more Lombard Hobbies Deals: Athearn Genesis GP9s at $100

More stuff on sale.....



And Broadway California Zephyr cars...



And Branchline Freight Cars for $6.99

Lombard Hobbies Deals: Athearn Southern Pacific Cabooses $34.99

 Was over at Lombard Hobbies and took some pictures on some of the deals going on for the Holidays.

 

Branline Passenger Car Sale at Lombard Hobbies

Lombard Hobbies offering Banchline Pullman and Coach kits for $9.99.  Hard deals to pass up.  Kits only available in the store or by mail with check payment.  They won't be available on their Website.

Here's about have the inventory (I think).  They were unpacking yesterday and I think about half way through it.  They have 150 different road schemes available.

 

And here's my haul. A lifetime of building ahead of me 'cause I'll be back for more.

 

Bowser’s Hi Hood Century C-628s

Bowser’s doing Hi Hood Centuries in C&NW in both paint schemes.  I’ve waited a long time for this.

New Products

How To Disassemble Walthers Passenger Cars - Keith Turley "Twist"

I wince watching this....

Glendower - Spectacular OO gauge model railway layout in a 4ft high basement!

Check out how he enters his layout room....

OFFICIAL Paragon2 PRR T1 As Delivered, HO Promo Video by Broadway Limited Imports, LLC

Mixed feelings on the smoke but it's a beautiful piece.

Atlas HO REA Steel Express Reefer

From Atlas’s announcement (link) below.  Not new I’m sure, gotta be the Branchline version, but a very nice model to see.  Thanks Atlas!

New Model!

(Click thumbnail to enlarge)

 

In 1947, REA ordered 500 of these all new steel express reefers from ACF, in an effort to handle express and parcel traffic. During the same time period, Atlantic Coast Line purchased 50. These cars were added to the front of passenger trains traveling coast-to-coast on all major railroads. These new steel express cars utilized welded construction and a new high speed truck design. They were able to carry both refrigerated loads as well as parcel loads due to their collapsible ice bunkers that were stored away when not in use.

Atlas HO REA Steel Express Reefer

3D printing - Bob's Workbench

Great post on 3d printing!   I’ve got the CAD software downloaded and want to give this a try… 

3D printing - Bob's Workbench

Passenger Car Window Tinting | Model:160 N Scale Model Railroading

Good post on tinting Passenger Car windows.  It’s N scale but the concept’s the same across scales.

Passenger Car Window Tinting | Model:160 N Scale Model Railroading

Model Railroad News: HO-scale InterMountain Railway Paducah GP10 Diesel

Old news but still exciting…  lets home for some in Chicago Central red; Model Railroad News

Milwaukee Road 1946 - "A Railroad at Work" - American freight & passenger trains

More old promotional video... I love these.

Athearn Genesis 57' FGE Mechanical Reefer

I'm sort of old school and make my own sounds but these have a generator sound that turns on randomly just like the prototype. Kind of cool...  considering you need whole blocks of these cars, I doubt I'll buy many with sound though. 

Chicago & North Western System - "Rolling the Freight" - 1947

CNW Flambeau 400 in 1963

Some great video of a long gone train (and time).  Check it out and leave Gerry a thanks for sharing.

Treasure Island Special

This will be a spectacular but awfully expensive model.  Were Walther’s only to do it in plastic…..

Over at Coach Yard: Treasure Island Special

IHB and BRC Gensets

I didn't even know the IHB or BRC had any Gensets but sure enough here are pictures on the IHB and more of the BRC's trio.

Atlas is announcing these in HO due spring of 2013.

And here's some video to enjoy until then.

The correct RPO for those Walther’s Pere Marquette Cars

The RPO car coming out with the new Walther’s Pere Marquette cars is all wrong.  Now, if I can only get the guys over at NKP Car Sides to give us the sides for the correct car shown below from the Pere Marquette Historical Society.  Link below.

H/T Pere Marquette Historical Society Photo Gallery

Broadway Limited’s IC E6A

This looks like a very nice model in a much needed scheme.

2339 EMD E6A, IC #4002, Chocolate & Orange Scheme, Paragon2 Sound/DC/DCC, HO

View Larger Image

Your Price: Order from your dealer today!

