The National Capital Trolley Museum (NCTM) is a non-profit organization that operates historic trolleys

Tram

A tram is a passenger rail vehicle which runs on tracks along public urban streets and also sometimes on separate rights of way. It may also run between cities and/or towns , and/or partially grade separated even in the cities...

 (or tram

Tram

A tram is a passenger rail vehicle which runs on tracks along public urban streets and also sometimes on separate rights of way. It may also run between cities and/or towns , and/or partially grade separated even in the cities...

s) for the public on a regular schedule. It is located at 1313 Bonifant Road,
Colesville, Maryland

Colesville, Maryland

Colesville is a census-designated place and an unincorporated area in Montgomery County, Maryland in the USA.-Geography:As an unincorporated area, Colesville's boundaries are not officially defined. Also, many residents consider the town to be one of the many neighborhoods of Silver Spring, Maryland...

 USA.

History

NCTM was incorporated in 1959 as the National Capital Historical Museum of Transportation. Progress was slow at first, but the Museum eventually combined efforts and streetcar collections with a group from Baltimore. The organization found its first home in Robert E. Lee Park at Lake Roland in Baltimore, Maryland. After efforts were thwarted by adjacent property owners, the group divided the collections in 1966. National Capital Trolley Museum moved to its present site in suburban Washington, DC, while the Baltimore Streetcar Museum

Baltimore Streetcar Museum

The Baltimore Streetcar Museum is a non-profit museum located at 1901 Falls Road in Baltimore, Maryland. The museum is dedicated to preserving Baltimore's public transportation history, especially the streetcar era. The museum is open Noon to 5 P.M. every Sunday of the year and Noon to 5 P.M...

 was formed to focus on Baltimore transit. NCTM's original intention was to operate streetcars owned by DC Transit president O. Roy Chalk

O. Roy Chalk

Oscar Roy Chalk was a New York entrepreneur who owned real estate, airlines, bus companies, newspapers and a rail line that hauled bananas in Central America...

, but it was not until 1970 that Chalk donated several historic Washington streetcars. In the interim, the museum acquired a small fleet of European trams and a car from Johnstown, Pennsylvania

Johnstown, Pennsylvania

Johnstown is a city in Cambria County, Pennsylvania, United States, west-southwest of Altoona, Pennsylvania and east of Pittsburgh. The population was 20,978 at the 2010 census. It is the principal city of the Johnstown, Pennsylvania, Metropolitan Statistical Area, which includes Cambria County...

.

NCTM ran its first streetcar in October 1969, and since then the museum has operated consistently over its one-mile line.

A string of unfortunate events has pared down the museum's collection. In 1970, its unique air-conditioned PCC car 1512, the "Silver Sightseer," was damaged by arsonists and scrapped

Scrap

Scrap is a term used to describe recyclable and other materials left over from every manner of product consumption, such as parts of vehicles, building supplies, and surplus materials. Unlike waste, scrap has significant monetary value...

. In 1987, cars 1053 and 766 were severely damaged in a collision. The worst disaster to ever befall a North American trolley museum occurred at NCTM on September 28, 2003, when one of the museum's two carbarns burned down. Eight pieces of equipment, comprising about half of the museum's operating fleet and one-third of its total collection of streetcars, were destroyed. Washington cars lost included 0509, 1053, 07, and 026. Johnstown

Johnstown Traction Company

Johnstown Traction Company was a public transit system in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, United States. For most of its existence it was primarily a street-railway system, but in later years also operated rubber-tired vehicles. JTC operated trolley service in Johnstown from February 23, 1910 to June...

 352, Graz 120, and Vienna 6062 and 7802 were also destroyed. The cause of the fire was not definitely determined. Following the fire, the museum's remaining cars resumed operations.

In the winter of 2008-2009, the Museum moved into three new buildings: a visitors' center, a display building for the streetcars, and a streetcar storage-and-maintenance building. Construction of the Intercounty Connector

Intercounty Connector

Maryland Route 200 , more commonly known as the Intercounty Connector or ICC, is a partially completed toll freeway under construction in Maryland which connects Gaithersburg in Montgomery County and Laurel in Prince George's County. When completed, it will reach the community of Konterra just...

, (ICC) which crosses the Museum's former location, required the Museum to shift locations in the Park. The Museum reopened on Saturday, January 16, 2010.

Education efforts

The Museum offers a variety of education programs and activities throughout the year. Each spring and fall, the Museum hosts school field trips by advance reservation. On some Saturday afternoons, visitors can also enjoy a story and craft time. Special summer programs are offered on Thursday and Friday from June 15 to August 15. Age-appropriate activities include: story time and craft, story and hands-on experience with trolley artifacts, and a role-playing exercise for older children.

