Fox River Trolley Museum

The story

In 1961, a group of transit obsessives formed an entity called the Railway Equipment Leasing and Investment Company—R.E.L.I.C.—to rescue obsolete electric streetcars before scrap dealers melted them down. Five years later, they snagged a stretch of abandoned right-of-way along the Fox River in South Elgin, strung up overhead trolley wire, and started running retired interurban cars on volunteer power. You wouldn't guess it from the gravel lot off Route 31, but this open-air yard holds roughly 30 historic electric rail vehicles, including Chicago Aurora & Elgin car #20. Built in 1902, car #20 isn't just old; it is recognized as the oldest operating electric interurban passenger car in the United States.

Before highways and cheap gasoline killed regional electric lines, interurbans were the internet of the early 1900s—binding Fox River Valley factory towns directly to Chicago's Loop. Today, volunteers spend thousands of hours milling custom replacement window sills and rewinding traction motors just to keep the fleet running. You won't find polished exhibit halls here; the collection sits on open tracks and inside working storage barns, featuring old Chicago CTA 'L' rapid transit cars from the 1920s that spent fifty years carrying commuters before landing on this quiet riverside bypass.

The museum's line squeezed onto a 1.9-mile remnant of the original Aurora, Elgin & Fox River Electric route, tracking south through the Jon J. Duerr Forest Preserve. Along the way, the trolley crosses concrete underpasses built over a century ago so local farm cattle could walk under the tracks to drink from the river. When the train hits the end of the line deep in the trees, the conductor steps off to switch the trolley pole on the roof, flips the leatherette seats for the return trip, and gives you a window to step into the woods before the air brakes hiss again.