else who like trains.

IRM may have some problems and never all the money they need for their many projects. But they are working to increase their business as a year round center; not just a train ride.

Ted Miles, long time IRM Member

I was hoping that someone more involved currently would answer, but I guess not.

IRM has always been 100% volunteer in the areas of organizational governance (President, BOD, etc.) and property and collections management (General Manager, department heads, etc.) IRM has been lucky to have enough dedicated volunteers who are willing to give up a large portion of their lives to take these positions.

I certainly don't want to slight anyone who is volunteering, but in the past they have hired employees in two general areas:

Somebody to open the property and run the streetcar during the summer weekdays, as It's hard to be open seven days a week with strictly volunteers. In the past this has often been a college age member who is already qualified to run the equipment.

People to staff support functions that are really simply jobs. An example would be the food service workers in the food concession.

Someone was questioning if there were term limits on the department heads, and as far as I know there isn't. These people are appointed by the GM and serve at his pleasure. This tends to ensure long term continuity in project planning and management. Likely the longest serving people are the individuals who adopt the project management of specific pieces of equipment; this can turn into a lifetime commitment.

The department structure has evolved over time, and is likely instrumental in getting younger members involved since it helps match interests with work that needs to be done. When, for instance, someone new shows up and expresses the desire to "work on a steam engine," rather than handing the person a broom and saying, no, you have to sweep the depot, the typical reaction is to send him to see the appropriate department head. He may wind up sweeping the rust scale in a tender cistern and shoveling it out, but at least he's working on a steam engine. The department system helps break what has become a massive operation into manageable size teams, where people share similar interests, and find that if they are willing to take on responsibility, they can quickly have some say in the decision making process. This, I think, is what accounts for the large number of younger members, both in operations and back in the restoration shops.

The IRM does a great job protecting their equipment and having special weekends where different equipment is pulled out and operated. The last time I was there was about 20 years ago and I was talking to a member about their storage barns. He said they had 1 1/2 miles of tracks under cover. I think they have added another barn since then. A line he said justifying the barns that I will always remember was "the best way to lose a volunteer is to have them to restore something then 3 years later ask them to do it again".

In Niles Canyon we have an all volunteer operation in a scenic canyon with a large population in surrounding areas to support us. But one thing we don't have is a lot of open space to build indoor storage. We do have some indoor storage in the planning stage but open space to build buildings for all our restored equipment is a dream.

Wow. The current claim is FOUR MILES of track under cover. The irm.org web site claims thirteen car barns; I count eleven in a current year Google image; I guess if I add the steam shop and trolley bus garage that equals thirteen.

I was active when the first barn was built in 1972, and I don't recall a lot of debate over the allocation of funds. Based on experiance gained since the museum founding in 1953 there was a general realization of the futility of restoring cars only to have them stand out in the weather. Inactive railroad cars don't weather as well as rolling stock that is used every day; the motion and air flow tend to keep them dried out, as does heating them in the winter. There was a general consensus that money had to be spent to house the equipment before serious restorations could be undertaken, even if that meant putting those restorations off for years in the future. The eventual goal is to have the entire collection under cover; then attention can turn to providing better display space, such as a roundhouse for the steam locomotives.

A lot of museums talk about how “one day we’d like to....” but IRM has the plans. Go to the website and you can see plans and fundraising for the completion of the Main Street entrance and the roundhouse and turntable. You can also see how the roundhouse has multiple phases, they know they won’t be able to do it all at once.

Oh yeah.... and the steam blog mentions they are already working on their 3rd operating steam locomotive.... a UP 2-8-0.

And they are in the process of ressambling the electroliner set.

Seriously.... these guys are incredible. Part of me wants to move to union ASAP!

That's likely to be a tough question.

When I was an active volunteer about 5 years ago, I(llinois)RM had a few classes of paid staff: ticket booth personnel, food service personnel, gift shop personnel, and at least some buildings-and-grounds personnel.

I _think_ I(llinois)RM may bring in paid help during big special events such as "Thomas". I do not know if they bring in paid help for other special events.

I am aware that some departments have "hired" some of their nominally-volunteer crews to speed progress on some specific projects via paid weekday work. They might even be "paid staff" on weekdays, and volunteers on the weekend - I never knew the details of this type of program. (I wish the "hired for pay" option had been offered to me the year I put in over 1000 hours of volunteer work with the Steam Department!)

