On July 25th the East Troy Railroad Museum broke ground on a new 7,000 square foot maintenance facility to help maintain and restore the organization's historic trolleys and interurban railroad cars.

The new facility is being built across from the Elegant Farmer store and deli near Mukwonago, Wis. It will be 128 feet long by 56 feet wide and will allow for easy access around -- and above -- an entire railroad car. Cars will enter the facility on rails. The facility will also contain a machine shop and wood shop and it will be temperature controlled. It will also include a pit below the rails, allowing volunteers to work underneath the cars more easily.

The museum hopes to turn the current maintenance and storage barn in East Troy into more of a display facility for the organization's rolling stock -- making more of the collection available for public viewing.

Separately, the museum recently completed restoration work on two of its Chicago South Shore and South Bend Railroad interurban cars -- No. 9 and No. 13. Both cars are now back in excursion service.

For more information on the maintenance facility and restoration work, visit our web site at http://www.easttroyrr.org and click on the "projects" tab.

It looks like East Troy will be part of the pre-conference electric tour on the Wednesday before the official start of the ATRRM Convention this year. Will any progress be visible? Looking forward to visiting the site.

Andy Nold

Andy - yes, there should be some progress by the time of the ATRRM conference. We are hoping to have the facility enclosed before the snow flies -- and to have a ribbon cutting before the end of the year.

The East Troy Railroad Museum's new maintenance facility is coming along nicely. The attached photo was taken earlier this week. All donations of $500 or more toward the new facility will be recognized with a bronze plaque to be displayed at the facility. Donate at: http://www.easttroyrr.org/maintenance-facility.html

The new maintenance facility is enclosed, the plumbing, electrical and heating is nearly all installed, and the tracks to the facility will be installed soon. Mark your calendars for April 30th, when we will have a ribbon-cutting and open house on the first day of our regular operating season. I hope you can join us. http://www.easttroyrr.org

Ribbon Cutting Postponed!

I just wanted everyone to know that the ribbon cutting planned for April 30th has been postponed. The building is done but our track contractor has not been able to install the new siding into the facility yet. We would like to show it off when it is truly complete. I will post an update when we are sure of a ribbon cutting date.

Hi,

Do you have any pictures of TMER&L 200/400/800? How will it be restored: as a regular streetcar or as a private car or as the Hospital Car?

Thanks,

Charles

Hi,

Do you have any pictures of TMER&L 200/400/800? How will it be restored: as a regular streetcar or as a private car or as the Hospital Car?

Charles:

I have not been able to find any photos of TMER&L 200/400/800 and am not sure about which version we are pursuing in terms of restoration. I will see what I can find out.

Ribbon Cutting and Grand Opening will be on June 25th!

I just wanted to update anyone interested in the new East Troy Railroad Museum maintenance facility. The ribbon cutting and grand opening celebration will be on June 25th at 10:30am. The facility is located across from the Elegant Farmer at the junction of Highway ES and County Road J in Mukwonago, Wisconsin. If you would like to ride a train to the ribbon cutting, one of our regularly-scheduled trains will leave the East Troy Depot at 10:00am and will stop at the Elegant Farmer in time for the ribbon cutting ceremony.