Issue 02-3, Fall 2002

Fox River Line's Sauna -
the Hottest Job

No 5 jacked up with the truck removed.
Fred Lonnes in the background.

Getting New Wheels
for AE&FRE #5

On two of the hottest and most humid days of the 2002 summer, members Chuck Galtiz and Fred Lonnes did the preparation work needed for and the actual removing the south truck of #5. This done in nature's own natural sauna - sun and high humidity and without the benefit of a shower at the end!

W&SR #73 had to have a lube oil connection repaired so it could be used to supply air for the jacks needed to lift the south end of #5. This was done on Wednesday, July 31st when the temperature humidity-index was 100°. On Thursday, August 1, members Galitz and Lonnes jacked up the south end of #5, removed the truck, cribbed the end of the locomotive and moved the truck to the main line. It was placed just north of the entrance road to the Museum where it was picked up the following day.

The Museum's HATS OFF! to Chuck and Fred for a job well done under the most difficult and trying conditions!

Don MacBean

Chuck Galitz on the tractor with Fred Lonnes attending
the move of the truck up track 2 on its way to the mainline.

Number 5's truck on the trailer ready to go to Indiana.

Vision

The Museum has a shared vision-the participation of people in the preservation, conservation, restoration and interpretation of the artifacts of electric railway transportation. Achieving this vision takes hard work and effort on the part of everyone involved in the organization.

Recently, the Members of our Museum made a giant step in achieving our shared vision. On Saturday, August 24, 2002, at a special meeting of the membership the Museum `s By-Laws changed to increase the level that all of our Members. All members can now vote for Directors.
All members (except institutional) can now cast their ballot to choose that Museum Director, which they believe will best lead our organization to achieve our shared vision. This is one of the many steps that we have made to move down the road towards creating our shared vision.

It has been a tough road to walk and there are still many miles ahead that we need to travel. We must work together to accomplish many more tasks on the road ahead. We need to continue to move forward to see the realization of the Museum's master plan-the construction of a restoration facility, an education and interpretation center for our guests and a display barn. We must make progress on securing a source of permanent funding-endowments for each car in our collection as well as grants for construction of our facilities.

It takes work and effort to achieve these goals, but with a shared vision, these goals are achievable. These are great challenges, and I am excited about working on them as we move ahead. Now, with the additional participation of all of our members, we have the strength where together can meet our challenges and create a truly great Museum of transportation in South Elgin, Kane County, Illinois.

Ed Konecki

Mission

To preserve and interpret Chicago's electric transport era that began in the 1890s and peaked before 1950. The electric transport era is significant because electric railways, including interurban, rapid transit, and streetcars, helped the Chicago region grow to be one of North America's great metropolitan areas. The Museum strives to show that electric railways were more than convenient, they were and are a way of life for generations of people from all walks of life.

The Museum fulfills this mission by preserving, interpreting, and operating historic railway vehicles on its demonstration electric railway, over the Aurora, Elgin and Fox River Electric route at South Elgin, Illinois. Furthermore, the museum preserves, displays and interprets smaller artifacts, photos, oral histories, and documents which help relate the importance of electric transport in and around the Chicago Metropolitan Area, putting them in context with their surroundings and era.

Updated Protective Tag
Procedure at Museum

Effective July 6th a new procedure was put in place to administer the use of protective tags at the museum. The purpose of the tags is to mark and inform museum personnel the status of equipment. As we're all coming and going about at different times doing our various tasks, a means is necessary to communicate to each other this knowledge, whether we've got our hands in the middle of a project, or have left for the day.

Anyone who's active in any department at the museum needs to become familiar with the procedure and review it with a department head. For the information of all who may visit the museum, only qualified people may attach or remove the tags, but so that everyone can recognize them, here is a brief description of each. RED TAGS, which are also lettered "DANGER Do Not Operate" are used to hold various items or equipment in a particular state as needs are required. BLUE TAGS are used for the protection of personnel working on equipment and follows the same instructions as Blue Flags and Blue Signals in the museum Operating Rulebook. YELLOW TAGS with the lettering
"CAUTION" on them are used to post other instructions or warnings.

Please respect these tags wherever you may see them at the museum, and feel free to contact qualified museum personnel if you have any questions about them.

Chuck Galitz

FRTM Receives
$1,000.00 Grant from TCA

The Train Collectors Association, (TCA) held their 48th annual national convention the last week of June in St. Charles at Pheasant Run. The convention was hosted by the TCA's Chicago Chapter, which nominated the Fox River Trolley Association to be the recipient of their educational gift. Instrumental in selecting FRTM was Chris and Marlene Rohlfing who were the Midwest Chapter Convention Chairpersons. Your Vice President, Bob Wayman; Membership Secretary, Laura Taylor; and Chief Engineer, Ralph Taylor; were guests at the TCA banquet on Friday night for the awarding of the Grant. Over 800 members of the TCA were in attendance where TCA President Tom Jaworowski presented the check to the museum. VP Bob Wayman invited the attendees to come to the museum on Saturday for a free ride. About thirty accepted the offer and many, while at the museum made additional donations. The museum thanks the TCA for the generous gift.

Bob Wayman

Car Department

Through the efforts of many we have been able to keep the passenger fleet going. Weather, work schedules and the need for the cars have limited improvements.

Some roof/tack rail has been made by Pat Doyle for 715. Now we need to steam bend it. Ralph Taylor and Bill Minerly painted the trolley poles. Bill tells me that he foresees a speed up in rebuilding the upper windows.

