July 8, 2012:

 

            I got up and got dressed. I had breakfast then headed out. I was going to the Fox River Trolley Museum. I got in the rental car and drove there. I didn’t have to pay tolls en route to the museum.

 

            Awhile later, I arrived at the Fox River Trolley Museum. I photographed cars that were on display at the front.

 

 

 

            I then paid admission and bought tickets for two round trips. I photographed former CTA 1-50 series El cars 43 and 45. Fox River had acquired car 45 from East Troy a few years ago. East Troy had painted car 45 into an older livery. I had photographed 45 at East Troy when I visited them in 2000.

 

 

 

            Back in 2000, the people at East Troy loved car 45 and its sister 35. After I visited, they acquired a third car; #28. The person I spoke to said that every trolley museum should have a 1-50 series El car because they’re double ended, they’re standard railway gauge, and the cars only needed poles. Their only disadvantage was that the cars were high platform. I had told the member about how Halton County had acquired car #48 and he asked if HCRR had gotten 48 running and I told them they had. Later when I photographed car 45, he pointed out that it was just like 48 at HCRR! However, I already knew that.

 

            However, East Troy decided to get rid of their 1-50 El cars. They sold car 45 to East Troy and scrapped 28 and 35! IRM had salvaged parts from 28 and 35.

 

            I then photographed Fox River’s other 1-50 series El car #40. Fox River had acquired cars 40 and 43 directly from CTA.

 

 

            Next to car 40 were CTA El cars 6101 and 6102 which had been restored by CTA personnel to their original condition. They ran until the mid 1990s when Fox River acquired the cars. One of the cars was open and I went inside and took some interior shots.

 

 

 

            Meanwhile museum members moved cars 45 and 43 around. I filmed the two El cars.

 

            I then photographed former MUNI PCC #1030 which is in rough condition.

 

 

            The line at East Troy doesn’t have turning loops or wyes. PCC 1030 is single ended, so even if it was in perfect working order, it couldn’t be used.

 

            I then went over to the car barn and photographed former Chicago, Aurora, and Elgin interurban #458 which Fox River had acquired from Trolleyville USA.

 

 

            I then photographed what I could see inside the barn. I then headed out and saw that the first run of the day would use CTA El car #45. While waiting to board, I briefly talked with a member at Fox River about the 1-50 series and why CTA 48 can no longer run at HCRR. I got on CTA 45 and we soon departed.

 

            The line runs along a river. The right of way the museum operates once belonged to the Aurora, Elgin and Fox River Electric.  At one point, we passed behind one member’s house whose back yard is full of railroad signs and switch stand.

 

            The car then went along a section of line that the museum had built in 2002 to serve a park. They have a portion for high level cars like 45 to stop as well as an area for non-high platform cars. Car 45 obviously pulled to the high level platform. I got off and photographed 45.

 

 

 

            I could have stayed, but I chose to go back on 45. We soon departed. Part way down the line, the car stopped. The crew let people blow the horn. I was one of the first to blow the horn. After a few more people blew the horn, car 45 resumed its trip back to the museum entrance. I attempted to film the railroad memorabilia in the one member’s back yard as we passed.

 

            We got back to the museum entrance. I saw the next to depart was car was Chicago, Aurora, and Elgin car #20. Car #20 was built in 1902 and is believed to be the oldest preserved interurban. I photographed it before I got on.

 

 

            Car 20 departed. I filmed the yard with all the railroad memorabilia when we passed. Several minutes later, we got to the end of the line. I photographed the car again.

 

 

 

            I decided to go back with car 20. We departed and the car stopped where car 45 had stopped earlier and several people including myself got to blow the horn. The Fox River members told the history of the Chicago, Aurora, and Elgin interurban line. The line served communities northwest of Chicago and brought commuters into the city. When a highway was built, it effectively cut the line’s access to downtown so commuters had to transfer to the El. This resulted in a decrease in ridership.

 

            The line had filed to abandon passenger service. On the day it was approved was on a weekday around noon. Operators were told to finish their runs and that was that.

 

            When 5:00 pm came that day and commuters who still relied on the Chicago, Aurora, and Elgin were outraged when they found out that service had abruptly ended which led to chaos and riots. Future abandonments were given more notice as a result.

 

            Car 20 returned to the museum entrance. I photographed it.

 

 

            I then went to the museum’s makeshift gift shop and asked how to get to Interstate 90. They told me I could just follow the road the museum’s on up north. I then photographed car 45 as well as CTA El car #40 and former MUNI PCC #1030.

