Union, Illinois — Light Tower (East)
Elevated view over the Illinois Railway Museum's yards and barns from a repurposed rail-yard light mast in the parking lot.
Union, Illinois — Light Tower (East)
Illinois Railway Museum · Union, Illinois, United States
This operator has not granted Spotatrain permission to embed the feed, so we link to it instead.
Watch at Illinois Railway MuseumStreamed by Illinois Railway Museum
Stream hosted by Illinois Railway Museum. Spotatrain links to the original feed and does not rebroadcast.
Where this camera films
Camera position: 42.22869, -88.52911
- Location
- Union, Illinois, United States
- Railroad
Illinois Railway Museum
- Best viewing times
- Weekends when the museum operates its demonstration railroad tend to show the most activity; the camera itself runs continuously.
- Through the seasons
- The museum's operating season and train schedule vary — see the museum's own visit page for current hours.
Weather & light at the camera
Sun times calculated for this camera’s coordinates.
Trains on this camera
Train types
On the line here
FRA / NTAD — crossing inventory Jul 21, 2026 · rail yards (FRA / NTAD)
About this cam
This camera sits atop a salvaged rail-yard light tower erected in the Illinois Railway Museum's parking lot, giving an elevated view over much of the museum property in Union, Illinois — including the "Santa Fe" entrance sign, several barns, and the yard tracks in the distance. This is the East-facing view.
The Illinois Railway Museum's "Light Tower" webcam is mounted on a salvaged rail-yard light mast that the museum's Buildings & Grounds Department re-erected in its visitor parking lot in November 2009, originally to light evening events. The museum later added a live YouTube feed from it, described on its own webcam page as its "newest live streaming webcam overlooking the majority of the property from the parking lot light tower."
From this height the camera overlooks the museum's entrance area, the "Santa Fe" sign, several equipment barns, and — in the distance — the yard trackage and the museum's five-mile demonstration main line.
What to watch for
General activity across the museum grounds — equipment moves between barns, the demonstration train departing the depot, and (in season) visitors and vehicles in the parking lot below.
The camera
- Stream
- YouTube live stream
- Filming
- Railway museum
- Traffic
- Heritage
- Sound
- Live lineside audio — horns and engines
- Hours
- Streams around the clock, 24/7
- Camera movement
- Fixed view
- Feed checked
- September 21, 2026
Filmed location
The place this camera films is documented on Spotatrain — traffic levels, best angles, and visiting info (Experience):
Related on Spotatrain
Live Cams Near Union
More Live Cams in Illinois
Spots Near This Camera
Rochelle Railroad Park
America's first park built specifically for railfans, located at the four-diamond crossing of Union Pacific's Geneva Subdivision and BNSF's Aurora Subdivision in Rochelle, Illinois. Over 80-100 trains per day cross this double-mainline diamond, known as NX Crossing.
La Grange (BNSF Racetrack)
Prime railfan spot on BNSF's triple-track Chicago Subdivision — the famous "Racetrack" — with 140+ daily train movements including Metra commuters, BNSF freight, and Amtrak long-distance and corridor trains.
Roosevelt Road (Chicago)
Once called the world's greatest train watching overpass, Roosevelt Road spans multiple rail corridors one mile south of downtown Chicago, offering overhead views of Amtrak, Metra, and CTA operations with more than 300 trains daily.
Related Experiences
Illinois Railway Museum
The largest railroad museum in the U.S., offering vintage steam, diesel and electric train rides across a sprawling site near Chicago.
East Troy Railroad Museum
Ride 1908-1930 trolleys and interurbans under original 1907 catenary on the last surviving stretch of Wisconsin's TMER&L system.
Chicago “L” (Orange Line)
An elevated Chicago “L” train line looping through downtown on viaducts, offering railfans sweeping views of the city’s skyscrapers like the Willis Tower.
Related Journeys & Mega-Projects
Explore around Union
7 places on Spotatrain within 25 km of Union — 1 experience and 6 live cams.
- Illinois Railway Museum — Spaulding Tower 114 m
- Illinois Railway Museum 130 m
- Union, Illinois — Illinois Railway Museum, Barn 9 North 207 m
- Union, Illinois — Illinois Railway Museum, Barn 9 Southeast 215 m
- Union, Illinois — Illinois Railway Museum, Car Line Junction 217 m
- Union, Illinois — Illinois Railway Museum, Diesel Shop West 386 m
- Genoa, Illinois — CPKC Chicago Subdivision 20 km