Joliet, Plainfield & Aurora line the topic Saturday, Feb. 15

From 1904 to 1926, residents of Joliet, Plainfield, and Aurora, plus the rural residents living along the 20-mile route between those towns, had access to an efficient, privately-owned mass transit line. On Saturday, Feb. 15, starting at 1 p.m. at Oswego’s Little White School Museum, Bill Molony, president of the Black Hawk Chapter of the National Railroad Historical Society, will transport visitors back to that era with an entertaining and informative presentation on the Joliet, Plainfield & Aurora Electric Railroad. The JP&A’s interurban trolley cars offered a relatively comfortable, all-weather connection between the urban areas it linked, along with access for shopping, school, and jobs for the residents living along the line, whose tracks paralleled today’s U.S. Route 30. Travelers boarded the trolley cars at various stops from downtown Joliet to downtown Aurora, as well at rural stops at Normantown and Wolf’s Crossing. Admission donation for the program, which is aimed at visitors age 16 and older, is $5. No pre-registration is required; just show up the day of the program. Proceeds benefit the operations and mission of the Little White School Museum. For more information, call the museum at 630-554-2999, check out their web site at www.littlewhiteschoolmuseum.org, or send an email to info@littlewhiteschoolmuseum.org.