Membership and funding

As of 2008, 125 members and friends support the Museum with dues, donations and volunteer service. The Museum receives most of its money from admission fees and revenues from its gift shop. Other funding for a variety of projects is provided by the Arts and Humanities Council of Montgomery County, the Montgomery County Heritage Tourism Alliance, the Montgomery County Historic Preservation Commission, and the Maryland Historical Trust

Maryland Historical Trust

The Maryland Historical Trust is an agency of Maryland Department of Planning and serves as the Maryland State Historic Preservation Office. The agency serves to assist in research, conservation, and education,of Maryland's historical and cultural heritage....

. The State of Maryland, Montgomery County, and private donors provided capital funding support for the current relocation.

Collection

At one point or another, the NCTM has owned an example of nearly every type of Washington streetcar to be preserved. These include:

• DC Transit 0522 and 0509, pre-1900 wooden streetcars
• Washington Railway and Electric 650, a 1912 center door car
• Capital Transit 766, a 1918 deck-roof standard car
• Capital Transit 1053, the only complete preserved pre-PCC streamliner
• DC Transit 1101, Washington's first PCC streetcar
  PCC streetcar
  The PCC streetcar design was first built in the United States in the 1930s. The design proved successful in its native country, and after World War II was licensed for use elsewhere in the world...
  
  
• Capital Transit 07 and 026, wooden snow sweepers
• Capital Transit 1430, a PCC car built during World War II

The NCTM collection has also included streetcars from Berlin

Berlin

Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...

, Düsseldorf

Düsseldorf

Düsseldorf is the capital city of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and centre of the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region.Düsseldorf is an important international business and financial centre and renowned for its fashion and trade fairs. Located centrally within the European Megalopolis, the...

, Graz

Graz

The more recent population figures do not give the whole picture as only people with principal residence status are counted and people with secondary residence status are not. Most of the people with secondary residence status in Graz are students...

, The Hague

The Hague

The Hague is the capital city of the province of South Holland in the Netherlands. With a population of 500,000 inhabitants , it is the third largest city of the Netherlands, after Amsterdam and Rotterdam...

, Toronto

Toronto

Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...

, Vienna

Vienna

Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...

, New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

, Johnstown, Pennsylvania

Johnstown, Pennsylvania

Johnstown is a city in Cambria County, Pennsylvania, United States, west-southwest of Altoona, Pennsylvania and east of Pittsburgh. The population was 20,978 at the 2010 census. It is the principal city of the Johnstown, Pennsylvania, Metropolitan Statistical Area, which includes Cambria County...

, Brussels

Brussels

Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...

 and Blackpool

Blackpool

Blackpool is a borough, seaside town, and unitary authority area of Lancashire, in North West England. It is situated along England's west coast by the Irish Sea, between the Ribble and Wyre estuaries, northwest of Preston, north of Liverpool, and northwest of Manchester...

.

Demonstration Railway

During public hours, street cars leave the Museum from the Dispatcher’s Desk in the center of the Visitor’s Center. The Demonstration Railway is the largest and most popular exhibit of the Museum. The one mile line goes past Street Car Hall and the Maintenance Barn and down into the woods past Dodge siding, along North West Branch, and on to Fish Hook loop to turn around for the return trip.

Street Cars Go To The Movies

Harold Lloyd

Harold Lloyd

Harold Clayton Lloyd, Sr. was an American film actor and producer, most famous for his silent comedies....

’s silent film

Silent film

A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound, especially with no spoken dialogue. In silent films for entertainment the dialogue is transmitted through muted gestures, pantomime and title cards...

s are excerpted and displayed continuously in a small theater. Exhibits on the walls leading into the theater link the importance of movies and street cars to community life in the early part of the 20th century.

Street Car Communities & Rock Creek Railway Co.

This exhibit highlights street car transportation in our local communities and includes a working model of the street car line through Chevy Chase, one of the first street car suburbs in the country. This exhibit includes images of the power house at the end of the line, a worker emerging from a plow pit where each street car travelling between downtown and the suburbs is converted from collecting underground power with a plow to an overhead trolley pole. Visitors can use the controller handle to start the street car and can operate a dynamo to generate electricity for the lights in the buildings along the track.

Conduit Hall

An actual piece of track and the steel framework for the underground electrical conduit is on display in Conduit Hall along with a model of a conduit switch. Also in conduit hall are overhead trolleys and a hands-on controller from the early 20th century.

Street Car Hall

Adjacent to Conduit Hall and the Visitor Center is Street Car Hall. At any one time seven or more street cars are on display in this spacious building. Near the cars are illuminated kiosks with information about the street cars in the collection and their history. The display includes the oldest street car in the collection, DC Transit 0522 from 1898. At the end of each street car trip, a docent will take passengers into Street Car Hall and discuss the history of street car development and answer questions.