Sponge Bob Square Train
Time for a photo dump! Let's turn back the clock to 15 years ago from the day I'm posting this, to July 1, 2007, to turn the clock back 50 years previously. On July 1st, 2007, the Fox River Trolley Museum would commemorate the 50th anniversary of the end of service on the Chicago, Aurora, & Elgin interuban line. The story of the end of the CA&E is a long one, which I will not recount here. I will simply sum up by saying that the CA&E ended service just after Noon on a busy July 3, 1957, trapping passengers trying to return home for the busy Fourth of July holiday.
On July 1, 2007, the Fox River Trolley Museum held their event to commemorate the end of CA&E Service. They wanted to make it as authentic as possible, but little did they know just how authentic it would turn out to be. FRTM owns CA&E Car 20, the oldest operating interurban car in the country, which has the distinction of being the only surviving CA&E car that operated on the first and last days of service on the CA&E. So it was only natural that it operated for this occasion. To replicate what happened on that day 50 years previous, CA&E 20 was to take passengers out to the end of the line, drop everyone off, and return to the museum campus. A diesel train would then be dispatched to pick everyone up, simulating how the Chicago & Northwestern eventually rescued to the stranded CA&E passengers. Warren and Saline River Railroad #73, a Whitcomb 70-tonner conviently painted in CNW colors, would operate then be dispatched to pick everyone up and return the to the museum's station.
The first part of this went according to plan. We were all dropped off at the end of the line, where we would wait. And wait. And wait. The diesel train no-showed, and after maybe 30 minutes or more, if memory serves, a museum volunteer drove out and told everyone what had happened. A sagging electric trolley wire got caught on the locomotive, which tore the cap of the exhaust stack off. So no trains could move until that was cleared up. Stranded could either wait it out, or walk the 1+ mile river trail that parallels the museum's line back to the station. I chose to walk, as it was a nice day and the river trail is very scenic. On my walk back, they Whitcomb got unstuck and picked up the other stranded passengers. I believe they were also able to eventually rectify the downed wire, and electric service was able to resume about an hour later. Unwittingly, the Museum had made the experience of the end of CA&E service much more authentic then they had ever intended or planned.
Here we see Warren & Saline River #73, a 1948 product of Whitcomb Locomotive Works, with a former Northshore car ready to play its role as the rescue train,
Sponge Bob Square Train
Time for a photo dump! Let's turn back the clock to 15 years ago from the day I'm posting this, to July 1, 2007, to turn the clock back 50 years previously. On July 1st, 2007, the Fox River Trolley Museum would commemorate the 50th anniversary of the end of service on the Chicago, Aurora, & Elgin interuban line. The story of the end of the CA&E is a long one, which I will not recount here. I will simply sum up by saying that the CA&E ended service just after Noon on a busy July 3, 1957, trapping passengers trying to return home for the busy Fourth of July holiday.
On July 1, 2007, the Fox River Trolley Museum held their event to commemorate the end of CA&E Service. They wanted to make it as authentic as possible, but little did they know just how authentic it would turn out to be. FRTM owns CA&E Car 20, the oldest operating interurban car in the country, which has the distinction of being the only surviving CA&E car that operated on the first and last days of service on the CA&E. So it was only natural that it operated for this occasion. To replicate what happened on that day 50 years previous, CA&E 20 was to take passengers out to the end of the line, drop everyone off, and return to the museum campus. A diesel train would then be dispatched to pick everyone up, simulating how the Chicago & Northwestern eventually rescued to the stranded CA&E passengers. Warren and Saline River Railroad #73, a Whitcomb 70-tonner conviently painted in CNW colors, would operate then be dispatched to pick everyone up and return the to the museum's station.
The first part of this went according to plan. We were all dropped off at the end of the line, where we would wait. And wait. And wait. The diesel train no-showed, and after maybe 30 minutes or more, if memory serves, a museum volunteer drove out and told everyone what had happened. A sagging electric trolley wire got caught on the locomotive, which tore the cap of the exhaust stack off. So no trains could move until that was cleared up. Stranded could either wait it out, or walk the 1+ mile river trail that parallels the museum's line back to the station. I chose to walk, as it was a nice day and the river trail is very scenic. On my walk back, they Whitcomb got unstuck and picked up the other stranded passengers. I believe they were also able to eventually rectify the downed wire, and electric service was able to resume about an hour later. Unwittingly, the Museum had made the experience of the end of CA&E service much more authentic then they had ever intended or planned.
Here we see Warren & Saline River #73, a 1948 product of Whitcomb Locomotive Works, with a former Northshore car ready to play its role as the rescue train,