Item Number: BLI-2339

Product Line: Diesel, HO

Expected Delivery: Feb-13

A BRIEF HISTORICAL OVERVIEW OF THIS MODEL

EMD built the E-Units between 1937 through 1963. Originally the name E unit referred to the fact that these units boasted of eighteen hundred horsepower. This designation remained throughout the E unit production even though later models incorporated higher horsepower ratings. Due to the technology of the time, E units like many locomotives used multiple units to achieve the required power. EMD offered cabled units called B or booster units. Some railroads ordered AB, ABB or ABA units depending on power needs.E6s were manufactured by EMD in La Grange, Illinois, between the years 1939 and 1941. To achieve 2,000 horsepower, EMD combined two 1,000 horsepower, 12 cylinder, model 567 engines inside of the engine compartment.

2339 EMD E6A, IC #4002, Chocolate & Orange Scheme, Paragon2 Sound/DC/DCC, HO

HO Single Window and Paired Window Heavyweight Coaches

Nice to see Atlas bringing these Branchline Coaches back.  I hope they do the UP Overland scheme.

HO Single Window and Paired Window Heavyweight Coaches

Santa Fee Railroad Historical and Modeling Society Books

A pretty impressive sounding book from the Society.

Sleeping Cars of the Santa Fe is the final installment in our Passenger Car Reference Series. A comprehensive overview of Santa Fe sleeping cars from the wood car era through the heavyweights to the end of the lightweight era, this volume covers Wooden Sleeping Cars, Wooden Sleepers Acquired from the Pecos Valley and Northeastern, Wooden Emigrant Sleeping Cars, Wooden All-Section Tourist Sleepers, Wooden Sleeping Car Assignments, Heavyweight Sleeping Cars, Heavyweight Cars Purchased for Work Service Only, Heavyweight Cars purchased for Business or Special Purpose Use, Foreign-Line and Pullman-Owned Heavyweight Sleepers used on AT&SF Scheduled Trains, 1950-1959, Lightweight Sleeping Cars, Lightweight Sleeping Cars Not Built, Lightweight Sleeping Car Assignments, Foreign Road Sleepers on the Santa Fe, Santa Fe Sleepers on Foreign Roads and Dormitory Cars.

11" x 8 1/2" library found with dust jacket, 406 pages, 459 photos (41 in color), 101 drawings, 58 maps and ephemera, Appendix (including Glossary of Santa Fe Lightweight Sleeping Car Names and Reservation Cipher Code), Bibliography. ISBN: 978-1-933587-27-1.

SFRHMS Books

Wisconsin Southern, Madison, June 2012

Shot these Sunday in Madison by my kid's dorm. Hard to get a good shot from this angle but it was all that was available to me without stepping into a busy street.

Sparkling clean SD40-2's in Wisconsin Southern's classic scheme.

Athearn Good News / Bad News????

via Trainorders.com

Just got a call from my Horizon rep and found out that the retail prices on products will most likely hold where they are but the discount to dealers will be lowered by 8%. That is a big hit for the hobby stores. First Walthers with their 10% hit to dealers, now Horizon on Athearn products.

Bottom line good news for the model railroader bad news for the local hobby shop.

Athearn Good News / Bad News????

It’s bad news for everyone concerned with the hobby.  The prices are killing Model Railroading.  What’s bad news for the retailer is bad news for all of us, because it’s the retailers who grow the hobby.

Important Update: ExactRail Dealer Network

An email from ExactRail.  I’m expecting others to follow suit and I’m not happy about what this means for the hobby.  The Hobby Shop plays a critical role promoting our hobby. I can’t imagine a business model that works without them.

Important Update

As of May 1, 2012, ExactRail will no longer offer a dealer discount and will discontinue our dealer network. Cost of production has increased considerably for ExactRail over the last two years. We have absorbed most of these increases through our margins, however this is not a supportable model for our business. Our conclusion is that we can keep prices reasonable by serving you directly. We believe we can both benefit from having direct interaction.

The future of ExactRail is bright with many exciting and innovative new products coming soon. Over the past year we have been busier than ever in new product development, the quality and authenticity of our products will exceed anything that ExactRail has released to date. You have a lot to look forward to from ExactRail.

Keep an eye on ExactRail.com and our Facebook page for some exciting upcoming announcements!

Happy Railroading,

The ExactRail Team

Important Update: ExactRail Dealer Network

Welcome to French and European Model Trains

Check it out….  saw their ad in Rail Road Model Craftsman

Welcome to French and European Model Trains

The SNCF steam is really impressive.

Update: and some nice video of French trains....

