Western Railroad Discussion > Illinois Railway Museum Updates

Illinois Railway Museum’s newest additions F40PH IRMX 231 and SDP40F IRMX 6976 arrived at Proviso Yard outside of Chicago early the morning of 7/30/25. Not sure when the final leg of their trip to the museum will be.

Also, in a move that has flown under the radar, BNSF 9400, the first SD70MAC is also supposed to be enroute to IRM. Currently it is somewhere between Galesburg and Chicago.

Posted from iPhone

There's a reddit thread about 9400 that's a month old. Google search AI even knows. I'm not sure how it's flown under the radar for this long!

SantaFeCF7 Wrote:
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> I'm not sure how
> it's flown under the radar for this long!

My neither. It’s been the worst kept railroad secret on Facebook. The IRM has even played dumb when it has been brought up on post comments. My only guess is that they have big plans for an announcement. The SD70MAC is, after all, a very significant model in North American locomotive technology.

kevink Wrote:
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> Also, in a move that has flown under the radar,
> BNSF 9400, the first SD70MAC is also supposed to
> be enroute to IRM. Currently it is somewhere
> between Galesburg and Chicago.

BNSF 9400 arrived at Clearing, IL on 7/29/25. It is off the BNSF system.

Wow, tough crowd!😂

Posted from iPhone

There's now an SD60 size hole in Diesel preservation... at least two SD50s are saved and now a 70MAC. But no 60s.

No spartan cab dash-8 six-axles either on the other coin, although CN donated one of their C40-8Ws to a university in British Columbia about a year ago and a C40-8M to an Alberta museum.

GP40 Wrote:
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> There's now an SD60 size hole in Diesel
> preservation... at least two SD50s are saved and
> now a 70MAC. But no 60s.
>
> No spartan cab dash-8 six-axles either on the
> other coin, although CN donated one of their
> C40-8Ws to a university in British Columbia about
> a year ago and a C40-8M to an Alberta museum.

Hopefully a A-B-A set of the Super Fleet GP60Ms are preserved eventually as well. 

GP40 Wrote:
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> There's now an SD60 size hole in Diesel
> preservation... at least two SD50s are saved and
> now a 70MAC. But no 60s.
>
> No spartan cab dash-8 six-axles either on the
> other coin, although CN donated one of their
> C40-8Ws to a university in British Columbia about
> a year ago and a C40-8M to an Alberta museum.

Strongly agree on all of this, although the glut of SD60s and SD60Ms that are making their way into shortline service makes me feel good that we'll have ample opportunities to preserve the 60 series.

Same goes to an extent with Dash 8 six axles, although some models are already running out of time. I do hope that some group is able to step in with the resources to save the last C39-8, Pennsylvania Northern #8212, which has been stored for over a year now. Its sister unit #8211 was scrapped a few years back.

UP still has 3 C40-8s on their roster, which have been stored since 2018. I knew someone within UP who was trying to work on setting one of them aside for preservation a while back, but I don't think he was able to get very far in that process. 

One significant model that we are rapidly running out of time to preserve is an SD90MAC. As far as I'm aware, all examples of the failed SD90MAC-H units were scrapped, which is a shame since true rail preservation should be about the failures as much as the successes. There may be one or two heavily rebuilt units on EMD property, but I'm not certain. In lieu of that, the more-successful SD9043MAC units that followed them are quickly disappearing too, with most units either scrapped or rebuilt to SD70ACUs by NS or CP/CPKC. Many of the NS units have been sold though, with many possibly facing scrap as well. The handful of non-Class-I operators of SD9043MACs (CITX, INRD, Texas Pacifico) seem to be scrapping or have already scrapped their fleets. UP has 4-5 SD9043MACs left on their property (stored), but last I heard they'd all been sold to a scrapper and just are awaiting transport. Perhaps if the funding doesn't exist right now to secure a full locomotive (they are *huge* locomotives - the sheer amount of metal makes it understandable why so many have met the torch), someone can save a cab from one. A future preservationist could always save an SD70ACU and "backdate" the rebuilt process. The 9043s had very distinctive cabs unlike any other EMD product minus the now-entirely-scrapped SD80MAC series.

I am very glad to see the preservation movement starting to accept that history didn't end in 1970 or whatever. If you want some serious perspective, many of the earliest GEVO models now are older than many steam locomotives were when they first entered preservation in the 1950s and 1960s. 

IRM finally made it official on their Facebook page

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/16r4cW8teE/?mibextid=wwXIfr

Spoony81 Wrote:
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> IRM finally made it official on their Facebook
> page
>
> https://www.facebook.com/share/p/16r4cW8teE/?mibex
> tid=wwXIfr

And the direct website link:

https://www.irm.org/in-the-news/sd70mac-acquired-by-irm/

BNSF 9400 plus the two other donations are now on the IRM property as of an hour ago. That was quick..

Marc L

CR6377 Wrote:
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> BNSF 9400 plus the two other donations are now on
> the IRM property as of an hour ago. That was
> quick..
>
> Marc L

From what I've heard, the donation has been in the works for some time now. Makes some degree of sense to wait until it's almost at the property to announce it to avoid rumors/speculation, especially given the Class I's profiency for losing locomotives/cars and sending them far from their intended destinations. 

atx_railfan Wrote:
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> especially given the Class I's profiency for
> losing locomotives/cars and sending them far from
> their intended destinations. 

You're not too far off.  BNSF 9400 arrived Clearing, IL the first time on July 23 and it bounced right back to Galesburg!

SantaFeCF7 Wrote:
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> GP40 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > There's now an SD60 size hole in Diesel
> > preservation... at least two SD50s are saved
> and
> > now a 70MAC. But no 60s.
> >
> > No spartan cab dash-8 six-axles either on the
> > other coin, although CN donated one of their
> > C40-8Ws to a university in British Columbia
> about
> > a year ago and a C40-8M to an Alberta museum.
>
> Hopefully a A-B-A set of the Super Fleet GP60Ms
> are preserved eventually as well. 

I doubt that'll happen. BNSF has been really loving those GP60Ms especially in SoCal and in the Mojave. I give it about 15 years before BNSF even thinks of retiring or selling them. 

But I do hope a GP60B gets saved, a GP60M set would be even better.