Trains to fill Arlington Heights for public art display
Thirty-two quasquicentennial trains will pull into Arlington Heights in June.
Trains have been important to the village since William Dunton moved his house and sold 60 acres of what is now downtown Arlington Heights to the Illinois & Wisconsin Railroad in the mid-1800s. In those days the trains carried milk and cattle to market, and today they take commuters to jobs in the city.
“The railroad is central to our entire focus,” said Lauree Harp, chairwoman of the committee leading the celebration of the 125th anniversary. “Without the train and William Dunton's convincing the railroad to redirect its route rather than following Rand Road, we'd still be ‘Dunton.'"
Thus between June 1-15 decorated fiberglass trains will show up around town in the spirit of the 2000 Ponies on Parade.
Some will park at Harmony Park, at Vail Avenue and Campbell Street in downtown Arlington Heights; or North School Park, at Arlington Heights Road and Eastman street.
Others will be displayed at the businesses or nonprofits that commissioned them.
These railroad barons are taking the job of creating public art very seriously.
Marcie Paddock, a member of Paddock Publications board of directors, is decoupaging small pieces of old Daily Heralds to form a backdrop on “The Engine of Democracy.”
Paddock envisions finishing the train with headlines that illustrate how the newspaper enhanced the community over the decades. For example, she found “Does Arlington Heights Really Need a Hospital?” (The newspaper's answer was yes, it supported establishing Northwest Community Hospital).
She's searching the archives for the perfect headline to demonstrate the efforts of Carl Martin Larson, an economics and marketing professor who served on the Paddock board and worked to get the Arlington Heights Road interchange with the I-90 tollway.
The artist wants every detail of the train to be historically accurate, including the hat on the head of “engineer” Hosea C. Paddock, founder of the publishing company.
“The cow catcher took me a weekend,” said Paddock, who developed the newspaper clippings technique for other artwork.
“Classified ads are the best because you know they're from a newspaper, and they're not distracting with big print or colors. When I'm looking through the papers I get busy reading them, too.”
At the July 4 parade, Harp plans to distribute a brochure showing photographs of all the trains and their locations, and she's got her eye on a scavenger hunt for families to find all the trains and where the Quasquicentennial logo is secreted on each.
Harp is particularly excited about Lutheran Life Communities' “Generations Express” because residents of the campus will work with preschoolers who attend Shepherd's Flock day care to paint the train.
It will feature people of all ages from the Lutheran Home community, said Rex Paisley, communication director.
The Arlington Heights Memorial Library, which will donate the use of its flatbed truck to carrying trains in the July 4 parade, named its train “Choo Choo Choose Reading.”
Everyone loves trains, said Deb Whisler, director of communications and marketing, and they are also part of the theme for the summer reading program in Kids' World.
The Arlington Heights Public Works Department is using its tree-themed train — that Janna Smith of Plainfield is painting — to urge residents to act against emerald ash borer, said Glenn Adams, forestry crew chief.
Eleven not-for-profits have joined the ranks of the railroad barons, thanks to a $12,500 grant from Union Pacific.
Union Pacific, which calls Abraham Lincoln its founder, is celebrating an anniversary of its own this year — its 150th.