East Troy Railroad celebrates 110 years riding the rails
By Tracy Ouellette
SLN Staff
The East Troy Railroad is celebrating its 110th anniversary this year and has lined up an impressive list of special events to go along with their regular weekend excursions.
The railroad also offers several dinner/pizza trains, which will be catered by Toothpicks Catering in East Troy.
“We’re partnering with Toothpicks for all our events this year,” Railroad Museum President Ryan Jonas said. “They came in just at the right time, so they’ll utilize their kitchen in the East Troy strip mall for all the dining events, which is nice because we want to do as much locally as we can.”
As in year’s past, the railroad is partnering with the Elegant Farmer in Mukwonago. Riders can spend time at the farm and store during the regular excursions. Special events such as the Bunny Train and Christmas Trains also have extra offerings at the Mukwonago farm. The railroad also runs a beer/wine and cheesemakers train in conjunction with the Elegant Farmer.
Some of the special events planned for the 2017 season include a new beer tasting and pairing train planned for Sept. 9.
“We’re partnering with the Black Point Estate in Lake Geneva for that,” Jonas said. “We’re just adding that to our events now, so more details will be coming.”
Another one of the railroad’s big events is Chicago Day on July 8, which celebrates Chicago’s railway history with a revival of the Chicago, South Shore & South Bend railroad of 90 years ago. The East Troy Railroad has six operating South Shore cars, originally built in the 1920s, plus two 1924 Chicago Elevated Cars that will be running.
“We partner with the National Park Service for that event,” Jonas said. “It’s a lot of fun.”
Other events include Railfan Day on June 24, a night photo shoot on Sept. 16, Milwaukee Day on Sept. 23, the Christmas Parade Train on Dec. 2, and the Christmas Trains, which run from the end of November until the week before Christmas.
Add to that the 70 charter trains and the weekend trips, the railroad is looking at another successful year, Jonas said. And they barely got a break over the winter.
Jonas, who’s been with the railroad for 10 years now, said the “offseason” was far busier this year than in the past.
“At least it feels that way,” he continued. “With all the work done in the heated maintenance building in Mukwonago, we went from having three to four guys working for a few hours on each Saturday to about 25 guys a day over the weekends.”
Stay safe
Safety is always at the top of the list at the railroad and Jonas said they have worked with the Department of Transportation to make the crossings as safe as possible.
Each year there are a few “near misses” Jonas said and if they can eliminate those, it will be for everyone’s benefit.
“It was an issue at Highway ES in Mukwonago all last year,” Jonas said. “The Village Board petitioned for the DOT to investigate the crossing with the idea of installing possible signals, but the DOT concluded it wasn’t necessary, but that we needed more signs.”
Jonas said the railroad installed more signage at the Highway ES and J crossings to increase awareness that the railroad track are operational and drives should be looking before crossing.
“We have ‘look’ signs out there now and hopefully, people will be looking out,” he said.
For more information, or to make reservations for one of the dinner/pizza trains, visit www.easttroyrr.org.
