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Date: 2004-05-01 HITCH A RIDE ON A FOX RIVER TROLLEY MUSEUM CABOOSE! The coal-laden freight trains that snaked along Illinois 31 and made it possible for the 108-year-old rail line of the Fox River Trolley Museum, in South Elgin, to survive into the 21st Century are long gone, but Sunday, June 6, you can ride the museum's electric locomotive or a caboose. Taking center stage for one day only will be Illinois Central Railroad caboose 9648 and locomotive L-202, always popular with riders young and old. Caboose 9648 was built in 1957 at the IC's Centralia, IL shops. The 28-foot caboose was one of hundreds built by the IC from the 1930s through the late 1950s. It retains its bunks, stove and seats the IC built into it in Centralia, and has additional benches to accommodate railroad enthusiasts young and old. Locomotive L-202 was built in 1908, and spent the first 50 years of its life transporting freight cars, work equipment and disabled Chicago Surface Lines streetcars over the streets and around Surface Lines carbarns. It was rebuilt by the Chicago Transit Authority in 1958, and spent 20 more years switching freight cars and work equipment in the CTA's Lower 63rd Street yard before joining the Museum collection in 1979. Freight traffic allowed three miles of the line to survive when the rest of the 40-mile railroad was abandoned. The line can trace its history to 1896, when the Carpentersville, Elgin and Aurora Railway laid tracks from Elgin to Geneva. By 1901, the line extended from Carpentersville to Yorkville, but was abandoned in pieces between 1924 and 1935. Over the years, the railroad served several freight customers, most notably the Elgin State Hospital. Throughout World War II, electric locomotives provided the motive power, and trains loaded with coal for the hospital and other freight would rumble down the middle of, or alongside, Illinois 31. In 1947, the line was dieselized. Freight service continued even after the museum re-electrified the trackage in 1966. The museum bought the remaining trackage when regular freight service ended, in 1972. Rides will be offered between 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. Fares are $3.50 for adults, and $2 for senior citizens and children 3-11. Children under 3 ride free. The Fox River Trolley Museum is an all-volunteer, not-for-profit organization. It can be reached by taking either Interstate 88, Interstate 90 or U.S. 20 to the Fox River Valley and exiting at Highway 31, then traveling on 31 to the museum site at 365 S. LaFox St., three blocks south of the State Street light in the village of South Elgin. For schedules and additional information, call the museum at (847) 697-4676.
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