I have located two sets of batteries in trays in the museum inventory and between myself, Ralph and others we intend to check them out, clean them and install them in one of 5001's battery boxes. Hopefully there will be enough usable trays to make up a third tray and thus have good batteries in all three bodies. If low battery voltage is the control problem hopefully the unit will return to service in time for the Fall special operations.

Chuck Galitz and Fred Lonnes jacked up No. 5, removed the truck and saw that it was shipped to Indiana for re-wheeling. There was no return date given. Chuck was able to located the leaking lube oil fitting in 73 and this locomotive is now available for service.

Joseph Hazinski

Trainmaster

We have added Bill Minerly, Ben Rohling and Marty Tuohy to the FRTM's operating crew starting in August. They will be working with regular crew members over the next few months as we finalize the final stages of their training. Dan Kelly has passed his test and has started operator training along with Dan Zedan and Hiroaki Miyagawa.

Training and operator training at the museum are based on one rule, "Safety Is Always Our First General Order, Courtesy Always". As members, when you are visiting your museum, please be observant and watch for things our visitors may be doing that is not safe. If you see someone climbing where they do not belong, walking on the rails, standing in front of a moving train or other unsafe acts, please ask them to stop or notify one of the operating crew members of the situation. Safety is everyone's responsibility.

We are in need of more people to add to the operating crew and help in the depot to sell gift shop items and tickets. If you would like to be part of our operating crew or depot sales, please contact Jim Gonyo at (630) 964-4366 for information.

Jim Gonyo

Back at the beginning of the year, a survey form was sent out to the members and friends of the FOX RIVER TROLLEY MUSEUM. Over a fifth of the membership replied, which is outstanding, and you had things to say. Which is good, that's why the survey was sent out. And it gave the museum a report card of sorts on how it's doing, also what it needs to be doing. Overall, most of you are satisfied with the location and purpose of the museum. Some of the goals of the museum, the desires for them, the ways to achieve them, and the membership structure, rated the most concern in the replies. Let's review a few of these here.

Yes, the museum is lacking in some of the basic facilities that it will need to continue to exist. Facilities for our visitors and members. Facilities for the cars preserved at the museum. We all know that they are sorely needed, unfortunately the attainment of these goals is difficult, or we would already have more of them accomplished. The recently completed goal of the extension into Blackhawk Forest Preserve, was only attainable because of the cooperation of many museum members and friends, and that grants from the State of Illinois and Kane County became available for that purpose. Looking toward the future, the obtaining of the facilities and preservation perpetuation that we all desire, will need to be acquired by similar means. The simple truth is that the past and current basic income of operating the museum, barely covers the operating costs. Without additional means of funding, no advancement can be made. To correct this situation the museum for a couple of years has had a Capital Development Committee. Underway in the background making their plans, the time is rapidly approaching for these plans to become actions. Actions that will be instrumental in providing the museum with the necessary tools to continue its work in the preservation of the cars and historic site into the future.

Do we have too many cars in the collection? Not enough? Can we do justice as far as preservation to what we have? Is there room for more equipment that the museum might still desire in the future? To start working on the answers to these questions, a Collection Assessment Committee has been formed to study the current collection as compared to the needs and capacity of the museum. Many factors will be examined in this study. When the museum was started some forty years ago, no one envisioned that the collection would grow to the size that it is now. But as each piece was acquired there was a planned purpose for it to be in the collection. Time marches on. We now have to review the extant of the collection as to what is best for the museum, and what is best for the individual pieces.

So far the physical aspects of the museum have been mentioned, now let's look at the human aspects, which are just as important since without the "people power" behind it, everything will grind to a halt. The museum must have a good and renewable source of this "people power" to survive now, and in the future. A majority of this comes in the form of our membership. To better facilitate the membership and their voice in the museum, a By Laws Committee was formed. They then studied, and made recommendations to the Board of Directors, who unanimously approved of them to go before the Regular Members, who also then approved of them, putting them into effect at the end of August. Too many to list here, some highlights of these changes are: All members, except for the new classification of Institutional, now have the right to vote for Directors and By Law changes. Regular Membership status can be obtained without the formerly required vote of the existing Regular Members.

It's my hope, and that of many others, that with the achievement of these and other tasks before us, the museum can move forward at a greater pace towards the true potential of its preservation efforts.

Chuck Galitz

A romantic nostalgic look at CA&E #20
at Blackhawk Forest Preserve.

Fox River Lines Staff

Managing Editor—Don MacBean, 817 College Ave. #5, Wheaton, IL 60187
(630) 665-2581 E-mail DMacbRR@aol.com

Layout and Graphics— Jack Sowchin

Fox River Lines is the official publication of the Fox River Trolley Association, Inc., an Illinois not-for-profit corporation. It is published four times per calendar year for distribution to members and friends of the museum. Reproduction of Fox River Lines, either in part or in its entirety, is strictly prohibited without prior permission from the editorial staff or the FRTM board of directors. Entire contents Copyright © 2002 Fox River Trolley Association, Inc.

Submissions: Submission of stories from members and others is necessary to publish Fox River Lines. Feature length articles are always welcome and considered. Please contact the staff before undergoing a project. Contributors submit materials with the understanding that no monetary compensation is provided.

Correspondence: Comments, suggestions, and corrections relating to Fox River Lines should be directed to Managing Editor Don MacBean at the address listed above. The editorial staff appreciates your feedback.