MTH SD70ACe ExactRail BLMA Trinity '64 Reefer Union Pacific Produce Train

A lot of BLMA Trinity reefers! All spanking clean.... I've seen this often on the UP West Line but never ever once without plenty of graffiti on 'em. All that white surface just too tempting.

Johnsonville Tower by Railway Heritage Models

They had an ad in the latest Railroad Model Craftsman for this kit.

It'll be in HO and N versions and their site is: http://www.thenarch.com

Indiana Harbor Belt GP40-2 by Atlas at Lombard Hobbies

Test running one of the Atlas GP40-2's in the IHB scheme with sound (it's loud).

It's http://www.lombardhobby.com by the way. They're fussy about that. Not lombardhobbies...



Also, a couple of shots of a Santa Fe step-up coach I bought. Walther's has outdone themselves here. The pictures don't do the piece justice.

Lombard Hobbies Feb 14, 2012 Checking out new Athearan RTR

Checking out some of the new Atheran RTR SW1500's at Lombard Hobbies.  Here's Illinois Terminal 1510,

And in Indiana Harbor Belt,

Here's some of the specials: Athearn Genesis SD70ACe's in UP Heritage schemes,

And some video....

Ashmore Hotel - Kit (Plastic) -- Walthers Model Railroading

Walthers just announced this: Ashmore Hotel - Kit (Plastic) -- 8-5/8 x 4-7/16 x x 13-7/8" 21.9 x 11.2 x 35.3cm (933-3764) -- Walthers Model Railroading

Reminds me of the Hotel Gayon at Pulaski and Washington Blvd in Chicago, Nice feature is the kit comes with three different facades for different eras. That means you'll have to buy three kits and then swap them out depending on what era's trains your operating.  Maybe a fourth kit to modify for the boarded up era.

...and a fifth for the coming renewal?

Test running an Intermountain CN ES44DC units at Lombard Hobbies

Testing out my Adroid Phone Camera over at Lombard Hobbies. John was testing running one of the new Intermountain units for a customer. Results below...

PRODUCT ANNOUNCEMENT: HO California Zephyrs are coming Summer 2012! Don't miss them, PREORDER today!

That’s a lot of Zephyr cars.  Nice stuff, great product, but how about a C&NW 400 instead?

PRODUCT ANNOUNCEMENT: HO California Zephyrs are coming Summer 2012! Don't miss them, PREORDER today!

PRODUCT ANNOUNCEMENT: HO Paragon2 PRR M1a/b's are coming Summer 2012! Don't miss them, PREORDER today!

Glad to see this back.  It was a wonderful model.

PRODUCT ANNOUNCEMENT: HO Paragon2 PRR M1a/b's are coming Summer 2012! Don't miss them, PREORDER today!

Finding Minnesota: Model Railroad Museum

Lombard Hobbies Jan 9, 2012

Trying out my new iPhone camera at Lombard Hobbies.

That P&LE unit is pretty sharp.

Fox Valley Models Hiawatha at Logan

Proof for those who doubted that little Atlantic could pull the train.

"How to Paint a Steam Locomotive" demo video

They make it look easy....

Check Out The Details And See It In Action: The HO GG-1 Electric |

Over at Mike’s Train House.  I didn’t realize they were doing them.  Check Out The Details And See It In Action: The HO GG-1 Electric

Great time for Eastern and New England modelers with Con Cor doing a Reading Crusader, a New Haven Blue Comet, and PPR MU Cars.  Now how about some IC electrics for us Chicagoans?

Video below….

Bachman Trains' FAs

Saw these over at Lombard Hobbies last night and they looked great. Told they run great too. The Canadian National units looked especially good. A complicated paint scheme done very crisply.

Eddie's Rail Fan Page: The original Snackville Junction restaurant. Located on South Western Avenue near west 115th street. Chicago Illinois. January 1976.

Eddie's Rail Fan Page: The original Snackville Junction restaurant. Located on South Western Avenue near west 115th street. Chicago Illinois. January 1976.

I remember my folks bringing me to Snackville as a kid. I had a cheese sawndwich as I remember.

Trainfest 2011: Athearn HorizonHobbyTrains.com

Accurail's Trainfest Specials

A picture at left of one of the new Accurail steel reefers done up in Milwaukee colors for Trainfest I clipped off the Accurail site. I don't know much about the prototype this car based on. The Atlas site has a little chat on it.

I'll probably buy a few of these Milw cars and some of the PFE ones when they come out. I remember long lines of the PFE cars on the C&NW through Oak Park in the 60s.

