Historic South Shore railroad cars to be featured at Saturday’s event
By Tracy Ouellette
Editor
The National Park Service and East Troy Railroad Museum are hosting a joint interpretative program featuring historic South Shore Railroad Car 33 on Saturday, July 8, during the museum’s annual “Chicago Day” event.
Car 33 is one of 19 historic South Shore Railroad cars conveyed to the National Park Service in 1984 after they had been decommissioned by the Chicago, South Shore & South Bend Railroad.
Five of the East Troy Railroad’s South Shore cars – including Car 33 – came to the railroad as a gift from the National Park Service at the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore.
“We got the car because a planned Park Service museum that never happened because they couldn’t raise the money,” East Troy Railroad’s Steve Thomas said. “So, to preserve the cars, they sent them out to museums such as ours.”
The National Park Service transferred the historic cars to seven railroad museums in 2010.
The East Troy Railroad Museum was chosen as the recipient of eight of the 19 historic cars because it demonstrated the ability to preserve, maintain, and operate the cars through a large contingent of dedicated volunteers, according to a press release from the railroad.
“We’re the last seven miles of the whole interurban line that exists today,” Thomas said. “We’re the only railroad that operates historic South Shore cars on an interurban line.”
Four restored historic South Shore Railroad cars will be in operation during the museum’s annual “Chicago Day” on Saturday, July 8.
The evening’s sold-out Dinner Train will also utilize an additional two South Shore cars.
“So, basically, we’ll be running six cars total, but just four of them for the day’s trips,” Thomas said.
This year will be the second joint interpretative program hosted by the museum and the National Park Service.
“Last year they were there because we were unveiling Car 33 for Chicago Day,” Thomas said. “We had restored the car and put it into service in 2016.”
Thomas said the East Troy Railroad has 10 South Shore cars total and is looking to restore the four that aren’t operational sometime in the future.
“Someday we hope to have them all running, but for now we have six of them running and we think that’s a pretty nice number,” he said.
Thomas encouraged the public to join the Chicago Day festivities at the railroad on Saturday.
“It’s a chance to interact with National Park rangers right near by,” he said. “You don’t get the chance to do that very often.”
The historic South Shore Railroad cars will depart the museum hourly from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday.
National Park Service Rangers will be at the museum and volunteers will ride in each car to answer questions about the National Park Service, Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore, and the history of the South Shore Railroad.
About the railroad
The East Troy Electric Railroad operates on eight miles of electric rail line that has been in continuous operation for more than 100 years. The museum has been in operation since 1972. The operating season extends from May through October with special holiday events in December. The museum is 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization run entirely by volunteers.
For more information, visit www.easttroyrr.org.
About Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore
Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore is part of the National Park Service. More than 20,000 National Park Service employees care for America’s 417 national parks and work with communities across the nation to help preserve local history and create close-to-home recreational opportunities.
Learn more at www.nps.gov/indu.
