The Illinois Railway Museum is pleased to announce our new for 2010 WW2 Day: How Railways Helped Win the War!  The date of the event is:
 

• Saturday, May 29, 2010

• Sunday, May 30, 2010

• Monday, May 31, 2010

• 9am to 5pm

$12.00 Adults
$10.00 Seniors 62+
$8.00 Children 3-11 (Under 3 yr. no charge)
Standard $1.00 off coupons honored all days.

 All riders of the trains and trolleys who have passed their second birthday must have a ticket. WW2 Day  tickets include unlimited rides on all  trains and streetcars; all military camps and displays; and access to all Museum exhibits on the date specified on the ticket. Food, snacks and beverages will be available at several locations around the Museum grounds.

The Illinois Railway Museum in cooperation with over 200 local World War Two Re-enactors will recreate how trains played their part in the events of the Second World War.  Over 100 military and civilian living historians will set up field camps and home front displays to bring to life the years of the Greatest Generation and how railroads helped win the war. There will be Axis and Allied military and civilian camps, displays of artifacts, and vehicles of the period on site.  To assist in bringing the 1940’s to life, railway rolling stock including restored period passenger cars and street trolleys will be featured. 

The highlight of the day will be a period troop train which will make a stop at the legendary North Platte Canteen, made famous in the book, “Once Upon a Town”, by author Bob Greene.  The train will whisk you back to a time of railroad troop transports winding their way through the United States to ports of embarkation for our soldiers, and illustrate the hospitality shown to lonely service men and women for over five years. 

Activities will also include the re-creation of an Italian Rail System train from Anzio, Italy to Rome to show what it was like to live and travel in Italy under German occupation.  Soldiers and civilians will mingle with the public on the train, to bring to life situations which may have been encountered during travel in 1943-1945 Italy.  On the trolley routes, you will pass into occupied Italy and witness historical events as they unfold. 

Come and take a ride back thru time and visit with us as we honor those of the Greatest Generation. 

Our parking is free and plentiful, and the parking lot will open at 7:30am every day. The gate will open at 9:00am.