Mount Pulaski Historical Society Museum to host speaker on Interurban Railroad

[June 24, 2017]   MOUNT PULASKI - A Special Program will be presented by Dale Jenkins on the Interurban Railroad at 7 p.m on Monday, June 26th, 2017 at the Mount Pulaski Museum following the regular 6:30 p.m. meeting of the Historical Society.

Refreshments will be served, and the public is invited to attend.

The museum is located at 104 E. Cooke Sreet on the south side of the square in Mount Pulaski.

"The interurban was an American transportation phenomenon. Evolved from the urban streetcar, the interurban appeared shortly before the dawn of the 20th century, grew to a vast network of over 18,000 miles in two decades of excellent growth, and then but vanished after barely three decades of usefulness."

-- William D. Middleton,
The Interurban Era (1961)
 

For more information

To see or ride on an old Interurban car or electric trolley, a visit to a railroad museum is in order.

The largest in the country, Illinois Railway Museum - www.irm.org, is located in Union Ilinois. The museum has 37 Interurban cars, including seven from the Illinois Terminal Railroad. The museum also offers train rides.

The St. Louis Museum of Transportation - www.museumoftransport.org has a few Interurban cars to view, and also offers train rides.

The Monticello Railroad Museum in Monticello -www.prairienet.org/mrm has one Interurban box car and owns a portion of the Interurban corridor next to their active corridor.

The Fox River Trolley Museum - www.foxtrolley.org South Elgin has electric trains and offers a short train ride.

Locally, the beautifully restored Chatham Railroad Museum - https://www.chathamil.net/railroadmuseum has Interurban photographs and various Interurban railroad memorabilia.

Another resource is the Illinois Traction Society - www.illinoistractionsociety.org.

[City of Mount Pulaski]