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Off to the Museums

The next trip was suppose to be to the Amtrak Historical Society Convention to be held in Green Bay, Wisconsin. Trainweb since they host my web site and now that I'm a member of their family wanted me to go and cover that event for them. Amtrak owned Trainweb a round trip sleeping car trip plus a corridor round trip which they used to get me to Milwaukee. I would rent a rental car to get me to Green Bay which is no where close to any Amtrak route past or present. The convention costs covered my hotel cost in Green Bay. A check of the baseball schedule produced a White Sox game in Chicago the day I would arrive there and Brewers day game in Milwaukee the day after the convention ended. I got a hotel room in Chicago the day I arrived and one in Milwaukee for after the game. It was all planned and ready to go with me looking forward to it.

That was until Trainweb got a letter saying that due to lack of interest with only 3 people signed up so this year's convention was then cancelled. It was now time for a new plan. With the baseball games all set, I could still go to Green Bay and see the National Railroad Museum there. On Saturday the Illinois Railroad Museum was having Casey Jones Day and then I contacted the East Troy Trolley Museum who offered me a late Saturday afternoon visit. It would be a trip to these three new rail locations plus parts of Wisconsin that I have never visited before.

My mother rushed me off to the Santa Ana train station before she was going to be picked up to go to the opera that night. After a couple of Metrolink trains departed including one with conductor Dave, # 785 pulled in early. I boarded on the lower level and Conductor Lisa Washington collected my ticket before I was off to the snack bar for a few boxes of Jelly Beans prior to reaching Anaheim. It was in no time that we arrived in Fullerton where I went to the Trainweb office and visited briefly with Shivam. If you're ever in Fullerton come up to the Trainweb offices and pay them as visit. I went out to the east end of the platform to take a few pictures of three Metrolink trains and two BNSF freight while I waited for my Southwest Chief.

As the Chief pulled in I saw one of my all time favorite Amtrak conductors, Bryan Allen leaning out of the transition crew sleeping car. I was greeted by Chuck Jones, the 431 car sleeping car attendent who took my ticket and directed me to my room in the Louisiana, car # 32086, a Superliner II car. Once on the move, Chuck checked in with me before I went to the dining car for Beef Tenderloin off menu # 1 which was excellent along with ice cream. The only change in the normal route so far is the new shoo fly for the Placentia Trench Project and the new Metrolink North Main Corona stop. I started my musical selection with "Live Evil" by Black Sabbath during the Ronnie James Dio period of singing with the band after Ozzy Osbourne was fired. I enjoyed our trek up Cajon Pass and by the tunnels there I called it a night as I made up my bed and slept soundly my first night out.

4/30/03 I woke up east of Canyon Diablo on a clear morning with high clouds. I went to the dining car for French toast and Sausage then took a shower. All the toilets are out in our car as we made our way into New Mexico with me reading USA Today and listening to Uriah Heep "Live". Before Gallup I went to the lounge car for a cup of tea running into my dear old LSA friend Shirley Robinson. Sitting back watching the beautiful western New Mexico scenery in between getting up for a few pictures east of Gallup, Grants and near Dalies.

We crossed the Rio Grande River and arrived in Albuquerque where we had a medical emergency aboard and were met by the paramedics. I recorded our trains consist of: 177,71,80 & 97 P-42 DC's, 1701 baggage, 39032 Transition Sleeper, 32086 Louisiana & 32042 sleepers, 38005 diner, 33031 lounge, 31520 smoking coach, 34095 & 34029 coaches, DH 31540 smoking coach, 71023, 71030, 71169 & 71192 Express Cars, 74104, 74024, 74005, 74087 & 74083 Express Track and 460123, 410019 & 462093 road railers. I learned that my sleeper 32086 have had these toilet problems for over a year. Los Angeles makes it work, it dies overnight then no toilets for the rest of it's round trip to Washington, DC then back to Los Angeles. After thinking about that one, I walked across the street for a mint ice cream which I had chocolate chips added to. We left Albuquerque on time.