 

 

 

 

            I filmed CTA 45 as it departed on its next run. I saw a former Illinois Central caboose was open. I went inside it and took a photo from the cupola. It reminded me of how Halton County has a former CP wood body caboose that they tow behind London and Port Stanley interurban #8.

 

            I then went by the museum’s car barn and photographed some of the equipment inside including Aurora, Elgin and Fox River Electric car #304 which Fox River had acquired from Trolleyville USA.

 

 

Car 304 is the grey and cream car with the red stripe.

 

 

 

 

            I decided I was done at Fox River. I took a few more photographs before I left.

 

 

 

 

 

 

            I got in my rental car and drove out. While I was initially looking for I-90, I saw U.S. Route 20 which I figured I could also take and it saved on tolls. I got on Route 20 which turned out to be not so direct. Just outside Union, I stopped for lunch at a Wendy’s.

 

            After lunch, I resumed my trip to IRM and soon arrived. I paid my admission and went inside. I photographed some trains that were operating including the train led by the Milwaukee Road F7 that was running the day before.

 

 

 

            I got to go into the cab of the F7 so I took some photos inside the cab.

 

 

 

 

            That train would be going out in about 10 minutes. I spent the time wandering around. I went by the trolleybus barn and saw it was once again locked up.

 

            It was soon time to board the train. I got on and the train departed. Unlike the electric vehicle rides, the train was slower. When we got to the end of the line, the train reversed back to the museum entrance. I got off and took some photos.

 

 

            I saw my friend Greg and went to see him. He was surprised to see me. Today he was operating a two car train of former North Shore interurbans. His train would be going out soon. I chose to go for a ride. At one point while riding the North Shore train, I got to blow the horn. I’ve got to blow the horns on three trains at two museums on the same day! When the train returned to the station, I photographed it.

 

 

            I then inquired about trying to get access to the trolleybus barn. I was told to seek out Jerry Saunders again. They told me he was at the maintenance barn. I went there and was able to find Jerry Saunders. He told me he didn’t have a key to the barn so it looked like I was out of luck. I spent the next little while wandering around and photographing various pieced of equipment on display.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

            I then went through the barn where the Nebraska Zephyr is kept and took some photos in there.

 

 

 

 

 

            I then photographed former Chicago and Northwestern SD40 #6847.

 

 

            I went into the barn where IRM keeps there interurbans and took some photos.

 

 

 

 

            I then saw my friend Greg again. I told him about going to Fox River earlier in the day and that I had hoped to see the trolleybuses but it looked like that was not the case. I said I’d come back to IRM.

 

            Greg and I talked about the 1-50 series El cars. According to Greg, someone had acquired title to a lot of them when they were retired, but they were stored on CTA property until they said that they had to go. Since this person didn’t have a location for them, he made them available to various trolley museums like HCRR and IRM.

 

            Feeling disappointed, I walked through the passenger car barn and I took a photo there.

 

 

            I was wondering if I could get one more ride which would most likely be on a CTA 4000 series El car. However, I felt I might not. I started making my way to the museum entrance. I looked towards the trolleybus line and I saw to my excitement former Dayton Flyer E800 trolley #925 operating! I photographed it.

 

 

 

 

            The trolleybus was being driven by IRM member Richard Schaeurwho was showing two people around. One of them was Russ Shultz. The other was a driver from TRAMS; a historical society in Vancouver which has a collection of old buses. I asked if I could join them and I was told I could. I boarded 925 and took some interior shots.

 

            I initially sat in the back of the bus, but soon, I moved to the front. Riding this bus brought back pleasant memories from the Dayton BBC charter. Dayton RTA has three Flyer E800s in storage; however, they’re all inoperable.

 

            I chatted with the three others on the bus and learned that Russ knew Terry whom I had met on the Dayton charter. I knew she would have liked to have been there with us!

 

            The bus stopped at the loop close to the trolleybus barn. I took some photos before we got back on and made another round trip.

 

 

 

            I also photographed an articulated trolleybus IRM had acquired from Seattle a couple years ago.

 

 

            At a railway crossing where the trolleybus line crosses the rail line, we got off and I filmed 925 passing. I bought a drink from a vending machine as I was thirsty. I rejoined the group at the wye at the other end of the trolleybus line. Part way back to the barn, we stopped and got out. The rear compartment was opened up and I took some photos there.

