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Date: 2009-10
A FOX RIVER LINE CAR IS COMING HOME
The Fox River Trolley Museum will soon have two big, new exhibits -- including a rail car that ran on the museum's own rails more than 70 years ago!
"The greatest dream of the Fox River Trolley Museum is a reality," museum President Edward Konecki said. "A Fox River car is coming home to the Fox River Line."
But fundraising continues to return the two interurban (inter-city) trolley cars safely to Chicago from Cleveland.
The museum bid successfully Oct. 2 for Aurora, Elgin & Fox River Electric Co. (AE&FRE) car 304 and Chicago Aurora & Elgin Ry. car 458 at the liquidation auction of a Cleveland museum.
AE&FRE 304 was one of six cars built for the railroad in 1923 and used until 1935 to deliver riders to and from the Elgin Watch factory, the old Kane County courthouse in Geneva, Mooseheart, the long-gone but fondly remembered parks at Coleman Grove and Exhibition Park in North Aurora and other locations on the 40-mile line that once connected Carpentersville with Yorkville.
CA&E 458 was built in 1945 and used for the next 12 years to carry passengers through the western suburbs along a route occupied today by the Illinois Prairie Path.
Fox River Line car 304 last ran between Elgin and Aurora on March 31, 1935, and was then sold to a rapid transit line in Cleveland, best known as Shaker Heights Rapid Transit. Shaker Heights resold two cars for further use in Milwaukee, which were dismantled in 1952, but the remaining four cars served Cleveland and its suburbs until 1954. At that time, real estate entrepreneur Gerald E. Brookins purchased them as the nucleus of an electric railway museum he founded in suburban Cleveland. The AE&FRE car on which the museum bid successfully was one of two that remained when Brookins’ museum shut down its operations in 2002, along with CA&E 458 and nearly 30 other pieces of historic railway equipment.
The AE&FRE passenger trolleys will join former AE&FRE diesel freight locomotive 5, which arrived on the railroad in 1947, long after the trolley cars were gone.
"Next come the challenges of returning the cars and preparing them for operation," Konecki said. “We face some major costs. Again, we won't be able to do it without the public's help.”
Konecki said that moving the two cars from Cleveland to the Museum's South Elgin, IL site must be done before the end of this year. This means the Museum must raise a substantial amount of money in a very short time in order to move these treasures to Kane County.
The museum is a 501(c)(3) Illinois not for-profit organization, and donations are tax-deductible. Although donations of any amount are welcome, it is offering special incentives for those making larger donations:
- $100: A one-day pass to ride the AE&FRE car plus any other cars in the collection. The donor determines the day of use.
- $250: A one-month pass to ride the AE&FRE car plus any other cars in the collection. The donor determines the month of use.
- $500: A one-season pass for two to ride the AE&FRE car plus any other cars in the collection. This would be for the first season that the AE&FRE car is operated. (Barring unforeseen circumstances this should be the 2010 operating season.)
- $1,000: An invitation to ride the first regular passenger trip of the car plus a one-season pass for two.
The museum is developing a recognition program for larger individual and corporate donations.
The Fox River Line, as built, was the first direct rail connection between Aurora and Elgin and opened the era of public transportation in the Fox Valley. When passenger service ended, three miles of track remained to serve freight customers in Elgin and South Elgin, most notably the Elgin State Hospital. The museum became a tenant in the early 1960s, and began public operations July 4, 1966. Freight service continued until 1972, at which time the museum purchased the Aurora, Elgin & Fox River Electric's remaining trackage.
Donations can be sent to the museum at P.O. Box 315, South Elgin, IL 60177-0315, e-mailing Konecki at edwardkonecki@aol.com or by calling him at (847) 209-5453.
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