Finding the Perfect Model Railroad Set | Model Railroad Blog

Finding the Perfect Model Railroad Set | Model Railroad Blog

A helpful link for Christmas time when people are searching for sets for their kids.

Rapido HO "The Canadian" Tour Blog

Rapido HO "The Canadian" Tour Blog:

This past Monday, November 7, 2011 Rapido made model railroad history by commissioning from Creaform to perform the first-ever 3D scan of a real MLW/ALCO FA locomotive: FPA4 #6765 at Exporail, Canada's national railway museum in Montreal, Quebec. Jason, Dan and I all were in attendance as were about 30 of our customers who came up to join in the day's events.

Rapido using the kind of technology that's made it the best of times to be a Model Railroader.

HorizonHobbyTrains.com - Trainfest 2010: Fox Valley Models

The Fox Valley Models guys at trainfest in Milwaukee. I've got a Hiawatha plus extra cars, a bunch of the seven post Boxcars, and three out of the four B&O Wagon Top cars. Amazing products and Lombard Hobbies has them at a nice discount.

I hope they do a C&NW 400. There logical ones to do it!

Lombard Hobbies goes online

Hey, they're finally online here!

Congratulations to a great store on a great site. Wish you the best!

What a consist!

Nice video of the odd power combinations we'e blessed with now around Chicago since the EJ&E sold to CN.

...but geez I just noticed this was shot up in Trout Lake Michigan! The EJ&E up in Trout Lake!

40' Steel Plug Door Refrigerator Cars from Accurail

Accurail has some good looking stuff on their website. Forty foot plug door steel reefers. I'll try and zip over to Elburn with my camera and see if I can snap a few pictures of Accurail at work on 'em.

Can you find All Nation's Hobby Shop below?

Stumbled accross this photo of a long gone Madison Street. I remember my Dad telling me not to walk any further west because I'd walk into skid row.

Lombard Hobby's website

Jeff over at Lombard Hobbies said he's got a guy working on a new webpage for the job, and he'll also be selling over the site. About time!  Should be a great way of keeping up with he what he's got on stock.

New C&NW/UP Pool Cars from Walthers

A friend assures me the 400 can’t be far behind if Walthers is doing these cars. Just announced this Month and due Feb 2012.

New links for the blog

Some new and interesting links,

http://elgincarshops.com/

http://dprailmodels.synthasite.com/

http://www.railyardmodels.com/

http://www.greatthirdrail.org/index.html  

http://coastdaylight.com/trains.html

Belt Rail of Chicago viaduct on Wet Jackson Boulevard

Over at Eddie's Rail Fan Page,

Belt Railway of Chicago viaduct on West Jackson Boulevard with old BRC advertising. Chicago Illinois USA. Early October 2006.

Very cool.

Fox Valley Model's HO B&O Wagontop

More pictures over at Facebook from Fox Valley Models...pretty impressive.  I'll need a lot more than one!

Indiana Harbor Belt and Belt Railway of Chicago

Nice BRC video of the Alco Centuries

A pair of C&NW GE C44-9W at Proviso Yards - Feb 2011

Saw these at Proviso on the way into the city and took the picture through the window of the bi=level hence the green tint.

Chicago West Towns down under

How does a guy in Australia get hooked on the Chicago West Towns system? Visit the models at Transit Classics.

Jacksonville Terminal

A great site if you like trains from the Southeast including some very helpful pics of models.

A 2000 BMW Z3

Besides trains, there are cars. Here's a 2000 BMW Z3 with 22k on it.

Mike's Train House: Little Joes in HO

Finally, someone is doing an Electric in HO for the midwest modeler and they couldn't have started with a better model. MTH will be doing them in both Milwaukee Road and South Shore schemes. From MTH on the O scale version,

By the late 1940s, the engines on the Milwaukee Road's electrified Rocky Mountain Division were nearly three decades old and tired, and diesels were the wave of the future. Management was intending to pull down the overhead wires and dieselize the entire division. Then along came a big electric named Little Joe, and the wires stayed up for another quarter-century.


The Joes were actually built for another customer half a world away, Russia's Trans-Siberian Railroad. But by the time they were ready to deliver in 1948, the Cold War had frozen sales to the Soviet Union, and builder General Electric was stuck with twenty 5,500 hp locomotives designed to run on 3,300 volts DC - most built to Russian 5' track gauge. As the Milwaukee Road was one of the few American railroads with overhead DC power (at 3,000 volts), GE offered the entire order, including spare parts, to the Milwaukee at the fire sale price of one million dollars. At least one unit, painted in GE demo colors, was tested on both of the road's electrified divisions in 1948 and acquired the nickname "Little Joe" after Joe Stalin.