We headed north to Lamy where I shot a pictures of the depot before shooting pictures through Apache Canyon to Canyoncito where the westbound Southwest Chief was waiting in the siding for us. I went to the lounge car and watched the last half of "Harry Potter, Chamber of Secrets" before we arrived Las Vegas where I got a picture of the old Harvey House. Chuck went through our sleepers passing out three kinds of pound cake. At 5:00 PM I had a dinner of Beef Tenderloin along with a Chocolate Pyramid dining with a nice couple from New Jersey. As we climbed Raton Pass on this trip I shot pictures on both the New Mexico and Colorado sides,

before watching before visiting Safeway for some supplies. We left La Junta on time, and headed out into the night with me asleep about thirty minutes later.

5/1/03 Waking up in Kansas City, I had my now usual French Toast breakfast before returning to my room napping to La Plata. Following a shower, I went to the lounge car to enjoy an hour of the Missouri countryside turning into Iowa. We were stopped by freight train congestion approaching Fort Madison costing us forty minutes. I took a picture of the Santa Fe 2719 on display and of our train heading out onto the Mississippi River bridge. Later I photographed the Southwest Chief on the Cameron Connection as we left the former Santa Fe for the rails of the former Burlington Line for Chicago.

As the Chief sped to Chicago we encounted rain and the new schedule kept the Chief out of the Metra BNSF commuter rush. We wyed the train cutting of the rear end business before we arrived only twenty minutes late due to that BNSF Fort Madison mess.

I detrained for a Char Dog and since it was raining, a taxi cab to the now Rodeway Inn formerly the Quality Inn to wait to see if the White Sox game would be played due to the rainy weather. I decided to make the Green Line trek to the White Sox vs Oakland A's. I walked over to the CTA Clinton Green Line stop and walked to the east end which overlooked the ex CNW Station with three outbound trains ready to leave. My train came and I rode to Bronzeville ITC- 35 Street where I detrained for the four block walk to the ball park.

I asked at the first ticket window if the game was on and with a smile the ticket seller said "Yes!" realizing it was 44 degrees and falling and remembering Denver on Easter Sunday, I stopped by the White Sox Souvenir Trailer for a White Sox benny. I entered, bought a program and headed up to my upper deck seat behind home plate. The ground crew was busy fixing the field as I got paper towels to dry my seat. I ate my two hot dogs and a Mountain Dew all for $4.25. I thought that was low until I realize it was one dollar hot dog night, oh well! Beyond the confines of the park, I watched Metra Rock Island Trains, Red Line Trains in the Expressway and my Green Line Trains off in the distance.

This was the all time coldest game thus far in my quest to complete visits to all of the major league ball parks. In the bottom on the first, Carlos Lee for Chicago singled in two runs. Top of the second Manual Tejeda hit a two run blast then another run was added. Bottom of that inning, Chicago tied the game. In the bottom of the third, Maggilo Ordanez hit a solo blast for Chicago giving them the lead. Later in the fourth and fifth the A's picked up runs but the White Sox got two more in their fourth and one in there fifth to put the game way before a paid attendance of 10,639 but I would say there was only a fifth of that in the ball park that extremely cold and damp night with a strong cold breeze blowing out of the northwest. I took the Green Line back to my hotel and called it a night.

No hot water greeted this traveller and after I checked out I walked the empty streets of Chicago back to Union Station in the predawn hour. It was a breezy morning out of the north really blowing. I picked a USA Today and had a usual McDonald's breakfast before boarding the train for Milwaukee. We left on time with the 175 P-42 DC, 54525, 54535 & 54514 all red horizon seats, the 54521 green seats rebuilt and cabbage unit 99215. We left by all my usual landmarks like Lake Tower, A2 Tower and the Metra Milwaukee Lines shop before we went out into the northern suburbs. We made our stop at Glenview before crossing the EJ&E at Roundout prior to reaching Wisconsin with the countryside having a more rural forested atmosphere. The landscape then became rolling with farming as our southbound sister train passed by us on the fly. We stopped at Sturtevent with a Soo Line engine waiting for me to take it's picture. All too soon we arrived at our final stop of Milwaukee. After a quick picture of our train, I went into the station to wait for Hertz to open up. I then got an idea so I walked to the grade crossing south of the station and shot a picture of our train heading back to Chicago.

Once back at the station, the Hertz agent arrived and got me on my way forty five minutes before they even opened and I was quickly on my way. In my Chevy Cavalier I drove north on Interstate 43 to Green Bay with views of Lake Michigan off to the east in various locations. I took Highway 174 where my next destination came into view as I crossed the Fox River.

