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Date: 2003-09 SEE THE FALL COLORS AND RIDE ABOARD A LOCOMOTIVE OR CABOOSE AT THE FOX RIVER TROLLEY MUSEUM Fall colors are just around the corner, and the Fox River Trolley Museum has the perfect way to see them! On Oct. 5 and 12, see the colors begin to change along the Fox River by taking a caboose train at the museum, on Route 31 in South Elgin. There are few better places to see the colors than the cupola of an old-fashioned caboose. The museum’s 1908-vintage Chicago Surface Lines electric locomotive will pull its Illinois Central R.R. (IC) caboose, offering visitors young and old the rare chance to ride up front with the motorman aboard the locomotive, or in the cupola, on the benches or in the conductor’s chair of Caboose 9648, built in 1957 at the Illinois Central’s Centralia, Ill., shops. The caboose retains the bunks, stove and seats that the IC built into it in Centralia, and has additional benches to accommodate railroad enthusiasts of all ages. Electric locomotive L-202 worked on Chicago’s streetcar lines and “L” for 70 years. During the first 50 years it transported streetcars, freight and work equipment over Chicago streets and around carbarns. After a 1958 rebuilding by the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA), it shuttled freight cars for 20 years around the CTA’s Lower 63rd Street yard. You can also watch the panorama of colors unfold along the scenic Fox River and in the Kane County Forest Preserve District’s Blackhawk Forest Preserve by taking one of the museum’s historic trolley cars. Passengers can board at both ends of the line for all trips. Trains will leave the southerly terminal, at Blackhawk Forest Preserve, in St Charles Township, from roughly 11:15 a.m. until 4:45 p.m., Rodenkirk said. Regular fares of $3.50 for adults and $2 for seniors and children 3-11 apply both days. The Fox River Trolley Museum is an all-volunteer, not-for-profit organization that specializes in preserving the history of Chicago’s colorful electric railroads, featuring more than 25 pieces of railroad, streetcar and interurban (intercity) electric railway equipment. It can be reached by taking either Interstate 88, Interstate 90 or U.S. 20 to the Fox River Valley and exiting at Illinois 31, then traveling to the museum site at 361 S. LaFox St., on Illinois 31, three blocks south of the State Street stoplight in the village of South Elgin. For information, schedules or to charter a train, call the museum at (847) 697-4676. 
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