Amboy Illinois Central Depot - Amboy Depot Museum

The Amboy Depot Museum has operated on the site since 2003. The museum encompasses much of the former rail yard that Illinois Central maintained at Amboy's Northern Division Headquarters for its Cairo to East Dubuque line. When the line was completed in 1855 it was the longest rail line in the world. The museum consists of three buildings with the Amboy Illinois Central Depot being its primary structure. Inside are exhibits and artifacts relating to the history of Amboy and Illinois Central Railroad. Palmer School is a restored one-room schoolhouse that was relocated to museum property during the 1990s from its original location west of Amboy. The other structure is the Amboy Illinois Central Freight House which was relocated to museum property in 2003 to prevent its planned demolition.

Amboy Illinois Central Depot has a static steam locomotive display on its property, the locomotive sits on unconnected railroad tracks adjacent the Depot. The locomotive is an 0-8-0 steam engine built in 1929 by Baldwin Locomotive Works as a switcher bearing the number 8376. It was originally operated by the Grand Trunk Western Railroad. Switcher #8376 (8376) was retired from service near Detroit, Michigan in 1958 and sold as scrap. The now-defunct Northwestern Steel and Wire company, in Sterling, Illinois, ended up with 8376 and other steam locomotives, and instead of melting them down the company renovated them. The company then used them to replace their aging internal locomotives, used within the steel mill grounds. Thus, 8376 was brought out of storage and recommissioned in 1976 as NS&W #76. When it was christened, NS&W #76 (76) was the last steam locomotive engine to be commissioned for regular freight service in the United States. 76 operated in daily service until the mill owner's death in 1980, it was retired shortly after and obtained by the Amboy Depot Commission.