A CENTURY OF RAILROADING. The East Troy Electric Railroad rolled out just about anything that would turn a wheel for a commemorative trolley parade. The Milwaukee Electric reached East Troy from Milwaukee in 1907. The line was relatively lightly used, with a two-car train being an unusual occurrence. I don't recall the museum operating a three car South Shore train previously.

When the first preservation railway opened in 1972, the space across the tracks from the cemetery was still farmland. The current residents appear to be friendly to the trains, but as suburban development continues, I fear there will be some objection to a railroad in the middle of a subdivision. (On the other hand, should real gasoline prices go much higher, perhaps there will be interest in running the trains to Milwaukee. I do get a kick out of people who, in making conversation, alert me to transit projects that are restorations of what we once had!)

Wisconsin's signage for preservation railways is intriguing. These are the same graphics that Illinois uses for Metra stations. It's been a long time since an Electro-Motive Division cab unit headed up a revenue passenger train, although they're not unknown in preservation.


Some of the rolling stock is also pushing 100. Sheboygan interurban 26, which ventured as far to the north and west as Elkhart Lake in revenue service, is back on rails after a stint as a vacation cabin in east central Wisconsin. Line car D-23 of Milwaukee Electric, has been in continuous service as a work motor and line car for a century with the interurban, the Power Company, and the museum. (A good number of Milwaukee Electric freight and work motors survived into preservation because Wisconsin Electric Power retained a few small stretches of electric railway for moving coal at power plants.)

The trolley parade went for visual impact wherever possible, with a two-car dinner train (both South Shore picture window coaches reconfigured as table cars with a food assembly area at one end and a small bar at the other) and a three car Evanston train awaiting passengers. Unfortunately, it is not possible to buy a ticket from East Troy to Soldiers' Home, the Rapid Transit stop closest to Miller Park.


A pair of Chicago plushies has been repainted to the mid-1920s appearance. Although the cars are signed for Ravenswood, there are as yet no condo-lofts or Starbucks along the right of way.


Because of the way the parade was being operated, with all the cars going to Mukwonago before any went back, most people were arranging to position a motor vehicle at the Mukwonago end and ride only one way. As today's trip included a family get-together with several birthday observances, that's what we opted to do. Although the weather was Wisconsin late-spring raw, we headed over on the breezer.


The car is a scratchbuilt project with great popular appeal. The breezer running in Mr. Rogers's Neighborhood is based on reality. Most of the parade equipment has now arrived at the Mukwonago end.


We had a pizza party in mind and headed out before all the cars had arrived in Mukwonago. On my return south, I checked on the cleanup operations. The hayride train was the last train to leave. Here it is, with lots of crossing protection, at Army Lake Road.


The motor switched coal hoppers at Port Washington, Wisconsin, until the late 1960s.