Fox River Trolley Museum

The Fox River Trolley Museum in South Elgin, Illinois, is a charming and historically significant electric railway museum that preserves and operates a collection of vintage electric streetcars and interurban cars along a scenic 2.5-mile section of the original Aurora, Elgin, and Fox River Electric Railroad right-of-way beside the Fox River. Founded in 1961, the museum carries passengers on open-air and enclosed vintage electric cars through the Fox River forest preserve, offering a genuine experience of the interurban electric railway era that once linked towns and cities throughout the American Midwest. The museum’s collection includes examples of equipment from the Chicago, Aurora, and Elgin, the Illinois Terminal, the Elgin, Joliet and Eastern, and other Midwestern electric railways. Picturesque Fox River and forest preserve scenery accompany the entire excursion, making this one of the most scenic short-line electric railway experiences in the region. The museum operates on weekends from spring through fall and hosts special events, including photo charters, night owl rides, and the annual Pumpkin Patch Trolley for Halloween. Knowledgeable volunteer operators and docents share the rich history of Illinois’s once-extensive interurban network and the electric railway’s vital role in suburban and rural transportation before the era of the automobile.