 

 

 

 

 

            Soon, we got back on 925 and we returned to the loop by the barn. The driver from TRAMS was given the option to drive. Richard asked Russ if he would like to lower and raise 925’s trolley poles. Russ declined, but I chose to. I got to lower and raise 925’s poles while the bus was moving at walking speed. Prior to this, I had raised and lowered the pole on PCC 4600 at Halton County and lowered the pole on Witt car 2894 at HCRR.

 

            I then went inside the barn and was able to see the two trolleybuses I wanted to see: Former Edmonton BBC #181 and former Toronto Flyer E700 #9339. I photographed them to the best that I could.

 

 

 

 

 

            9339 was acquired by IRM in 2007 from Halton County. In exchange for 9339, IRM sent them some parts for their interurbans. IRM also stripped parts off of 9339’s sister trolleybus #9348. I could see some parts inside 9339 when I visited it at IRM. I also noticed that since 9339 left HCRR, it got a rollsign as the coach has no rollsign when it was at HCRR.

 

            Edmonton BBC 181 was one of the 40 coaches the TTC leased in the early 1990s. Up until 1992 when the TTC mothballed its trolleybus network, they ran two separate trolleybus divisions. They were planning on converting one route to trolleybus operation in order to link the two divisions, but NIMBYs made TTC cancel the plan. As a result 181 and 9339 were at separate divisions. Only two BBCs made it to the division that 9339 ran out of: 192 and 197.

 

            Initially #181 was blocked by another one of IRM’s trolleybuses: Chicago Surface Lines #84; which is believed to be the oldest preserved trolleybus in the U.S.

 

            In the meantime, Richard started up former Seattle Brill trolleybus #633. I got to ride it a few feet. It was just like my first ride on a D30LF back in Halifax last May! I photographed the front of former Dayton E800 #960 as well as Seattle 633.

 

 

 

            Getting out of 633 was interesting. I literally had to squeeze between the bus and the wall. The trolleybus barn was originally intended to store three rows of trolleybuses. However as the collection grew, they found they could barely squeeze a fourth row in.

 

            Meanwhile, Richard got the coach 84 going. It needs work, but it’s drivable. Richard pulled 84 out. I photographed it. I was then able to get a decent shot of BBC #181.

 

 

 

            I went back to 84 and we took it for a round trip. There weren’t many seats installed in the bus. However, we were able sit. At one point, we stopped and photographed #84 some more.

 

 

 

            We went to the end of the line and back. We talked about BBCs. I learned that IRM was initially to get BBC #189 and the trolleybus museum in England was to get 181. Coach #189 is important as it was the last trolleybus I ever rode in Edmonton back in 2007 when my friend Mark and I visited there on our Western Canada trip. However, the owner of the museum in England said he wanted 189 for personal reasons, so IRM let then have 189. I’ve been told that when 181 runs, it’s a dream, but it’s more labour intensive to fix as it’s more technically advanced. The guy from TRAMS in Vancouver also agreed on account of TRAMS acquiring BBC #132 from Edmonton.

 

            I asked about TTC 9339 and Richard said it’s going to be a major project getting it operational again. He told me that a woman (of questionable sanity) had acquired a few of Toronto’s Flyers with the intent of using them as part of a restaurant. That didn’t happen and two coaches were offered to HCRR which was apparently down the road from the proposed restaurant. HCRR has no where to run trolleybuses. In the moving of the coaches, brake lines were cut and the underbody needs work. However, Richard told me that 9339 will eventually run again. I said when that happens, I’ll be sure to return to IRM.

 

            I then photographed former CTA El cars 2153 and 2154 before we headed back to the barn.

 

 

            Once at the loop at the other end, I photographed CSL #84 with Dayton 925.

 

 

            It was time to put the buses away, so we helped Richard guide 84 then 925 back into the barn. Space was tight, but we got both buses into the barn safely. I took one more picture of 925 in the barn before Richard closed it up.

 

 

            It was time to leave. We walked back to the front entrance of the museum. By now the museum had closed and our cars were the only ones in the parking lot. I got in my rental car and drove back to my hotel. Along the way, I stopped for dinner at a roadside Oasis. While there, I photographed the “Mach 5” from the Speed Racer movie from a few years ago.

 

 

            I then returned to my hotel and went online. I worked on this report some more. I also logged onto the Canadian Public Transit Discussion Board and posted about my day at IRM. Seeing Richard and the private trolleybus charter and getting into the trolleybus garage at IRM was a major highlight of this trip! I eventually set an alarm for 7:30 AM and called it a night.

 

All good things must come to an end. Click to read about my last day in Chicago.