The Monticello Railway Museum is proud to announce the museum will be included in the Illinois Rail Capitol of America exhibit in one of Gov. Pat Quinn's tents just inside the main gate of the fairgrounds in Springfield.
Museum volunteers will be on hand Friday morning when Quinn opens the exhibit. Exhibit hours are 10:00am - 7:00pm daily through August 22nd, the closing day of the fair.
The rail tent features exhibits that showcase the past, present and future of railways in Illinois. The displays will educate the public on the contribution that rail has made in the economic development of our state. There are a humber of exhibits that include a baggage cart from the Whistle Stop Museum, an Amtrak model passenger rail car that people can walk through to learn about the benefit of traveling by rail, and a model of a high speed rail train. The fair exhibit provides an opportunity for the museum to show the public a peek at the past and offer information about riding a real train with a caboose during out operating season and special events.
Visitors of the tent will see a number of exhibits. The museum has a movie showing the many seasonal activities available, a flashing signal crossing, as well as providing a drawing for museum Ghost Ride tickets, Train Ride tickets, a Cab Ride and the Grand Prize being Tickets to Throttle Time!
The museum is especially proud to have on display a Sheffield Pump Car, and typical tools that would have been used by workers using the car. The pump car was built from original Sheffield Drawings by one of the museum membersin 2002/2003, and is one of the best examples of an origional Sheffield pump car, as built. Very few original cars exist to this day. This particular car would be accurate from about 1990 through WWI and often these cars were used and rebuilt many times over until replaced by gasoline powered motor.
The metal parts for this replica were all machined and fabricated and the wheels recycled from an old railroad track mower. The car is 100% oak construction and finished in polyurethane and completely hand built using common wood and metalworking equipment. The car is fully functional and used in conjunction with various special events at the museum throughout the year and rides are given on the car so that visitors can experience their hand at physically powering the car during Railroad Days in September and is one of the more popular and interactive exhibits at the museum.
The car will be part of a future display at the railroad museum where the museum will be constructing a section house complete with period tools, mannequins and period dress, as well as the Sheffield Pump car. This display will be built following construction of the museum's car barn #2 in 2010.
The railroad hand pump section car is a simple track maintenance vehicle consisting of a platform built on 4 flanged railroad wheels and propelled by hand power. Rods, gear and cranks are utilized to enable the car to travel along the rails. These unique vehicles, developed in the 1850's and 1860's, typically could carry 4 to 6 workers, called a Section Gang, whose duties included replacing worn or rotted crossties, tamping stone ballasts between the ties, and aligning rail to maintain the proper gauge and elevation. Other tasks included the inspection of track, rail replacement, and vegetation control and lineside equipment maintenance.
The Monticello Railway Museun is a not-for-profit, 501(c)(3) organization located in Monticello, Illinois. The museum is open to the public May 1st through October 31st each year. The museum is located at 992 Iron Horse Place, Monticello. All proceeds from the events are used for restoration and operation of historic trains at the museum. For more information, visit www.mrym.org.
