On Memorial Day Weekend the Illinois Railway Museum, in cooperation with over 200 local WWII re-enactors, will recreate how trains played their part in the events of the Second World War in Europe and at home in the United States. Military and civilian living historians will set up field camps, home front displays, and recreate battle experiences. Also see period civilian and military vehicles, artifacts, and the Illinois Railway Museum's period railway rolling stock including restored period passenger cars and street cars. The highlights of the weekend includes a period troop train which will make a stop at the recreated North Platte Canteen, made famous in the book, Once Upon a Town, by Chicago 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. On Sunday, a large battle reenactment will take place. Reenactors will attempt to recreate realistic scenes from the war. The battle features vehicles, artillery, and hundreds of infantry; Axis and Allied forces contend for control of a crucial rail yard. |
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