Fox River Trolley Museum

(Satellite)

I learned about the Fox River Trolley Museum when I studied the Aurora, Elgin & Fox River Interurban because the museum uses a remnant of that interurban between the Fox River Trolley Museum and Blackhawk Station Fox River Trolley.

Greg' Burnet's comment below reminded me of the damage caused by the vandalism by two young boys in July, 2018. I could not easily find any info on the web site about what was damaged by the vandalism. So I assume all of this wood is for a regular restoration effort rather than vandalism repair. Scrolling through their news pages, I had to go back to Sep 25, 2018, to find a mention of the vandalism. It seems that with strong community support, they recovered rather quickly from the damage. That is good to learn. (Actually, it was just #304, out of 8 cars damaged, that was fixed rather quickly. More on the vandalism at the end of these notes.)

One of  seven photos posted by BRHS
Greg Burnet Timely. The car in the picture (Car #316) is currently undergoing restoration at the Fox River Trolley Museum. In fact, I'm delivering over a thousand feet of newly milled components (window sills, exterior trim, etc.) to them next week for painting & will be milling a batch of new siding to replace the damaged material in the near future as well.
[I couldn't find this car in their equipment roster. I did find #317. ]

Nikki Burgess posted
My time in Chicago was winding down and I knew that it would be my last season shooting the widely available vintage traction running in northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin. Of everything with flanged wheels, streetcars and interurbans are my absolute favorite things. On 10/11/2015, beautiful wood interurban car CA&E #20 was trundling south through the Duerr Woods in South Elgin on the Fox River Trolley Museum's line along the river whose name the museum bears. This photo ended up being used as the museum's 2016 calendar photo.

AJ Grigg posted 26 photos with the comment: "Our trip to the Fox River Trolley Museum, situated just south of South Elgin on the Fox River, using the otherwise abandoned ROW of the Chicago Aurora & Elgin Railroad. Very accessible from the Fox River Trail."
Dennis DeBruler The Fox River Trolley Museum uses a remnant of the north/south Aurora, Elgin & Fox River Interurban, http://industrialscenery.blogspot.com/.../ae-aurora-elgin...
Dennis DeBruler The CA&E was more of an east/west interurban, http://industrialscenery.blogspot.com/.../chicago-aurora...


Frank Smitty Schmidt The CA&E and the AE&FRE were originally both divisions of the AE&C. They separated when the AE&C came out of bankruptcy in the early 1920s.
Dennis DeBruler So it is a remnant of AE&C and AE&FR. And AE&C = CA&E+AE&FR.

Frank Smitty Schmidt Before the AE&C, the line originally started out as part of the Elgin Aurora & Southern Traction Co. in the late 1890s.

Jon Habermaas ROW was not CA&E but rather the Aurora Elgin and Fox River Electric which ran north-south along the Fox River which ran between Carpentersvile and Yorkville serving communities between. This portion of the line survived to provide coal delivery to the state hospital at Elgin.

Art Lemke AEFR was under the same corporate umbrella as CA&E.

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[Stearns Road]

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[CN/IC Bridge]

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Two boys, 11 and 13, damaged at least 65 windows in 8 cars after they broke into two barns sometime between July 4 and 7, 2018, and caused over $100,000 in damage. [NBC5]  The boys were arrested July 8 after the police followed a blood trail to a home. [elgin-courier-2018july] In addition to a lot of glass repair donations, a security system has been donated. Car 304 was repaired quickly for Riverfest because of a focused effort. Six months later, other cars still needed to be repaired. They offered community service to the two boys. [elgin-coutier-2019jan]

elgin-courier-2018july, Janelle Walker/The Courier-News
[This was one of the cars that was still needing new windows in Jan 2019.]

Fox River Trolley Museum posted three photos with the comment:

Welcome to the family! On Tuesday, October, 24, 2023, former Soo Line Caboose 117 arrived at the Fox River Trolley Museum! It is planned for restoration to join our Illinois Central caboose, doubling our fleet. Follow and like this page for all updates on projects.

This Saturday - Come down for our Paranormal Moms Society (SM) Event on Saturday October 28, 2023. A spooky good time for all! Sunday is a regular operating day at the museum, open from 11:00 AM-5:00 PM.

