East Troy Electric Railroad

Very cute museum (and be sure to check out the ice cream shop next door!!) and the train rides are just right for a family outing. Both of my kiddos love riding and there are a couple of different cars so it’s a little different experience each time. We have started parking at Elegant Farmer and riding to the museum and back so that way we don’t have to worry about perishables. Everyone is super friendly and sweet. Highly recommend!

This is an interesting stop for families or people who are into trains. If you’re someone who’s into trains, I’m sure you know all about this place so no need to read on. As someone who is «not» especially into trains, I was pretty indifferent to the Husband’s suggestion of checking this place out but found it quite charming.
So there are really 2 parts to this attraction — there’s the small museum and the actual train/​tram ride. The museum is in the old power station which still runs the electric line. It’s free and takes maybe 20 minutes to look through. The displays are interesting and there’s plenty to see for kids. Helpful volunteers staff the place and are happy to explain more about whatever you’re interested in.
The tram ride goes from East Troy to the Elegant Farmer — about a 10 mile ride. A ticket is good for the whole day, so you can hop on, hop off at the EF and do all the fall stuff that people do and then ride the train back. For an adult, tickets were $ 12.50/pp which is pretty reasonable. There’s a standard streetcar from the 30’s or a really cool, newly restored wooden car from the turn of the century. They also do themed rides — dinner trains, pizza trains, etc.
If you’re in the area, it’s a fun place to check out regardless of whether you choose to ride. And there’s an old-​timey ice cream parlor right next door!

This is a great museum for family’s and railroad buffs. The building is an historical land mark and was an operating electricity sub station.
The museum is filled with railroad items including a model railroad layout that is realistic looking and not a toy. A window view into the sub station equipment and transform. Lots of toy trolleys spanning all generations in display cases to show them off.
The grounds are nicely kept with picnic tables if you wish to do that. See my pictures. Big trees and well kept plants just make this building charming.
The trolleys here are real and run on a schedule, $ 12.50 for adults. This is a hands on live working museum that you can ride on. The ride is not very long but it does have nice scenery along a country road to enjoy.
The best part of the ride is that it stops at the elegant farmer which has hot and cold food to have lunch at and do some shopping before returning to the museum. I will post pictures.
Bottom line it’s a nice place to spend a couple hours and step back on time.

One, the folks out here are really nice and social, and of course they are very proud of their operation. Second, I visited on a special weekend called Chicago Day Out, so those cars which operated in Chicago were taken out and run on the track, ie Chicago S Shore & S Bend Rrd #4453 & #4420 were connected together. Third, the museum contains quite a bit of memorabilia from signs to a collection of scratch built scale electrics. To top it off, the museum is housed in a building which is a historic landmark back to the electric days. Fourth, one of the folks decided to give us a tour of the car barn on the fly. The ride out to the Elegant Farmer store at Phantom Woods was enjoyable since we had to pass another run aheading in the opposite direction on a siding. Very memorable, and something which rarely happens at any other electric operations. For a small and relatively young operation, 14 of the 32 rolling stock were on the roster of in service.