But the Milwaukee came up with reasons not to make the purchase, and in 1949 three units went to the Chicago, South Shore and South Bend Railroad for freight service. They lasted until 1983, earning the honor of last electric engines in US mainline common-carrier freight service. Brazil's Paulista Railroad bought five more Joes, nicknamed them Russas and operated them until 1999.


An upsurge of traffic from the Korean War convinced the Milwaukee it had made a mistake, and in August 1950 it purchased the remaining 12 Joes, without spare parts, for the original million-dollar price. All went to the Rocky Mountain Division between Harlowton, Montana and Avery, Idaho - ten designated EF-4 for freight service and two as EP-4s for Olympian Hiawatha passenger trains. Engineers loved the new Joes because they were more reliable than the road's ancient boxcabs and much less stressful to operate.


Originally the freight units worked in pairs, with a boxcab helper added on the division's tougher grades. But later in the 1950s a GP9 was attached to the Little Joe pairs and controlled from the lead Joe; this combination could run straight through electrified territory without adding or dropping helpers. By the following decade, Joes were simply cut in ahead of the freight diesels at the beginning of electrified territory, with the Joe's engineer controlling all units. Eventually, however, second-generation diesels brought an end to electrification, and on June 15, 1974, the last Little Joes folded their pantographs - ending 58 years, 6 months, and 16 days of Milwaukee main line electrification. While most of the Joes were scrapped, three survive today: one Milwaukee Road unit in Deer Lodge, Montana, and South Shore units at the Illinois Railway Museum in Union, Illinois and the Lake Shore Railway Historical Museum in North East, PA, just ten miles from the GE plant where it was built.


New for 2010, the M.T.H. Little Joe duplicates the brute strength and dependability of the original, complete with a detailed die-cast metal body and, for the first time in HO, operating pantographs that raise and lower automatically according to the direction of travel.

Daily Life Along the Chicago Burlington and Quincy Railroad (Newberry Library)

Huge collection of images. I can spend hours with this site.

The Monon

A Monon site. I wonder how many remember that RR? I'll come back to this. Just a link I don't want to forget.

Belt Railway Alcos

Nice video... they're like steam engines.

SOO dollar caboose Elkhart Lake Wisconsin

Ethanol Train in Freeport, IL

Ethanol trains: as boring a train as a train spotter can spot.

BRC Alco C-424's at work

Potlatcher's video of BRC alcos at Clearying Yard.

I'd hear these pass by every day when I lived in La Grange Park by the IHB tracks. Always knew they were coming. They sounded unlike any other locomotive.

Green Bay and Western Depot and Corporate Headquarters

A very impressive model of the Green Bay and Western Depot in Green Bay offered by Engine House Services.

I have pictures taken there as a kid. I'll scan and post those.

Ken's idea for a Model Railroad

Thanks to Ken.

MRL's M-L in HO Scale

A nice video by someone who knows to model the whole train.

Bob Coolide's Trains

A guy who really gets around with his camera.

Naperville 2007

Lots and lots of pictures here.

Prairie Scale Model Railroaders

They had a nice brochure on the counter at Lombard Hobbies yesterday and a nice website.

Structures and Trains by Fred

A new hobby shop in Geneva, Illinois.

Not a lot of inventory but it looks like Fred will be doing workshops. That's a business model for a hobby shop not too common around here.

Our next workshop is scheduled for Thurs. November 29th at 7:30. We will begin construction on the Black River Junction layout that was featured in Model Railraoder starting with the January 2007 issue.

Like any layout we will start by constructing the benchwork. Be a part of this project and learn how really simple it is to build your own model railroad. Unlike the layout in the series we will be using cork roadbed and code 83 Atlas FlexTrack.

Structures and Trains by Fred
DATE: November 29th, 2007 Address: 12 North Second Street
TIME: 7:30 PM Geneva, IL. 60134

For Information: 630.208.9011 or 630.584.3429

Future Work Shops:

Black River Junction (We will actually build this layout )
Structures: Plastic & Craftsman Kits building, Painting and Weathering
Digital Command & Control
Scenery Construction

Wish him luck... I'll try and visit one of the workshops.

