Pennsylvania Trolley Museum Picks Up Where History Left Off
Taking a ride on a restored trolley at the PA Trolley Museum, photo by John Polyak
Trolleys on display at the PA Trolley Museum
This weekend, the Pennsylvania Trolley Museum will debut a new exhibit centered on the PBS KIDS series “Jim Henson’s Dinosaur Train”. The interactive display will include characters from the show, rides on a restored antique trolley, children’s games, and special guests from the Carnegie Museum of Natural History who will share fun facts and an exhibit featuring fossils, dinosaurs, reptiles and more.
As Executive Director Scott Becker gets ready for the Dinosaur Train to roll into town, he is excited about not only what’s ahead for the Museum, but all of the history behind it as well. “The museum has really been on a roll for the last several years, and we’ve grown dramatically. But our main attraction and our mission remains the same: telling the story of Pennsylvania’s Trolley Era.”
According to Becker, the history of trolleys is inexorably linked to the history of American growth and greater prosperity.
”We’ve had trolleys operating in Western Pennsylvania since 1890, which was really the dawn of the electric age,” says Becker. “At that time, when people would see a trolley coming down the street and they’d see the sparks from the electric wire connected to each trolley overhead, for most of them, that was the first time they’d ever seen electricity outside of a lightning storm. Trolleys revolutionized living patterns, how suburbs were built around cities – Canonsburg was a trolley suburb. People would take the trolley to work, to go to school, to go shopping. Many people’s lives revolved around access to the streetcar and today, it’s a great story about America in the 20th century: how the country grew, how cities grew, and how communities were linked together by the inter-urban trollies.”
Becker has been with the Museum since 1993. But his love for trolleys began long before that. “I grew up next to the New Haven railroad in Connecticut, and those were electric trains. I started volunteering with a trolley museum near there when I was 15 years old, and I’ve been at it ever since, over 45 years now!”
At the PA Trolley Museum, visitors can climb aboard restored trollies and take a ride on what Becker describes as the old inter-urban line that ran from Pittsburgh to Washington. “It was originally built in 1903, the same year the Wright Brothers flew the first airplane. And it was in service until August of 1953.” While the museum has had to replace and restore some of the tracks and wire over time, there are still some parts of the line that are original. “And we actually have the last trolley that ran the line in 1953 here at the museum as well.”
Range Resources is a long-time supporter of the PA Trolley Museum. Over the last ten years, the company has donated close to $175,000. Becker says that support has been key to the Museum’s continued operations and growth. “We are blessed to have the support that we get. It’s huge. And Range Resources is really a great example of a company that has stepped up and helped us in a lot of ways. They have been great neighbors for us here in Washington County, and in fact, our property is literally right next to Range’s Independence Field Office in Washington so they really are our neighbors!”
Range’s Mike Mackin points to the history that the oil and gas industry shares with trolleys. “This year, Range is celebrating 25 years of operations in Pennsylvania, but the oil and gas industry has been here much longer than that. In fact, the very first oil well in the country was drilled just outside of Titusville, Pennsylvania in 1859. As that industry grew, manufacturing followed, and trolleys were helping to transport workers to the jobs that built this country. We’re proud to partner with the Trolley Museum and to share such an important aspect of American history.”
And that history is shared with visitors from around the world. “We’ve had visitors from Japan, Germany, Australia, England,” says Becker. “Our volunteers come from quite a distance too. We have a base of approximately 150 volunteers who help us run every aspect of the Museum. Some are local, but others come from places like from Boston, Massachusetts; from upstate New York; Atlanta, Georgia; Cleveland; Philadelphia. Last year they donated over 30,000 hours to the Museum. These are people who just love what we’re doing here at the Trolley Museum, and they want to be part of preserving this history.”
Along with the new Dinosaur Train Exhibit that will open on Saturday, September 22, the Museum recently debuted a new Trolley Operator Simulator, and in October, the annual Pumpkin Patch Trolley exhibit will once again hit the tracks in Washington County.
For more information on times and tickets: call (724) 228-9256 or visit www.patrolley.org
This article is written and sponsored by Range Resources.