Lisle Heritage Society to host Depot Days

A great way to usher in the fall season is to take a step back in time and enjoy Lisle Depot Days.

It is a tribute to the Lisle Heritage Society members and countless volunteers through the years that the free annual event is celebrating its 25th anniversary.

Numerous crafts people come each year to the Museums at Lisle Station Park to share a variety of historic skills.

Bob Lawler, who hails from Bureau, Ill., began demonstrating the telegraph 16 years ago when he retired as a professional telegrapher on the railroad.

"Telegraph operators would pass instruction to train crews using Morse code," Lawler said. "Nowadays, train crews are contacted directly."

The code consists of spaced dots and dashes transmitted as electrical pulses of various lengths over wires.

"I look forward to showing people how it use to be and sharing stories with railroad workers," Lawler said.

Lawler will be joined by "Doc" Watson from Galesburg.

Cathy and Rocky McKee, from Piper City, Ill., demonstrate rope making. With more than 15 years of experience at Depot Days, the couple knows they will use roughly 16,000 feet of bailing twine made from sisal. They use a 1901 rope maker, a tool of hooks and wrenches that cranks out a tightly woven product.

"When I was a little girl, we would make our own 4-H halters for our cattle on this mechanism," she said. "Rocky and I once made a 6-foot rope for a bell aboard the U.S.S. Constitution, 'Old Ironsides.'"

Paul Schmidt of Lindenhurst is a member of the Illinois Wheelmen and will make his first appearance at Depot Days. He will ride a high-wheel bike while dressed in knickers, which proves practical when straddling the bike's 50-inch front wheel. His collection of two-wheel bikes dates from the 1870s to 1890s and each has a built-in climbing peg.

"The bike is easy to ride once you are in the seat, but getting on and off takes some practice," Schmidt said. "Riding into a headwind is tough because you act like a big sail, and hills are not the greatest because there are no brakes."

Other long-standing demonstrators will include Robert and Steven Barr of Downers Grove making miniature bales of hay. Lisle's own Andy Yender, who was born in the historic Netzley-Yender house before it became part of the museum campus, will demonstrate corn cob grinding.

Other pioneer demonstrations on Saturday will include weaving, spinning, quilting, rug-hooking and leather crafts. Others will show how to make soap, lace and cornbread. Children are encouraged to join the bike and buggy parade at noon Saturday and to participate in the children's games.

Lisle Depot Days has no admission charge, plenty of convenient free parking and runs noon to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, Sept. 19 and 20. Most activities are on Saturday.

The star of this year's festivities will be the completely restored 1881 Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Waycar, commonly referred to as a caboose. For the special occasion, it is trimmed in red, white and blue bunting.

The brick-red CB&Q car, numbered 14584, is a rare 28-foot, three-window car. Most cabooses are 30-feet with a row of four side windows. The original numerical designation provides a history of the car that was built in Aurora in 1881 and retired in 1976.

The wooden waycar is a drover's caboose, often found on stock trains, where livestock handlers would ride along with the train crew. The cattlemen had to let out the animals periodically and give them nourishment. Drovers used a cupola above the roof from which the train crew could monitor the train and signal safety concerns.

"When the crewman's time expired they had to have facilities here to live," said heritage society member Joe Bennett. "There is an out-of-the-way table, a stove for cooking food and kerosene lights."

When the waycar was moving at 30 to 40 mph it swayed. The housing part rides on a pair of wooden trucks, the term to denote the wheels and axel pairing. The metal train rails, which are a standard 41/2 feet apart, sit upon a base of crushed stone.

"When wooden cabooses were phased out, many were scraped in the 1970s," Bennett said. "This car, we know, was running in 1976 between two yards in Chicago because it was in good shape."

The waycar was discovered by heritage society member Jack Kelly being used as an office on a car sales lot when the heritage society acquired it and deeded it over to the Lisle Park District.

The car was re-sided, given a new roof and custom-made window frames. The interior received wooden bunks for storage, sitting and sleeping berths.

All the jobs the trainmen provided such as safety, security and warning people by using flags, horns and hand signals is all done electronically today, Bennett said. There is no longer a need for a caboose at the train's end.

Bennett, along with volunteers Bob Goodwin and James Fousek, put in countless hours restoring the historic waycar. Some professional services were hired by the Lisle Park District as needed.

"We chose to put this car back to where we thought it might be based on scrapings of the wood and what equipment was in it," Bennett said with a smile of satisfaction. "This is a hobby for me. It is a joy to walk in here and see something you don't get to see anywhere else."

The men plan to construct a historically accurate conductor's desk and ice chest next.

With such dedication, Lisle's Depot Days offer a little something for everyone.

There will be hayrides, entertainment, petting zoo, craft fair, museum tours, working blacksmith shop, heritage gift shop, used book sale, children's games, live reptile display, cemetery tour, a working display of a HO-gauge model railroad and, of course, an opportunity to walk within a historically preserved 1881 waycar.

• Joan Broz writes about Lisle in Neighbor. E-mail her at jgbroz@yahoo.com.

Depot Days

Lisle's Depot Days celebration runs noon to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, Sept. 19-20, at the Museums at Lisle Station Park, 921 School St. in downtown. Free admission. Info: (630) 968-0499 or lisleparkdistrict.org.

SATURDAY

Noon Bike and carriage parade

Noon to 3 p.m. Willowbrook Wildlife Center Live Reptile Display

12:30 p.m. Seed Spitting Contest

1 p.m. Musician Larry Penn celebrates the railroad in song and story

1:30 p.m. Pie-Eating Contest

2 p.m. Train story time and crafts

3 p.m. Musician Larry Penn celebrates the railroad in song and story

3:30 p.m. Author Luisa Buehler talks about her new book about the Underground Railroad, "The Innkeeper: An Unregistered Death"

SUNDAY

12:30 p.m. Seed Spitting Contest

1 p.m. Musician Mark Dvorak sings American folk songs

1:30 p.m. Pie Eating Contest

2 p.m. Author Luisa Buehler talks about her new book about the Underground Railroad, "The Innkeeper: An Unregistered Death"

3 p.m. Musician Mark Dvorak sings American folk songs