Paranormal Moms Event Link: https://fb.me/e/58fuHj6op

Operating Day link: https://fb.me/e/6s8wIB9Lm

Helpful information ahead of your visit:

https://www.foxtrolley.org/visit

Paul Webb shared

Fox River Trolley Museum shared

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safe_image for A 1:13 YouTube video of some old looking footage

Michael Riha shared a video and photo of the restored little GE that used to deliver coal to the state hospital.

CM&G Trestle over a valley in Peotone, IL

(no Bridge Hunter; Satellite, note the diagonal treeline over IL-50 and IC south of town)

CM&G = Chicago, Milwaukee and Gary

Bill Molony posted
A Chicago, Milwaukee & Gary Railway [CM&G] mixed (freight and passenger) train on the trestle at Peotone - circa 1910.
Bill Molony The Milwaukee Road abandoned this line between Joliet and Delmar in 1978, and yes, the trestle is long gone.

Peter Zimmermann also posted
This was the wooden trestle on the Milwaukee Road line that ran from Delmart Junction[near Momence] to Rockford. The line/bridge was built in 1905 originally by the Illinois Iowa & Minnesota Railway company, in 1909 it was reorganized as the Chicago Milwaukee & Gary Railway and in 1930 was acquired fully by the Milwaukee Road. The picture here shows a mixed train in around 1910, westbound on the approach to the crossing of the Illinois Central main line.

The portion of the line this was on was abandoned on July 17th, 1978 [between Delmar & Joliet] and I was told the bridge burned down sometime not long after, suspected arson.

Bill Molony posted
A Chicago, Milwaukee & Gary Railway Company mixed train on the high timber trestle at Peotone, Illinois - 1910.

Bill Molony posted
A Chicago, Milwaukee & Gary Railway Company five-car mixed train crossing the trestle in Peotone, Illinois - 1910.
Rick Powell A bunch of pics of the Manhattan tower and a local MILW freight in the 70's here.
http://towns-and-nature.blogspot.com/.../manhattan-il...

The Blackhawk Railway Historical Society posted
This is a post card picture of an Illinois, Iowa & Minnesota Railway Company mixed (freight and passenger) train on the trestle in Peotone, Illinois.
The II&M line from Rockford to Aurora and from Joliet to Delmar was built in 1904 and 1905..
The II&M secured trackage rights between Aurora and Joliet over the Elgin, Joliet & Eastern Railway by a contract dated February 21, 1905.

Richard Fiedler commented on Bill's first posting
Another view. Was quite long
On another posting of this picture, Richard had the comment:
CM&G (Milwaukee Road) trestle in Peotone IL. Was shortened and later replaced by a girder bridge I believe. Second view shows a "mixed" on the span. Long gone. The bridge spanned RT 50 and the Illinois Central tracks.

Some comments on another post by Bill of the image with a train.

Satellite

 The town's boundary has been "distorted" to include the CM&G's right-of-way. Did they do this so that they could collect property tax when the Milwaukee route still existed?

1939 Aerial Photo from ILHAP
[Wilmington Road is across the top]

Dennis DeBruler commented on a share
An excerpt of the Abandoned RR Map maintained by AJ Grigg.
https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer...

1968 Track Profile. p10

Update:

James Boudreaux posted, 1977 Photo by Scott Radigk
This is a pic of the Milw.Rd.(I.I.& M) line just south of Peotone. The left side girder bridge spans the ex I.C.(now CN) rails with the right side bridge spanning Rt. 50. To the left,(no.west),would be the Peotone depot & mini yd.at about a 1 mile distance.To the right,(sw.east),is the elevated ROW which still survives today. The bridges' wooden vertical timbers' stumps can still be seen along Rt. 50's west curb line.The pics' orientation shown is looking northward. Please disregard the mating cars at the bottom. Photographer unknown. (1967 or 1977 snowstorm?)

William Larsen I would say the photo is from the '67 snowstorm. That looks to be a 1963 Ford Country Squire Station Wagon. Also, old color photos from the '50's & '60's tend to yellow with age.
http://bestride.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/unnamed-2.jpgJames Boudreaux I'll agree on the '67 snowstorm

James Boudreaux posted
To add to my earlier post and others...Peotone,1910...Bill Molony Collection
Jeff Kehoe Look closely, they've stuck a coach on the end from back when CM&G offered passenger service.

Paul Krueger commented on James' posting
Here is a version without the added color.