On July 25th, the East Troy Railroad Museum (ETRM) broke ground on a new 7,000 square foot maintenance facility. Officers and board members from the railroad were joined by the Presidents of the Villages of East Troy and Mukwonago, plus representatives from local chambers of commerce, Citizen’s Bank, and Walters Buildings, to turn the first shovels of earth on the site.
The new facility is being built across from the Elegant Farmer near Mukwonago, Wis. It will be 128 feet long by 56 feet wide and will allow for easy access around – and above – an entire railroad car. Cars will enter the facility on rails. The facility will also contain a machine shop and wood shop.
“The current facility is more of a weather shelter for our cars and it isn’t heated or cooled,” said Ryan Jonas, president of the museum. “The majority of our exiting car barn does not have finished floors and volunteers have to crawl underneath the cars to perform necessary maintenance.”
The new facility, being built by Walters Buildings, will contain a pit allowing the maintenance staff to work completely underneath the car – and it will be temperature controlled.
“Historic trolley, interurban and elevated commuter rail cars have come to us with millions of miles on them,” said Jonas, "and some of them are well over 100 years old. Electric, wood and metal repairs
The framing is up at the East Troy Railroad’s new maintenance facility! To see a recent photo and more updates, visit
http://www.easttroyrr.org/maintenance-facility.html
The East Troy Railroad’s new maintenance facility is finished – we are just waiting for the track to be installed into the facility. We hope to have a ribbon cutting and grand opening early in our regular operating season, which starts April 30th. Watch the East Troy Railroad website for updates: http://easttroyrr.org/maintenance-facility/html
This is really great news. Am I correct that I heard they have a freight customer and occasionally deliver and send an interchange freight car? If so, is it the connecting railroad’s power that does the job, or do they use a steeplecab or other trolley freight motor? Or a diesel?
No. Last revenue freight was about 15 years ago.
Dave:
Brian is correct – we no longer handle freight. However we do still have an interchange with Canadian National at Mukwonago. CN helped deliver five South Shore cars to the railroad in 2010 via the interchange. We do own two steeplecabs and still have a small diesel on the line too. See the 2010 story at http://trn.trains.com/news/news-wire/2010/09/east-troy-railroad-museum-gets-south-shore-interurban-cars
Thanks for the info. If a plant or warehouse wanted to locate on the line, would you accomidate them? Or would all the paperwork and other beaurocratic extra work rule this out?
I do recall that you have converted one of the South Shore cars to a diner and advertize “North America’s only interurban dining car.” How much papar work and inspections does this involve?
I recall that at Branford, we occasionalliy would have catered parties with food on Connecticut 500, on an informal basis, not really for the public.
Dave - I can’t really speak for the board, but I think we would probably run the numbers to see if it would make economic sense to serve a new or existing business with freight service. We run as a completely volunteer organization. My understanding is that we would have to employ someone full-time if we were to run freight. We do run quite a number of dinner trains. Our two dining cars are both former Chicago, South Shore & South Bend cars refurbished as dining cars. They are beautiful inside and out and they seat 100 people between the two of them.
I will want to check your website and see if there is an interioro picture of one of the dining cars. In advance, note that as far as I know, the South Shore never did have dining cars. Parlors, yes, but no dining cars. Or am I wrong?
What I would do, in a case like that, is to make the interior as much like one of the North Shore diners interiors as practical, the North Shore also being part of the Insull family and serving Chicago.
A Soo/WC/CN engineer told me the turnout was removed after the delivery of the South Shore cars, although it still appears to be in place from Google Earth. If you were to accept revenue freight you would probably be subject to additional FRA regulations.
According to Dubin’s Some Classic Trains the South Shore had 2 diners built in 1927 that ran until 1931. They sat 24, ran on 6 wheel trucks, and were the heaviest non-motorized interurban cars.
What happened to them? Did the interioris resemble in details and decoration the North Shore cars?
Dubin just says the South Shore luxury trains “became only a memory.” The photo of the South Shore diner interior looked somewhat more spartan than the North Shore diner built 10 years earlier. The both had 4-2 table seating. I noted that the East Troy rebuilds have about twice the seating capacity.
Well then; do the East Troy diners have real kitchens? Or is food precooked and only heated and cooled and served onboard?
Dave - the food is pre-cooked and brought onboard just before departure in warming containers.
Ribbon Cutting is June 25th for new East Troy Maintenance Facility!
The new track has been installed into our maintenance facility and the board has set June 25th as the date for a ribbon cutting and grand opening celebration. The ceremony will be held at 10:30am, followed by treats and tours of the facility.