Education Through Demonstration

This past Saturday, we hosted not one, but two major events. The first was a charter with the Central Electric Railfans' Association (CERA), and the second was a performance by the Ballet Folklorico Huehuecoyotl group. Both events were well attended with many happy patrons.

Trolley lines across the USA facilitated many cultural events throughout their years operating. Just in the Chicago region, Ravinia was the brainchild of the A.C. Frost Company to lure Chicagoans to ride its fledgling Chicago and Milwaukee Electric Railroad to a respite in the woods, far from the heat and smells of a city known as the “hog butcher to the world". One hundred and fifteen years later, it is a premier cultural center for all genres of music for people living in the Chicago area.

Today, we still operate car 715, which once carried passengers to Ravinia. We are proud to continue the legacy of the North Shore Line and many other trolley lines that have long since ceased operating by providing rides to a new generation of cultural events.

Newly restored CA&E 458 with Fox River 304, juxtaposed with the vintage bus CERA chartered

Cars 304 and 458 at Blackhawk

CERA members boarding car 458

CERA members posed in front of car 458

Cars 40 and 43 ready to carry passengers down to Blackhawk for the ballet performance

Visitors enjoying the performance

After years of hard work from our car department, we are proud to announce that Chicago Aurora and Elgin car 458 has entered service at the museum! The car certainly has a rich history, and now we can demonstrate it to the public.

On Saturday we held a dedication ceremony to commemorate the event.

First we have Joe and Fred 14 years ago, when we first acquired the car

Here they are now showing off the fruits of their efforts

Fred motored every passenger run for the dedication smiling the whole way, eager to show off his work

We also had many excited members attending the ceremony, eager to see our latest addition to our pool of running cars.

Thank you to everyone who attended the dedication, and thank you especially to the car department for all the time and labor they put into restoring this car. We look forward to many years providing rides to visitors on car 458.

We had a great action-packed weekend with this year's Rails to Victory! With all but one train completely sold out, we had a full house of visitors to present a piece of living history. They first took a one hour tour of the camp set up at Castlemuir, then traveled on Fox River car 304 and North Shore car 715 to witness several battles accompanied by an educational narrative.

Soldiers set up their camp at Castlemuir to demonstrate to the visitors all that was involved in the military and home front life in World War II

Soldiers present their rifles for inspection

Military police and Reichsbahn conductors check papers

Soldiers engage in battle in Berlin

We've been hard at work ensuring everything at the museum is in tip-top shape. While the spotlight has been on the restoration of CA&E Car 458 which is entering service later this month, we also have been putting a lot of work into our track to help ensure a smooth and safe ride for all passengers.

Last Friday, our Assistant Roadmaster Patrick Storm was out conducting track work on the main line at Coleman, near where our tracks cross underneath the Canadian National (formerly Illinois Central) tracks. He made almost a dozen trips back and forth with Locomotive #5 and a home-made easy dumper track cart, delivering crushed concrete along the track to help prevent the erosion of the roadbed in that area.

This past Sunday, a Ford Model T club came to complement our vintage trolleys with some automobiles.

They posed one of the cars with 4451. The Ford Model T was introduced in 1908, while the 4000 series Chicago Rapid Transit cars were introduced in the 1920s.

They also had their lineup of Model T's and other vintage cars in our parking lot in front of car 5001.

After a tour of the cars we have on display, the members of the club came back to the depot to board a train.

After a great season in 2022 and a busy off-season getting ready, we have now officially begun our 2023 operating season! For our opening day, we ran North Shore car 715 and Chicago Transit Authority car 4451. In addition, we had Chicago Transit Authority cars 40 and 43 and Illinois Central caboose 9648 on static display.

For a little more added excitement, the car department has also been hard at work on Chicago, Aurora, and Elgin car 458 and was performing test runs on the line while we were carrying passengers on 4451 and 715.

After several months of the off-season, we saw many smiling faces today, ready to see railroad history brought to life.

Jan poses with North Shore 715

Car 4451 being prepared for service

Chicago Transit Authority cars 40 and 43 being prepared for display

Passengers disembarking from Chicago Transit Authority 4451 after a trip down to Blackhawk

Passengers are all smiles on North Shore 715

Passengers boarding North Shore car 715

Chicago, Aurora, and Elgin car 458 is taken out of the barn for testing

Changing ends on car 458

Sneak peak of the restored interior of 458

Work continues on Chicago, Aurora, and Elgin car 458 to make it ready to carry passengers.

Felix and his dad stopped by and helped Jeff knock out a half dozen seats In CA&E 458!

Tom and Chris just couldn’t help but get in on the action of getting 458 ready for opening day.

Felix had no problem doing heavy work! What a great kid!

Jeff snaps a selfie, happy with the progress of the day.

Today we kicked off our packed schedule of events for 2023 with the first Bunny Burrow Express. We saw many smiling faces searching for the Easter Bunny, and of course also some Easter treats.

The Easter Bunny was all smiles, happy to see everyone ready to celebrate.

Along the way, the passengers found some Easter eggs at the Bunny Burrow.

All the families had the chance to get their photo with the Easter Bunny and get their own treats.

Then the Easter Bunny and the passengers had to say goodbye as the train returned to Blackhawk.

Make your own Easter memories and meet the Easter Bunny at the Bunny Burrow Express! There are two more chances, on April 1 and April 8 at 10am, 11:30am, and 1pm. Tickets are still available for all trains!

More Information

Purchase tickets for April 1

Purchase tickets for April 8

After heavy use for the Polar Express, cars 40 and 43 were put away for the winter. However, with Easter approaching, this weekend they were brought back out from hibernation to get ready for the Bunny Burrow Express later this month. A crew consisting of Damin, Donna, Jacob, Mike, and Tom together took on the task of transitioning the cars from Polar Express to Bunny Burrow Express.

At the time we started, all the decorations from Polar Express were still there and needed to be removed.

We arrive to a train still decorated for Polar Express

Tom packs up some of the decorations into bins for next year

Jacob unloads a box of Polar Express decorations

Then, with the Polar Express decorations removed and stored for next year, it was time to put up the Bunny Burrow Express decorations.

Donna hangs up a paper streamer

Damin hangs up another paper streamer

Donna wraps a pole

With that, we had a train decorated and ready for the Bunny Burrow Express!

We of course made sure to show our Easter spirit on the outside of the train.

We look forward to seeing everyone show their Easter spirit for the Bunny Burrow Express starting on March 25!
Tickets are still available for all trains!

More Information

Purchase Tickets for March 25

Purchase tickets for April 1

Purchase tickets for April 8

We would like to thank the Examiner of South Elgin for recognizing all of our hard work at the museum. We pride ourselves on our relationship with our local community and are grateful to see ourselves recognized for the value we provide, and are looking forward to a great season this year.