MUSEUM BRINGS HISTORIC RAILCAR BACK HOME...EAST TROY, Wis. - On Tuesday, September 11, 2001, the East Troy Electric Railroad Museum completed a year and a half long effort to return former Chicago North Shore and Milwaukee Railroad coach 761 to Wisconsin after a nearly 39 year absence.  The deal that brought the car back to Wisconsin consisted a coach swap between the East Troy Electric Railroad Museum and the Michigan Transit Museum. The East Troy museum exchanged Chicago South Shore and South Bend Railroad coach 11, one of eight similar coaches in the museum's collection, for Michigan's historic North Shore Line coach, now the only one in Wisconsin. Built in 1930 by the Standard Steel Car Company, car 761 faithfully served the residents of southeastern Wisconsin by carrying them to and from, Milwaukee, Racine, Kenosha, Chicago and all points in between on the famed North Shore Line. Car 761 made its last trip out of Milwaukee at 7 PM on January 20, 1963, the last day of service for the North Shore Line. Following abandonment, the late Bob Owen, (1913-1983) purchased the car from Hyman-Michaels, the North Shore's scrapper, and moved it to Cadillac, Michigan.  On June 17, 1977, the car was purchased and moved to the Michigan Transit Museum's site on the Selfridge Air National Guard Base near Mt. Clemens, Michigan. There the car was pulled behind a diesel locomotive as it carried tourists on the museum's rail line that operates in and around the base. The car operated this way right up until the week before the move. The move was being handled by Big Red Movers of Milwaukee. Big Red has experience moving rail cars, including the famed Burlington Zephyr at the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry, and helped make this trade very easy for the two museums. In order to save on money and delays with getting permits for the movement of the over size loads, the cars traveled by land and by sea via the carferry S.S. Badger. On September 4, 2001, car 11 left East Troy by truck enroute to Manitowoc where it was loaded onto the S.S. Badger for the trip across Lake Michigan to Ludington. Once in Michigan, the car was trucked to Selfridge Air National Guard Base where it was placed back on rails and car 761 was loaded onto a flatbed trailer for the return trip to Wisconsin.  Once in East Troy, Big Red's expertise really came through. In a manner of about three hours, they unloaded 761's trucks, positioned the car over the rails in Young Street, lifted the car off the trailer using three forklifts, positioned the trucks under the car and lowered the car onto its trucks. Once back on rails, museum volunteers positioned their two freight locomotives on either side of 761 for the trip back to the museum's carbarn. Restoration will begin almost immediately by repairing the car's roof. The interior will be cleaned and repainted and five seats will need to be fabricated. New stairwells will need to be constructed and a substantial amount of body work will be needed too. The entire mechanical system will be inspected and repaired where needed and then the car will be repainted before being put back into active service. 

The museum is currently accepting donations to help offset the cost of moving the cars and to help restore 761 to operating condition.

Taken from The story of 761's trip to East Troy by Scott Patrick