As I drove onto the property I was greeted by Milwaukee Road H-10-44 767 in beautiful paint. I parked and went inside to pay my fare as well to introduce myself to the staff. I had received special permission to use my tripod for pictures of their indoor collection. I walked out of the Harold E Fuller Hall into the Frederick Bauer Drumhead Gallery which was very impressive. That led me to the Frederick J Lenfester Center , the huge hall that holds the Eisenhower WW II train, the Union Pacific Big Boy # 4017 Pennsylvania Railroad GG-1 4890,

Pullman # 29 and other displays. Once I was done with my picture taking there, I next toured the Victor McCormick Train Pavilion. Inside here is the Rock Island Aerotrain,

Duluth, Missabe Iron Range 2-10-2 # 5806, C&O 2-8-4 2736, AT&SF 2-10-4 # 5017, Soo Line 4-6-2 # 2718 and LS&I 2-4-0 # 24.

Back outside on the north side of the McCormick Building is a freight train with Green Bay and Western # 315, a C-430 and Wisconsin Central GP-30 30 # 715. Other outdoor displays include GB&W S-1 # 101, Milwaukee Rod 38A, an E9A, two BL-2s, a US Army RSD-1 #8651 and others. It's a remarkable collection of equipment. I walked out to the observation tower which provided a great overall view of not only the museum grounds but the surrounding Green Bay area.

I next took the museum train ride around the loop pulled by the Milwaukee Road # 761. The car I rode in was the ex Lackawana Electric Car called Josephine while our other car was the North Western Lines # 7411. Tim Tennant was our conductor and gave us great amounts of information along the route. The grounds used to be a City of Green Bay park, 33 acres in size. Even though it has "National" in it's name, they receive no federal funds of any kind and everything is paid for by admission fees and private donations. We took off by crossing the main road into the museum and minutes later stopped by the observation tower along the Fox River. Here he discussed the Joseph Leicester, a hospital car, one of two the CNW had that carried patients from Chicago to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN. We next stopped on the bridge over Dutchman Creek where it flows into the Fox River. The train next passed the Haunted House they use as a fund raiser before crossing Dutchman Creek again. We crossed the leads to the Canadian National trackage and the outside rail world. We pulled to a stop at the depot thus completing the loop around the museum. Inside the Hood Jct Depot there is a large model railroad display. I really enjoyed my visit to this truly unique railroad museum.

A return to Janesville

I drove to a Walgreens for post cards before taking US 41 South to Wisconsin Highway 24, stopping in Watertown for a few minutes before heading south to Janesville. I stopped by the Wisconsin Southern shops to see what was there

and then over to the Walgreens for more post cards before heading to the Baymount Inn to get a room for the night. It was the exact room I had on my "Janesville Jaunt" adventure. I went over to see what was left of the former Amtrak stop for this city

before driving to Applebees for a steak dinner. I gassed the rental car up before returning to my room to relax for the evening.

5/3/03 After a continental breakfast and checking out, I drove US 14 east to Harvard stopping there for a few Metra pictures and to buy a new watch. Next I took IL 23 south to Marengo where I turned left onto US 20 east to Union Road which I took through Union, crossed three sets of tracks and pulled right up to the locked front gate of my destination then waited for someone to come open it for me which they did thirty five minutes late.

Since there was no one at the entrance I decided to look around first and pay later. My fist picture since it was Casey Jones Day was of the Illinois Central # 201 which had worked out of Chicago in commuter service the same time Casey was working there. Did Casey work this locomotive? We may never know as there are no records pointing to that fact. I walked over to the outdoor steam locomotive line shooting pictures of the various steam engines in all sorts of condition. Throw in the diesels like UP DD-40AX 6930 you begin to get a feel of what this museum has. I walked out to another outdoor storage area finding more unique diesels plus railroad cars and some trolleys. I then started my tour of the car barns beginning with # 8.

Here there is the sister engine to the Milwaukee Road 261, the # 265, Pennsylvania Railroad GG-1 # 4927, South Shore Little Joe # 803, the Nebraska Zephyr train set as well as other equipment. There are other car barns full of trolleys, railroad passenger cars, buses and electric buses with me seeing them all. Add all this up to what's displayed outside and there's 450 pieces of railroad equipment, 185 of that inside and 64 pieces under restoration. This museum really had an extensive collection of all sorts of railroad equipment.

