Review of the Fox River Trolley Museum in South Elgin, Illinois

Living out in the far western Chicago suburbs of Saint Charles I frequently drive down route 31 and pass the Fox Valley Trolley Museum in South Elgin Illinois. This trolley and train yard is situated on an expansive lot resting between route 31 and the fox river. My curiosity finally got the better of us so we finally decided to make the short trip out to the museum to get a good look at some old trolley cars.

Walking Tour

Upon driving up to this trolley lot, we crossed an old track and the road lead me around all these abandoned cars to a grass lot where we parked our vehicle. There really is no defined parking lot so we parked our vehicle next to the others in the grass. There are no attendants charging you at a gate or telling you where to park so follow the road around the cars and park. As you get out of the car, it is basically a self guided tour to inspect the old train cars and trolleys. There were about four old trolley cars that we were able to walk into and check out the old seats and d©cor throughout. It was a definite step back into history several decades ago when these electric cars basically shuttled people to different train lines serving Illinois. One of the better cars to explore was the old Soo line caboose that had the engineer's quarters which consisted of desk, stove, boiler and several other living quarters necessities. Many of the old abandoned trolley cars were inaccessible to the public as they had ripped apart seats and were badly worn down.

The Ride

As we progressed throughout the lot, we heard the whistle of an incoming trolley from the south. The trolley was making its return trip from the Blackhawk forest preserve. My children were requesting a ride on the trolley so I purchased four tickets at a cost of $12.00. The ticket prices for a four mile round trip troll ride are $4.00 for adults and $2.00 for children. Our two year old was free.

As we got on the trolley we found plenty of open seats. The wait was about five minutes before the whistle sounded and the conductor checked our tickets. I believe the green car we were riding was the Aurora Elgin Electric that had soft comfortable seats. The trolley cabin was in still pretty decent shape and the whistle worked quite well as the conductor let the kids try their luck at sounding it. The train ride was picturesque as it traveled along the banks of the Fox River en route the Blackhawk forest preserve only two miles away. The conductor was quick to remind passengers to be on the lookout for potential deer and fox sightings of which we saw neither

The ride lasted about a half hour with a brief stop at the Blackhawk Forest Preserve station. The conductor allows passengers to get out and explore Blackhawk with the option to pick up the next train on the way back to the museum.

Overall Opinion

This museum is an ideal way to kill about an hour time for those families with little kids fascinated by trains and trolleys. If one is fascinated by the mechanical aspects of trains he or she might be better served to visit an actual train museum that has locomotives on display. The admission is reasonable considering the money goes to paying the salaries of the staff and hopefully using some of the funds to restore some of the cars. The conductor did point out that this same museum offers Polar Express themed trolley rides In December of which I will most likely be back with the kids. I was overall entertained by the trolley ride and consider the museum staff to be very courteous and informative.