The Shore Line Trolley Museum
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- Опубликовано: 10 сен 2024
- At the end of a nondescript residential road in East Haven, Connecticut lies a true gem for railfans and history buffs alike. The Shore Line Trolley Museum boasts a collection nearly 100 rail vehicles as well as a museum with countless artifacts, documents, and hands-on exhibits. The museum is owned by the Branford Electric Railway Association, an organization founded in 1945 to preserve the history of the American trolley car and to preserve the Branford Electric Railway, the line upon which the museum's equipment is operated on today.
The 1.5 mile railway is the oldest continuously operating suburban trolley line in the United States. It travels through the salt marshes of Branford, Connecticut and is about as scenic as it can get, from the mazes of rivers and tall grass to the elevated Osprey nests that can be seen along the way (as you can see one motorman point out in the video). The railroad takes you on a journey back in time-to the turn of the last century-in a beautiful manner.
Another scene you will notice is the railway's extensive car barn and maintenance area where they service and restore countless artifacts of history. A tour of this facility is included as part of the trolley ride.
The trolleys featured in this video are the New Orleans Public Service #850, built in 1922, and the Johnstown Traction 357, once completely submerged in water during the Johnstown Flood of 1938.
I was told by one motorman, "To those of you with cameras... this isn't Amtrak, take all the pictures and video you can." I did so, and this video is dedicated to the 1000+ members and volunteers at the Shore Line Trolley Museum who preserve this important piece of history and make this such an enjoyable experience for people like my family and I.
Visit the museum at: www.bera.org/
Note: Hurricane Irene had a devastating effect. While the damage is manageable, it can only be so with your help. Support from everyone can help them to reopen the whole length of the railway and to repair the damage to some of the damaged equipment in their car barns. Donations are accepted by the BERA through their website.
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I was there on 7/11/2021. The guys who operated the trolley’s said you need eight sessions of eight hours each to be able to put your hands on them. That’s crazy. It’s mostly retirees who run the operation. All of them were so knowledgeable and very nice.
Love how these trolleys/trams/interurbans go through semi urban areas straight into wooded areas where they are the only way to into and out of these wooded areas.
tram musium gives us opportunity to look back in to last century's cool deciplined transport system. great job by authorities to explain and make us understand how actually it works.
Cool to see 3 Johnstown Traction Company trolleys still around. 2 at Rockhill Trolley Museum here in PA and this one. What a cool trolley still has old ads for Glosser Bros Department Store, that closed YEARS AGO.
Thanks, I'm glad you enjoyed the video. I was also pleasantly surprised what a great thing they have going there. I would recommend it to anyone.
A lot fans had held out hope the Museum would finally be able to expand their active trackage and add some of the old right of way. I guess that never happened. Expanding trackage is a major cost for the usually cash strapped museums around the country, but a few have managed to beat the odds and pull it off. From what fans were told several years ago the Museum was working to increase their trackage by over 50% but were having problems with property owners nearby who didn't want a train running thru their properties, even though many of them had owned the land going back to the days when there were active trolleys in operation. Maybe someday they'll be able to convince those people to change their minds.
I actually have nothing but great things to say about Branford. From NO. made a NE trip in 2008 went to Warehouse Point and rode the 836, nice but line was blocked about halfway with a disabled vehicle. Went to Lowell to ride 966, NOWHERE TO BE SEEN (phooey) but Shore Line Trolley Museum was by far the best, rode 850 all day. Beautiful renovation, wish I could have driven it myself. Great video, thanks for posting.
I agree, I would toss the PA trolley museum in as well, really nice place. I'm still waiting for one of these active museums to be the first to return a trolley route to revenue service and operate for real. I'm surprised one has stepped up for some type of pilot funding and try. So many old trolley ROWs are still there, only populated by bike or running trails, and could be restored to use on some level. Having local access, or a supplement of commuter rail of today using the ROWs would help in many ways. People in urban area know land near Metro stops is developed with stores, shops, business office space and even apartments and condos. People move into the area and create a strong tax base. Several trolley projects have done just that and have had a positive influences. There have been some bogus projects, used to promote various private business and developments which have little if any public utility. They promote the line as a trolley but leave out the part about where the line actually goes or what service that line provides to the community. They seek public funding based on that. A recent development in Arlington, VA was stopped after the public found out the project had been rushed through the County Board and approved without proper vetting. The Board member who rushed the project also stated some creative facts. As his last act on the Board, the member POC stepped down and returned to the private sector, where he cashed in for his stellar work in a vicarious manner. The line would have been installed had it not been for $1,000,000 set aside for trolley stops. The money went to build one stop. That was too much even for a public not paying attention. Federal approval was denied for other reasons and the project eventually scrapped. Today, the idea of a trolley line remains popular. However, where it goes to needs to be discussed in an open format.
The guy with the rain cover on his cap needs to pay more attention to the track ahead especially when going around that curve!
Nice video Kevin! This is a very nice museum it seems, I would love to visit here. I love what you did in the beginning of the video... with the old-style footage.
Great clip. Thanks for shooting and sharing.
@BurningtunaDC Thank you for watching and enjoying!
Re-run! Nice video.....again!
very classy!
@CSX6000 Thanks Adam! I loved this museum.
Would love to see the interurban that ran from Houston Texas to Galveston Texas and ran through Pasadena Texas, Webster Texas, Dickinson Texas, where part of the old interurban bed is visible, Texas City Texas, Lamarque Texas, and into Galveston Texas the tracks relaid and the old interurban cars found and restored I think that the Interurban wouldn't be just a tourist attraction for Galveston but all along the Interurban route from neglected parts of Houston bringing tourism to the towns along the route and tourists to Galveston Texas not everyone wants to go to Galveston just for the beaches which the water is filthy and has flesh eating bacteria in it and the beaches look like wet cement.
He had been telling us about the Osprey nests thats are all along the swamps there. Needless to say, there were four in one of them lol
I forgot how noisy these cars can be! :)
And the old Perly-Thomas trolley cars on New Orleans continue today in revenue service, not even Hurricane Katrina could put them out of business, the lines have neen cleared & catenary has been restrung....
Too bad crews aren't more careful about the headlight being on.
@tchnofile Why thank you!
@KyleVideoDesigns Thanks... again haha
So is the reason you saw so few women motormen the fear of the ladies taking all the brake handles home with them?
What música theme is
hey that is the hounted isle i wos in in20012 i wos a goast
6:45 he says "4 birds", is that why he has the plastic cover on his hat? Ha ha ha........