Trains!

[altivo]

Gary was away at a Civil War event all day, so once my chores were done I dashed over to the Illinois Railway Museum (just three miles from the farm) to meet friends for the afternoon. This was their "Showcase Weekend" when they pull as much working equipment out of the barns as they can and run it all around on the tracks so visitors can ride it.

It was an impressive display. They had two electric trains (one was a caboose train pulled by an electric switcher) and two Diesel trainsets running on the main line, as well as a borrowed replica of a Civil War steam locomotive, the Leviathan. Electric trolley buses were out of the barn and making rounds, which is a rare occasion. Regular rail trolleys were running in large numbers too, representing at least a hundred years of progress I believe. We also saw them moving some CTA subway cars and a pair from New York in and out of the CTA station, though I don't think they were carrying riders on those.

I took a lot of photos and some short video clips. Here's a teaser of the Leviathan locomotive. You'll have to wait a day or two for the rest until I have access to more bandwidth for uploading.