June 09, 2025
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Rails to Victory offers a train trip back to World War II era

By Rick West - Daily Herald Media Group
Len Brunkalla of Elgin tells guests stories from the American soldier’s perspective Sunday during the Rails to Victory World War II reenactment event at the Fox River Trolley Museum in South Elgin.

Len Brunkalla of Elgin tells guests stories from the American soldier’s perspective Sunday during the Rails to Victory World War II reenactment event at the Fox River Trolley Museum in South Elgin. (Rick West)

About 300 visitors took a train trip through history this weekend at the Fox Valley Trolley Museum in South Elgin during its Rails to Victory experience.

The event featured World War II reenactors encamped at the museum Saturday and Sunday, and then train rides from the museum south to the Jon Duerr Forest Preserve, with stops to see mock skirmishes along the route.

Event organizer James Tarbet, secretary of the trolley museum’s board, called it a “historic train trip through scenes from the most destructive war in human history to date.”

About 80 reenactors, including Tarbet, represented soldiers from American and German units, as well as Russian, Polish and more.

“We love the history,” Tarbet said Sunday. “A lot of us have family that served in wars. Yesterday, I was wearing my grandfather’s dog togs and corporal chevrons on my shirt. It always feels wonderful to be able to do that.”

Riders climbed aboard a pair of train cars, one that ran from Chicago to Wheaton with lines out to Elgin and Aurora in the 1940s and 50s, and another that ran from Chicago to Milwaukee and likely carried trainees to the Great Lakes Naval Center during the war.

Doug Strong of Hampshire was reenacting with the German 353rd Infantry Division Sunday, working as the camp’s cobbler, or “shuester,” as it’s called in German.

Using period German tools, he worked on boots for many of the reenactors taking part over the weekend. He said while most people reenact for the combat, he enjoys being behind the scenes.

“I really like doing this, fixing stuff and helping out, that’s a really underrepresented part of the military,” he said. “For every guy in the field there’s probably a hundred guys behind them doing paperwork, cooking, driving trucks and fixing things that are broken.”

The trolley museum, which was founded in the 1960s, hosts several special ride events each year. The biggest is the perennially sold out “Santa’s Trolley Express,” which runs from around Thanksgiving to Christmas.

Tarbet said tickets for that event, which are on sale now, are selling quickly and recommends that people who are interested buy them soon.

https://www.dailyherald.com/20250608/news/rails-to-victory-offers-a-train-trip-back-to-world-war-ii-era/

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