Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Life before todays Lunchroom Diner at The Illinois Railway Museum. Union Illinois USA. 1995.





One of My all time favorite places I have enjoyed visiting since 1974, is The Illinois Railway Museum, located in the town of Union Illinois.
Over the years, I have seen this wonderful museum grow by leaps and bounds.

I took this photo during a 1995 visit to The Illinois Railway Museum.

Seen here, is a recently acquired vintage and very retro roadside diner restaurant. Snackbar food concession stand accomodations back then at the museum, was a tiny little wooden building with a walk up window, at the Central Avenue trolley loop station with picnic tables and soda vending machines.

Plans were in the works utilizing this old diner building, as part of a larger museum lunchroom diner building with full service amenities.
There was much work to be done in 1995 as evidenced by the deteriorated condition of this diner building, but the end reult today really stands out in a very positive way for visiting museum patrons.

I was greatly impressed by the larger and very tidy lunchroom diner building during My Friday, July 3rd, 2009 visit. The Illinois Railway Museum has indeed come a long way from it's somewhat primative
past.

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