News & Reviews News Wire Fillmore & Western equipment comes to Illinois museum

Fillmore & Western equipment comes to Illinois museum

By Trains Staff | December 28, 2021

| Last updated on April 1, 2024


Volo Auto Museum plans to open rail attraction in 2022

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Red wooden passenger car is loaded on to truck trailer
One of the pieces of equipment acquired from the Fillmore & Western is loaded for its trip to Volo, Ill. Chuggin’ Along Train Tour and Museum, via Facebook

VOLO, Ill. — The first of seven pieces of equipment from the defunct Fillmore & Western have arrived at the Volo Auto Museum, which plans to open a railroad attraction in 2022.

The Lake Zurich Patch website reports a 4-4-0 locomotive and passenger cars featured in the movie “The Lone Ranger,” along with cars from the film “Wild Wild West” will be part of part of the museum’s “Chuggin’ Along Train Tour and Museum,” expected to open in late spring or early summer. Among other pieces coming to the museum are a mock-up of a diesel used in the film “Inception.”

Brian Grams, the museum’s director, said the cost of shipping the equipment more than 2,000 miles by truck from Fillmore, Calif., has far exceeded the purchase price for the equipment, which was sold on eBay. “We’ll be into it for more than $1 million by the time we’re done,” he told the local news website.

The Volo museum is located about 40 miles northwest of downtown Chicago. For more information, visit the Volo Auto Museum website or Chuggin’ Along Facebook page.

2 thoughts on “Fillmore & Western equipment comes to Illinois museum

  1. You could make a nice weekend of it. Stay in Crystal Lake and visit IRM one day and finish your weekend off at Volo the next. Volo is well worth a visit in it’s own right.

    1. I’m thinking about doing just that come springtime… I just spent a day in October at IRM. And, still didn’t get to see/do it all!

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