I learned that the Illinois Railroad Museum was founded by 10 people in 1953 with a sole purpose of saving a single car, the Indiana Railway # 65. The paid the back taxes in order to get the right-of-way of the former Elgin Belvidere Electric Railway and also the land the museum resides on. It's all volunteers that make this museum happen and they do an excellent job.

After shooting some pictures of more unique diesel units like BN # 1, it was time to take a train ride. I started with the loop that goes around the museum's ground. The car I was riding in was built in 1932 for the Illinois Traction as their # 415 running on the isolated Illinois Valley Route travelling from Joliet to Ladd until 1935 when that line was abandoned. The car was then moved to Granite City,IL, to run in commuter service from there to St Louis from 1935 to 1957. It had the distinction of being the first car to be run here at the museum. This trip give the rider a great view of most of the outside displayed equipment.

Once the trip around the loop was complete it was now time for the mainline trip. I boarded the North Shore 757, a 1930 built car by the Standard Steel Car Company. We headed out into the Illinois countryside and it was like riding a real interurban train. On the westward trip I shot pictures the whole way back.

We came pass the depot and ran to the end of the line in Union before heading back. After a few pictures of Metra 306, an F-7A which was going to pull a train later on in the afternoon.

I looked through the last two car barns then shot pictures of a few more diesels I had missed before I said my good byes to the friendly train crews of the Illinois Railroad Museum. I drove east until I hit Illinois 47 which I took north. This highway turned into Wisconsin 120 taking me though beautiful Lake Geneva then onto East Troy my next stop on this trip.

I pulled up and parked then walked over to the depot where I introduced myself and was then told to enjoy my visit to the car barn. I walked down the right-of-way and outside I found two 50 ton Steeple cabs L8 and L9 form the former Milwaukee Electric Railway & Light Company.

Inside the barn is a real neat collection of cars. # 24 and 25 called the Beverly Shores and Ravenwood are used on their dinner train and are ex Chicago South Shore & South Bend. They have Green Bay Traction # 21, an open sided car, two Boston Rapid Transit Blue Line cars 0501 & 0506 and Sheboygan Light Power And Railway # 26, These are just a few of the cars they have in their collection of electric railway equipment. I had an enjoyable visit here before I drove to the Sleep Inn in Mukwonago for a restful evening.

5/4/03 Sleeping in a highly unusual event for me and after a continental breakfast, I drove back to Milwaukee. I took Interstate 43 to I 834 to I 94 to Miller Park Way. I passed the stadium choosing the gas up the rental car in preparation of returning it later this afternoon. I got to [park for free because I had arrived so early then walked to Miller Park with it's roof closed.

I went up to fourth deck finding my seat in the Family Section 518, no alcohol section. Miller Park is one of the major league stadiums with a retractable roof and since there is a front coming in the roof will stay close for the game. I learned that it takes 10 to 11 minutes to open or close the roof from a park employee. There is an arch of glass windows above the first and third base stands that allow plenty of natural light argumented by banks of light. Behind the outfield is also glass. The field is of course real grass. It's an amazing ball park. I watched both teams take batting practice then watched the ground crews prepare the field. Bernie Brewer, the mascot, did his pregame thing from Bernie's Dugout including his slide to Fireworks to waving the Brewer's Flag.

Now to the game. Bottom of the first, Richie Sexson hit a solo blast off the Piggly Wiggly sign out above center field. We had "Becky will you marry me?" in the bottom of the third with "Yes" as the answer. In the bottom of the third the Brewers added another run after Clayton Royce singled, sacrificed by the pitcher Matt King to second then Alex Sanchez hit a triple to score him. In the top of the fifth, the Mets loaded the bases and then Cliff Floyd hit a grand slam to deep center. The Brewers made it close when Alex Sanchez stole third and went home on Mike Piazza throwing error bringing the score to 4-3 Mets. In the top of the 8th, the Brewers walked in a run to make the final score 5-3 Mets before 18,571 fans.

I returned the rental car just before the Empire Builder arrived allowing some pictures of that train. I walked over to the Ramada Inn, checked in and got my room on the 6th floor. I walked up to the museum for some post cards and then went to the grade crossing at the east end of the depot to catch Hiawatha Service # 337 arriving from Chicago.

On my return to the hotel, I mailed a post card before having a roast beef dinner in the hotel's restaurant. I returned to my room to relax for the rest of the evening.

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