There may be other classes of paid staff of which I was never aware.

The I(llinois)RM property is not open to the public for most of the winter, and most of the paid staff is not present during those times. Similarly for those days early and late in the operating season, many of the ammenities are not staffed.

All of this makes it difficult for the average observer to figure a real number!

Regards,
Bob Milhaupt

That UP 2-8-0, numbered 428, has been "under restoration" since, I believe, the late 70s or early 80s as a secondary or tertiary "opertational restoration project" for the Steam Department. During the 10 or so years I volunteered with the Steam Department, there were _many_ years where it received little or no substantial work from anyone other than the department Curator, and a few years where it received non-trivial attention from many of the department's volunteers.

With both SLSF 1630 (Russian 2-10-0) in-service for several years, and J. Neils 5 (3-truck Shay) in-service this year, UP 428 apparantly is the primary "operational restoration project" under weigh in the Steam Department.

While writing this, I noticed how I had to modify my writing to note that this was from a Steam Department perspective, and my comments should not be misconscrewed as applying to I(llinois)RM as a whole. That underscores the basic premise of this thread - I(llinois)RM does LOTS of stuff across LOTS of departments using LOTS of staff (paid and volunteer) and manages to get LOTS of stuff done. It really is amazing!

Regards,
Bob Milhaupt

Most imporant of all. IRM OWNS THEIR LAND. They are not at a mercy of a landord who can evict them when the lease is up. very important now,with land values rising all over the place.

Greetings:
And, the land is all paid for, the last of the various mortgages was retired last year.
Over 200 acres including the buffers as well as the main campus.
I would also point out that IRM is supported through the fare box, member donations and bequests. The only state funding has been quite minimal and then only for a bit of help with advertising.
J.David

I last visited IRM about 2015 for the Tourist Railway Convention. Our Hotel was a Holiday Inn, probably about 30 minutes away but very close to a Metra Stop. It was perhaps the best convention I have attended. Not so much due to good planning, but because IRM as a host location had so much variety to offer for all the diverse seminar topics.

The Convention coincided with Member's Weekend, so Saturday was filled with operations. Trains or trolleys departed every 15 minutes on the demonstration line, with an occasional runby from an electric powered freight. It was exciting to watch, and the best place was the dispatcher's tower to see how all the train movements were being danced around. Night time was even more impressive, with the functioning signal system and the old school neon around the property. I'm sure that if all those operating crews were being paid, there is no feasible possibility of being financially viable for such an event. It's the tremendous dedication of the volunteers that makes that happen. Most trains left the station with only a dozen people on board, and all those were either members or paid one general admission ticket for unlimited rides.

Despite all they have and do, I see IRM as still having a lot of room for improvement. There is so much equipment that it is difficult to see it all, especially crowded in those giant barns. The new turntable/ roundhouse will help with the steam collection, and I'm glad that so much is under cover and protected. But there just simply is a lot to maintain. I was impressed with the main street scene they were working to create, and I hope it becomes popular as a movie set.

With the tremendous volunteer base they have, I'm surprised that there are not more steam engines running. I'm glad they finally got the shay back up, but having some more locos for variety would really enhance the experience, even if they only run on select weekends a year. After all, steam locomotives are not that expensive to operate, as long as the labor is free. Parts are mostly just raw material and machine time. And adding a few more miles to the demonstration railway with perhaps a wye at the other end would be nice as well.

Eric

Steam "not that expensive to operate?"!!!!!!

Ask anyone who has spent some serious time doing this, and you will get a different answer!

Coal, water treatment, bearing bronze, staybolt stock, tubes, rivets, and boilerplate do NOT grow on trees, nor are they cheap!

Annual steam locomotive inspections must be done, regardless of the amount of time the locomotive has been run that year, and the dreaded 1472 day inspections come due even if the locomotive hasn't turned a wheel.

Adding a 3rd operating locomotive to IRM's fleet will add 50% to the workload needed to maintain and operate them, and adding a 3rd AND 4th will double that workload.

As for extending IRM's mainline, you have a town in the way on the west end, and a river that needs bridging on the east. While bridging the river is possible, the current 40 minute (approximate) mainline trips are just about at the limit of how long a family with young children can be 'kept captive' in a train without restroom facilities onboard.

Jeff