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Illinois Train Rides and Excursion Trains

Illinois train rides are rather scarce considering that state has historically been the most important to railroads with Chicago being the epicenter in the movement of east and west coast freight traffic. As such, the Prairie State was once blanketed with rails home to more than 10,000 miles of tracks at one time. Despite this, there are only four excursion trains of some kind currently available in the state; three are short train rides offered by railroad museums while the Silver Creek & Stephenson Railroad runs on a few miles of track in Freeport. If you are interested in railroad history, however, Illinois is home to several museums. To learn more about these organizations please click here.

Despite the lack of Illinois train rides I would highly recommend a visit to the Illinois Railway Museum, the largest such facility in the country. Their excursions only include about a mile of railroad around their property although they take visitors on trips of their restored trolleys, steam, and diesel locomotives. While the Silver Creek & Stephenson Railroad runs on just two miles of track and does not have much to offer visitors for excursions, such as on board dining or lots of special events throughout the year, they own an operable geared steam locomotive making them well worth a trip to see. In any event, to learn more about all Illinois train rides please read on below.

Illinois Train Rides And Excursion Trains

Fox River Trolley Museum

The Fox River Trolley Museum, based in South Elgin, Illinois is dedicated to preserving the region's interurban history. In doing so it offers visitors the chance to ride one of many preserved trolleys the museum has on its property along its 4-mile restored right-of-way. For more information concerning riding this tourist train please click here.

Illinois Railway Museum

The Illinois Railway Museum, based in Union, Illinois is one of the premier railroad museums in the USA and also the largest. The IRM, as it's also known, has an impressive collection of preserved and restored equipment at its amazing facility. Aside from hosting specials throughout the year like "A Day Out With Thomas" it also offers visitors the chance to take short excursion trains using either preserved diesel and steam locomotives pulling coaches or trolley cars. For more information concerning riding this tourist train please click here.

Monticello Railway Museum

The Monticello Railway Museum, based in Monticello, looks to preserve the rail history of the region. However, they also offer excursion train rides, May through October, on weekends and holidays using vintage diesel locomotives and coaches. Cab rides are also available. To make things even more interesting, trains can be boarded at the restored ex-Wabash depot in the town. For more information concerning riding this tourist train please click here.

Silver Creek & Stephenson Railroad

Often forgotten about or unknown the tiny Silver Creek & Stephenson Railroad offers a gem of a train ride as they used a restored 2-truck Heisler steam locomotive to pull their excursions. Based in Freeport, Illinois the railroad uses nearly 2-miles of ex-Milwaukee Road right-of-way which had to be completely rebuilt in the mid-1980s. Trains are boarded from the Silver Creek Depot, a building constructed in the early 1990s using plans from the Illinois Central's depot based in Elroy, Illinois. For more information please call either 815-232-2306 or 815-235-2198 (they have a website but it has not been updated for years).

Please Click Here To Return To The Main Tourist Railroads Section

If you may be interested in reading a general history of Illinois's railroads please click here. Also, for more information about Illinois train rides you might want to consider the book Tourist Trains Guidebook, which is put together by the editors of Kalmbach Publishing's Trains magazine. The guide below is the latest, released in just April, 2011 that now includes more than 470 museums and tourist trains (it also lists all of Alabama's rail museums). In any event, if you're interested in perhaps purchasing this book please visit the link below which will take you to ordering information through Amazon.com, the trusted online shopping network.

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