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The Monticello Railway Museum, an all-volunteer organization in central Illinois with an operational railroad main line yard open to the public. The Museum offers train rides on Saturdays and Sundays from May through October, regardless of weather conditions, as well as a number of special events throughout the year.
The museum collects, preserves, interprets, and exhibits materials and artifacts from throughout the fascinating history of trains and railroading. Come explore their many rail cars and other equipment, and view the museum displays.
The museum offers a tourist railroad which operates excursion trains over a former railroad line that was owned by Illinois Terminal and Illinois Central Gulf. For a donation, guests can operate one of the locomotives during the "Throttle Time" program. Trains run May through October and on holidays. Visit the museums website for the latest information.
The Camp Creek yard was originally built by the museum's volunteers. The Terminal Division is a re-built Illinois Terminal right-of-way running from Camp Creek up to Blacker's towards White Heath. The Central Division was purchased by the museum from the Illinois Central. The Central Division purchase allowed the museum to enter into downtown Monticello to the historic Wabash Railroad depot and is the mainline of the museum's heritage railroad. The Central Division is currently being restored up to White Heath to allow occasional operation into that town. Only a short section of the Terminal Division is currently in use from the central switch down past Nelson's Crossing depot into Camp Creek yard, but has been restored to within a few miles of White Heath.
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