Lombard Hobbies

The new front to the store. Jeff reopened a few weeks ago and I got hooked on some great deals on Athearn Genesis F units. He ought to consider inhouse marriage counseling at the store because it's tough to explain a great deal on Athearn Genesis F units when a guy gets home.

FRN Blog

A nice Railroad blog by a blogger who stopped blogging. It takes work....believe me.

GP9s in TP&W and CRANDIC schemes

Walther's announcing paint schemes I thought we'd never see.

M.T.H. To Release HO Triplex In 2008

MTH takes some flak in comments over at Model Railroader,

This model is the least asked for model in any poll I have seen, but here it is!!!!!!!!!

WOW! I can't wait to run out and NOT buy one of those!!
I hope any future releases are a little more grounded in the reality of the hobby

It's not on my wish list, but it's a very neat looking model. I might become an Erie fan.

Davis Junction Illinois July 2007

EJ&E steel coil cars and a DM&E gondola at Davis Junction.

Al Warren's HO Scale CNW layout

Some nice pics of a CNW layout here.

Dennis Storzek: Station switching in days of yore

Dennis posted this great picture of Cal Zephyr being switched at Oakland Mole in 1954. via Passenger Car List

CA&E Pictures

Some pics I had sitting on the computer. No idea from where I downloaded them. I remember them tearing down the gas tank in Forest Park. That's the tank in the background of the bottom picture.

Chicago and West Towns

A site with lots of pictures. Also Central Electric Railfans new book by James Buckly.

John Flinn: World's loftiest train ride a breathtaking feat

From today's Chicago Trib on the new Lhasa Express,

The atmosphere here holds between 40 and 50 percent less oxygen than at sea level. Extra oxygen is pumped into the unpressurized rail cars as they roll across the Tibetan plateau, but it's not clear that it does much good. All around me in the dining car, passengers were suffering the hangover-like symptoms of altitude sickness: throbbing headaches and severe nausea.

I was feeling relatively chipper due to Diamox, a prescription drug that prevents altitude sickness. Even so, I was lightheaded and a little dizzy. Back in my compartment, I plugged the oxygen hose into the wall and inhaled deeply. Almost instantly my mind cleared. But the effect lasted only as long as I breathed oxygen from the hose.

The surrealness was heightened by what looked like hundreds of enormous golf tees lining the tracks. They're an attempt to solve the railroad's most vexing problem.

Four hundred miles of the route lie atop a particularly unstable form of permafrost that thaws during the day and freezes at night, causing the tundra above it to rise and fall by inches. To try to prevent tracks from buckling and cracking, Chinese engineers elevated more than 100 miles of it and installed the giant golf tees along other stretches. These are cooling pipes that use solar energy to turn liquid ammonia into gas, chilling the ground and preventing the permafrost from melting.

Grinnell Railway Express Club

An M&StL doodlebug downloaded from the Grinnell Railway Express model railroad club.

I graduated from Grinnll College in 1976. The old M&StL line ran right through the campus.

Check their webpage and you'll see a nicely done model of the Rock Island and M&StL depot. It now houses a restaurant. The old Railway Express building houses the club.

Naperville - Prototype Modelers Seminar

Photo's here. Great stuff! Inspirational....

Small Illinois towns don't forget rail roots

Trib's Don Davenport today on railroad museums in Galesburg, Mendota, Amboy, Union, Thomson, and Rochelle. The IC depot at Amboy is very classy structure,

Even casual passersby pause to admire this beautiful two-story brick and limestone depot built in 1876. Onetime headquarters for the Illinois Central's Northern Division, the 19-room structure featured passenger facilities on the first floor and housed division officials and staff on the upper level.

As times changed, division headquarters were moved elsewhere; passenger service ended in 1939, and the depot closed in 1967. Freight trains used the line into the 1980s. The tracks have since been removed.

As disuse led to disrepair, concerned citizens began efforts to save the historic station. It has been returned to life as the Amboy Depot Museum, filled with railroad memorabilia and local history items.

The telegrapher's office features a variety of telegraph keys, timetables and photos of train wrecks that occurred at Amboy. Original benches grace depot waiting rooms; there are original railroad documents, photos, railroad lanterns, switch keys and a great deal more.

A steam locomotive, a 1920s-era caboose and a century-old IC freight house on the grounds are open to tour.

Sitting at East Main and South East Avenue, the depot is open year-round, 1-4 p.m. Wednesday, Thursday, Sunday and holidays, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Admission is free.

Amboy is about 110 miles from downtown Chicago. For additional information, call 815-857-4700.