The National Capital Trolley Museum is open for regular service. I should have made this announcement sooner, but I wasn't making regular blog entries when the line officially opened. Now, we are working to expand our fleet of operating cars. The twins - #4602 & #4603 - are handling scheduled runs at this time. On Saturday, the 27th of November, I had a chance to wander around the museum taking pictures. There was a good crowd in attendance, and the first trip was made at full capacity. Who did I meet on the first run? Why, that's Mrs. Claus chatting with Conductor Drumwright as the first car prepares to leave the station. She and Santa stopped by the museum to take a ride.We are still working to correct a few minor problems with our operation. A lot of it is boring technical stuff - like adjusting the overhead wire. The position of the wire over the track, the location of wire frogs and pull-offs - even the tension on the wire - all influence how well the trolley poles glide along the wire. It takes time to "tune" the overhead. In the next image, you can see Conductor Drumwright retrieving an errant trolley pole and placing it back on the wire.
If you have the time, come visit our museum. Take a tour of the new visitors' center and trolley display building, then ride one of our vintage streetcars. You can find our hours of operation - and a lot of other cool stuff - by visiting our website at:
www.dctrolley.org
Oh, there's a trolley museum in my area. I'm embarassed to say that I've never taken the time to visit it, but that will be a good field trip in the spring and I can use the photos and such for blog fodder!
ReplyDeleteI don't think they have any actual operating trolleys there but I could be mistaken.