Volunteers behind the Fox River Trolley Museum are in the midst of a good old-fashioned barnraising and are seeking the public’s support in funding the effort.
“What we’re doing here is preserving history,” said Kathleen Jamieson, fundraising chair for for the museum in South Elgin. “Many of the trains we have here sit on the line on which they ran so it’s local history,”
Its collection currently consists of 35 train or trolley cars, some of which date back as far as 1887, Jamieson said.
The barn space the museum now has holds nine of those cars and is used to do restoration and maintenance work. With the money museum volunteers hope to raise through a GoFundMe.com campaign, they’ll be able to build an addition to the 41-year-old barn so it can house three more cars.
Having more enclosed space is particularly important when storing and restoring older models, which are mostly made of wood, Jamieson said.
Volunteers have already started on the barn addition, securing permits in mid-November. They have completed grading, earth and track moving, and other prep work needed before the building process can begin.
With track being so heavy, the project has given volunteers a real appreciation for what went into building railroads, Jamieson said.
The project gained traction following a change in the museum’s board of directors last year, resulting in the fundraising committee becoming active again, Jamieson said. That led to discussions with an unnamed donor, who has agreed to match up to $53,000 raised for the addition.
As of Tuesday afternoon, the group had collected more than $11,250 of that $53,000 goal.
The $106,000 will cover the cost of the work already done by volunteers and the cost of hiring a construction company to put up the addition, Jamieson said. If any additional money is raised, it will be put toward future upgrades, such as tracks, a sprinkler system and overhead wiring in the car barn.
Building the new structure will take three to six weeks, Jamieson said. The hope is the work will be done by the time the museum hosts its Bunny Burrow Express event on April 5, 12 and 19 or in time for the season opening on Mother’s Day, May 11.
In addition to a newly expanded barn, it also will be easier to get into and out of the museum’s 365 S. La Fox St. location this year now that road construction on Route 31 is finished. Last year, its visitor count was down about 50% because of that road work and they’re eager to see the numbers return to where they were or higher than in 2023, volunteers said.
Last year the museum also completed a project in which each car in its collection, along with information about it, could be viewed online. The equipment also has been marked with QR codes so visitors can use their cell phones to access the information as they view the pieces in person.
Jamieson said the all-volunteer Fox River Trolley Museum is ready to get the barnraising underway.
“We are small but mighty, and I’m so immensely proud of the dedicated volunteers we have,” she said. “Many hands are at work here in the cold, but we can’t do it alone. Donations will help keep this piece of history alive.”
The fundraising campaign can be found at www.gofundme.com/f/double-your-impact-help-preserve-historic-trolleys.
Mike Danahey is a freelance reporter for The Courier-News.
