South Elgin museum wants to bring trolley home
The Fox River Trolley Museum wants to bring home a big piece of Fox Valley history.
The South Elgin-based museum has a one-time chance to bring home a car that ran on the line between 1923 and 1935, and it's seeking the public's help in making it possible.
The deadline to raise money to bid for the car is Thursday, Oct. 1. The car is one of six that were built for the Aurora, Elgin & Fox River Electric Co., interurban line in 1923.
After it last ran between Elgin and Aurora on March 31, 1935, it was 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. Two of the cars remained when the Brookins Museum shut down its operations in 2002.
The Brookins Museum is auctioning off its remaining collection, including the two cars built for the Fox River Line.
"This is the first, and probably the last, chance for the museum to bring home a Fox River Line car," said Edward Konecki, museum president, acknowledging that it comes at a difficult time for fundraising of any kind.
"We won't be able to do it without the public's help," he said.
Konecki said that if the museum bids successfully, it then must pay before the end of the year both for the car and the cost of transporting it by flatbed trailer truck from Cleveland to the museum's site, at 361 S. LaFox St., South Elgin.
The museum is a 501(c)(3) Illinois nonprofit organization, and donations are tax-deductible. Although donations of any amount are welcome, there are 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 museum has always been Chicago-focused, operating and/or displaying 'L' cars and cars once run by the three major intercity electric railway lines that radiated from Chicago - the North Shore Line, the South Shore Line and the Chicago Aurora & Elgin. It has never been able to feature an interurban car that ran on its own rails.
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. Built in stages between 1895 and 1901, it connected Carpentersville and Yorkville as late as 1924. When rail operations halted between Elgin with Aurora in March 1935, buses replaced the interurban cars. Pace today operates the successor bus service.
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.
Konecki said that, in the event the museum is unsuccessful in its bid for one of the cars, donors will have the option of either receiving a refund, or donating the money to another museum fund.
Donations can be sent to the museum at P.O. Box 315, South Elgin, IL 60177-0315.
For more information, call Konecki at (847) 263-6042, (847) 209-5453 or e-mailed edwardkonecki@aol.com.