A huge THANK YOU to the John Emery Rail Heritage Trust for granting our museum $10,000 for the continued restoration of our Chicago interurban car 315. This is the third grant we have received from this Trust and we appreciate their continued support.
John Emery was a long-time Chicago resident who was an avid rail enthusiast who loved to ride trains around the world, and wanted to help preserve rail equipment and infrastructure that will allow future generations to share his experiences during what he considered the “Golden Age” of railway travel, from 1920 to 1960.
Thirty-seven applications were received from various railway preservation organizations across the country requesting in excess of $800,000. After much careful research and consideration by the Trust, 29 grants were awarded totaling $500,000.00. This amount doubles the amount that was given last year. The John Emery Rail Heritage Trust is the largest trust in the US that makes 100% of its awards solely for railroad restoration purposes. http://emeryrailheritagetrust.org/WP/
We are very grateful for the support from the John Emery Rail Heritage Trust for their continued support of our Aurora Elgin & Chicago interurban car 315. We’ve come a long way on the restoration of car 315, but we still have quite a bit of work to do to be able to complete the restoration. We are looking forward to seeing a great deal of restoration progress on the car this year. If you are interested in restoration or maintenance work, become a volunteer on the car 315 team.