The Electric City Trolley Museum is a transport museum located in downtown Scranton, Pennsylvania, next to the Steamtown National Historic Site.[1] The museum displays and operates restored trolleys and interurbans on former lines of the Lackawanna and Wyoming Valley Railroad, which are now owned by the government of Lackawanna County[2] and operated by the Delaware-Lackawanna Railroad.
 The Electric City Trolley Museum in August 2018 | |
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| Established | 1999 |
|---|---|
| Location | Scranton, Pennsylvania |
| Type | transport museum |
| Website | www |
History
editEstablished in 1999, the Electric City Trolley Museum is owned by the Electric City Trolley Museum Association.[3] The museum began as Metropolitan Philadelphia Railway Association in the 1960s. Its first car site was in the Tansboro section of Winslow Township, New Jersey, then on a 4.5-acre (1.8 ha) site in the Jobstown section of Springfield Township, Burlington County, New Jersey through which a portion of railroad track ran. The local residents did not want a tourist attraction in their backyard and the governing body passed an ordinance in 1973 prohibiting trolley operation in the municipality.[4]
In 1978, the group was renamed the Buckingham Valley Trolley Association when it relocated to Buckingham Township, Pennsylvania. The trolleys then operated on a portion of what is now the New Hope Railroad.[5] As of 2019 the museum still maintained a restoration shop in the Township.[6] In 1982, the trolley operation was moved to the Delaware River waterfront in Philadelphia as the Penns Landing Trolley. There the line operated on the Belt Line Railroad from the Benjamin Franklin Bridge to Fitzwater Street. Real estate development pressure however forced the museum to move the cars from pier to pier several times. When the cars had to be moved to an outdoor location at Laurel Street they were vandalized and electrical components stripped by scrap thieves. The museum left Penns Landing in 1996 to relocate to Scranton.[7]
Exhibits
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The museum displays and operates restored trolleys and interurbans on former lines of the Lackawanna and Wyoming Valley Railroad, now owned by the government of Lackawanna County and operated by the Delaware-Lackawanna Railroad.
In 2006, the museum opened a 2,000-foot (610 m) extension connecting the county's trolley line from the Steamtown National Historic Site to a new station and trolley restoration facility next to PNC Field in Moosic, Pennsylvania.[8] The trip, including a long tunnel, replicates a typical 1920s interurban ride. The new tracks and trolley barn are part of a $2 million project financed by capital funds from the county and the state. The barn has space for up to nine trolleys, allowing the county museum to spend more time working to bring defunct cars back to running order. It has a gallery where visitors can observe the repairs.
In September 2017, the museum became home to a model train scene depicting Scranton. The diorama had been gifted to WNEP-TV by Last Week Tonight with John Oliver to replace the train in the news station's backyard, but it was too large.[9]
Gallery
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Trolley museum car 76 at the museum station -
Trolley car 506 on display inside the museum -
SEPTA Brill Bullet #206 -
Philadelphia & Western #46 -
Car 76 leaving the museum -
The John Oliver display -
Alternate view of the John Oliver display
See also
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References
edit- ^ "Electric City Trolley Museum". www.visitnepa.org. Archived from the original on 10 August 2021. Retrieved 10 August 2021.
- ^ "Trolley Museum « Lackawanna County". www.lackawannacounty.org. Archived from the original on 10 August 2021. Retrieved 10 August 2021.
- ^ "Electric City Trolley Museum Association". www.ectma.org. Archived from the original on 10 August 2021. Retrieved 10 August 2021.
- ^ "In Jobstown; Buffs Fight For Trolley Museum", Courier-Post, April 19, 1973. Accessed March 14, 2022, via Newspapers.com. "Trolley car buffs last night indicated they will appeal an ordinance banning storage and operation of the antiques at a Jobstown trolley museum in this township.... The club moved 14 trolleys to rural Jobstown last September from Tansboro in Camden County. Located on a four and a half acre tract, the trolleys run a short stretch of former railroad track running through the property. Township committee last night, without comment, adopted an ordinance banning the operation."
- ^ Gambardello, Joseph A. (9 August 2001). "Trolley cars for N.J. museum rot in field". Baltimore Sun. Retrieved 12 March 2022.
- ^ "Electric City Trolley Museum". Features - June 2019. Heritage Rail Alliance. Retrieved 11 March 2022.
- ^ "When trolleys trundled along the waterfront (24 November 2009)". WHYY PlanPhilly. WHYY.org. Retrieved 11 March 2022.t
- ^ O'Reilly, Hanna (4 June 2021). "Electric City Trolley Museum to offer excursion runs to PNC Field this summer". WOLF. Archived from the original on 10 August 2021. Retrieved 10 August 2021.
- ^ Horvath, Jeff. "Train set gifted by HBO's John Oliver unveiled at Electric City Trolley Museum". Archived from the original on 2018-01-20. Retrieved 2018-01-19.