Northwest of Chicago, the small town of Union, Illinois is home to the Illinois Railway Museum, the largest railroad museum in the country. IRM is home to dozens of locomotives of all types, freight cars, traction, passenger, steam – literally everything railroad related. Being so close to Chicago, IRM certainly has an “EMD” feel to it – in fact, they have the giant EMD sign that once graced the LaGrange plant.

IRM is also home to a trio of Winton survivors – An 8-201, an 8-201A powered switcher, and a 12-201A. Lets take a quick look at the three.

In the back of Barn 9 sits a lone 8-201 engine on a skid. This, is one of two Winton engines that powered the Chevrolet production line at the 1934 Century of Progress exposition. In fact, I did a post on just that – https://vintagedieseldesign.com/2021/01/02/the-winton-201-at-the-century-of-progress/

The overall success of this very engine would lead to bigger and better things for Winton, and parent company General Motors.

Sitting out back on a flat car, is Winton #5222, a 12-201A shipped 5/25/1937 on order#170 to the Union Pacific Railroad. Unfortunately, that is all the records note – however we can decipher what this was for – the EMC E2A that was built for the prestige City of San Francisco streamliner. The locomotive became part of the Southern Pacific roster at the end of the joint train, and rebuilt into an E7A in 1953, at which time the locomotive was repowered with a pair of 567 engines. The old Winton engines would languish in a scrap yard for many years, and were finally saved by the California State Railway Museum. One of these engines made its way to IRM in 2009. I hope one day this engine can be preserved and made into a nice static display. More on the E2 here: http://espee.railfan.net/sp-e-02a.html

The final Winton at IRM, is still in a locomotive, Dardanelle & Russellville 14, an EMC SC. The locomotive was built as the Missouri Pacific 9001 in 1937. Unlike sister engine 9000 which was upgraded by EMD with a 567B engine, this one still retains its original 8 cylinder 201A, and is in virtually as built condition. IRM has since moved this vintage engine inside. A photo gallery of it is here: https://www.irm.org/gallery/DR14?page=1

Only 13 Winton 201/201A engines are accounted for in 2023, with only a handful more other Winton models to compliment that. Be sure to check out IRM if you are in the Chicago area, it is well worth a visit.

Work has begun on our next big post, a 4 part series on the EMD 12-567ATL engine, the LST powerplant that helped win WWII.