IRC is the train club at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
The Railroad Club was founded in 1912 when there was an interurban line across the main quad and the university was completing its steam locomotive research lab. Through the years IRC existed as a hobby organization alongside university research that shaped the rail network. Briefly in the 1960's we had a fleet of real equipment and held excursions, which will be described on our history page. Ever since the 1970's we've had railfanning trips and HO scale trains on campus. Our current layout was started in the late 2010's and is made of interchangeable FreeMo modules.
Railfanning
Take a break from classes and drive out of town in search of trains. We are located in scenic farmlands and have three Class I railroads nearby (two of them right here) and three shortlines within an hour. Champaign is home to an Illinois Central yard and the former headquarters of Illinois Terminal. The IC mainline has about 24 trains per day with 3 Amtrak trains in each direction. A local works Kraft's largest factory each weekday, an NS train serves Urbana each week, and a large elevator sends out grain trains most of the year. Further south, the NS mainline between Kansas City and Detroit is an auto-parts corridor with a larger number of shorter trains.
Railfanning activities include photography, old-fashioned radio, and hanging out with friends.
Model Trains
Operate model trains on our HO scale layout. Our smallish layout consists of FreeMo modules that can be arranged in a variety of configurations. There are industries to switch, a yard, and a wye or diamond. Each semester parts of the layout are brought to off-campus meets and set up with other modules to form a larger route for the weekend.
Engineering
Take a project from design to construction with scale scenery, track design, carpentry, wiring, and more. Learn to manage your own project or work with others, and run trains on your work when its finished. We use concepts from real engineering to create the world at 1:87 scale.