Fox River Trolley Museum

Fox River Trolley Museum
CNS&M #715 at the museum in 2008
Locale	South Elgin, Illinois
Commercial operations
Built by	Aurora, Elgin and Fox River Electric Company
Original gauge	4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge
Preserved operations
Preserved gauge	4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge
Commercial history
Closed to passengers	1935
Preservation history
1961	Railway Equipment Leasing and Investment Corporation (RELIC) founded
1966	Began operating
Present	Continues open
Website
Fox River Trolley Museum

The Fox River Trolley Museum is a railroad museum in South Elgin, Illinois. Incorporated in 1961 as R.E.L.I.C. (Railway Equipment Leasing and Investment Co.), it opened in 1966 and became the Fox River Trolley Museum in 1984.

The museum grounds are located at 361 South LaFox Street (Illinois Route 31), approximately two blocks south of the intersection of LaFox and State Streets.

The museum maintains a collection of 30 antique electric trolleys, railroad cars, and locomotives which range in construction dates from 1887 to 1959. The majority of the museum collection is focused on railways and electric transit lines of the Chicago area. One of the most exceptional cars in this collection is the wooden interurban (inter-city) Chicago Aurora and Elgin Railroad car #20, purchased directly from CA&E after that railroad discontinued passenger service. Car #20 was constructed in 1902 and is the oldest electric interurban car operating in the United States. The most recent collection acquisitions include the interurban electric railway car, Aurora, Elgin & Fox River Electric Co. #304, that was built for the Fox River Line in 1923, and ran in daily service between Elgin and Aurora until March 1935. Between 1935 and 1954, it operated in Cleveland over the line best known as the Shaker Heights Rapid Transit. The car was then sold, with three other ex-Fox River Line cars, to real estate entrepreneur Gerald E. Brookins, whose family operated Trolleyville USA, in Olmsted Township, Ohio, in suburban Cleveland, until 2002. AE&FRE #304 made its first run over its original railroad on August 21, 2010, over 75 years after it last ran on the line.

Aurora, Elgin and Fox River Electric Company (AE&FRE)
Chicago, Aurora, and Elgin Railroad (CA&E)
Chicago North Shore and Milwaukee Railroad (CNS&M)
Chicago South Shore and South Bend Railroad (CSS&SB)

AE&FRE #5, a 45-ton General Electric diesel, was the last locomotive to work on AE&FRV tracks. It was bought in 1945 to replace two electric locos, and hauled coal cars from the Illinois Central Railroad junction at Coleman to the State Hospital in Elgin until 1972.