Spent the afternoon at the Illinois Railway Museum in Union Il. today. Wonderful place to take young ones to give them a sense of what it was like not too long ago. There are quite a number of engines and train cars as well as street cars and "urban" cars. Many of the items in the museum are in an unrestored state. There appears to be a number of volenteers on hand on the week ends trying to do some restoration work. One of my favorites is a 1940 model Burlington Northern Zephyr. This amazing train was clad in stainless steel in an era where black was the new black.

There are a number of cars and engines that you can enter. They give you some of the feel of traveling in the 20th century. Gives you a real perspective on how far we've come. One of the things you notice is just how large this stuff was. Engines with wheels 5 feet tall. Tenders 40 feet long to supply coal or oil for heat and water for steam to the massive boilers. Diesel engines with cylinders the size of bowling balls. This was good stuff.