Pennsylvania Trolley Museum

A Brief History of the Pennsylvania Trolley Museum 

As automobiles and buses replaced streetcars more than a half century ago, a small group of people with a dream came together to form an organization dedicated to collecting, preserving, exhibiting and interpreting the the trolley era. The Pennsylvania Trolley Museum has evolved over the past 50 years from a handful of volunteers and three trolleys to over 600 members and nearly 50 trolleys preserved at its museum near Washington, Pennsylvania. PTM is unique in that visitors actually experience the trolley era first hand by riding into the past on one of the Museum's beautifully restored streetcars. During the early 1940s the museum's founders realized that older streetcars were in danger of disappearing without a trace and attempted to preserve an early trailer car in Pittsburgh's Sheridan neighborhood. After World War II, the group re-formed as the Pittsburgh Electric Railway Club and interest in a preservation effort grew as changes in the American lifestyle forced many streetcar lines into oblivion. In 1949 the organization acquired a small four-wheeled trolley that was about to be scrapped. Pittsburgh Railways Company provided free storage for that car and two others that were subsequently acquired until a site could be found. Shown here is the museum’s first trolley, Pittsburgh Railways Company Paymaster's car M1. The car from which it was modified was built in 1890 by the Pullman Car Company, in Chicago. It was the seed for the preservation effort that today forms the core of PTM. Pasted Graphic In 1953, the PERC, formally organized as a nonprofit corporation. 

On February 7, 1954, the museum's first three cars were run to the site on their own power, just before the Washington line was dismantled. During the next nine years museum volunteers constructed storage tracks and a car house to protect the trolley cars, rebuilt nearly a half mile of track, and set up a diesel generator to provide the power necessary to operate the cars. The Arden Trolley Museum officially opened to the public in June 1963, providing visitors with a short demonstration trolley ride and informal tours of the collection. Over the next three decades the Museum added a gift shop-museum area, a restoration shop with additional indoor storage for the trolley collection. The Museum's Visitor Education Center was a second addition to the restoration shop building and opened to the public in November 1993. This facility allows the public to begin their visit in a pleasant, climate-controlled area housing exhibits, restrooms, a theatre/classroom and gift shop. 

Until 1993 the Museum was a completely volunteer operation. It was that year when the Museum hired a full-time Executive Director and in the years since its growth, interpretive efforts, educational outreach programs and visibility have become very professional while remaining largely volunteer. To more accurately reflect the scope of the Museum's collection and establish a fully descriptive public identity, both the Museum and the corporation were renamed Pennsylvania Trolley Museum. In 1999, a professional Educator was hired to improve the educational outreach to the community. In 2004 the Museum took its next giant step with the completion of the Trolley Display Building located on its 20 acre "East Site". This new building provides climate protected indoor storage for over thirty cars and is the destination for an extra cost daily tour that allows visitors to view the balance of vehicle collection.