It's more than just street cars.
 |
| Eric Madison, NCTM Motorman, Executive Secretary and Safety Officer, poses with DC Transit 1101, the first PCC-type street car built for Washington, DC, prior to a night photo session held at the museum in October 2016. Photograph by Bill Monaghan, NCTM Collections. |
For more than 50 years, the Trolley Museum has taken pride in preserving the history of Washington, DC's street cars. The District of Columbia, some historians argue, had one of the most efficient and best maintained street car networks in the country. Such a rich history deserves comprehensive, integrated preservation, something the Trolley Museum has been working on ever since our inception in 1969.
There are many obvious ways in which we preserve the history of street cars in Washington DC, with the largest being the street cars themselves and the 20 minute rides we offer on our two mile round trip demonstration railway.
We go beyond the physical equipment, however, and take pride in our extensive preservation and interpretation efforts that ultimately give our visitors a unique and extremely authentic Washington transit experience "back in time." Here are a few less-obvious ways we preserve and interpret Washington's transit history you might have missed on a previous visit to our museum.
The Trolleys
Without a doubt, our collection of historic Washington DC street cars is the most visible and tangible artifact. DC Transit 1101,
the first PCC street car delivered to Washington DC, operates in revenue service on special occasions at the museum. It's a favorite among our visitors, rivaled only by our unique "boat" tram.
Our collection of Washington street cars also includes a few others rarely seen by the public, including Capital Traction Company No. 27, which is currently undergoing extensive restoration in our car shop.
If you're interested in learning more about our collection of authentic Washington DC street cars,
click here.
The Uniforms
 |
| Notice Eric's uniform - nicely pressed and in compliance with all of the uniform requirements. |
Perhaps one of the most important, yet frequently overlooked, aspects of a good trolley museum is the uniforms worn by the operating staff. Uniforms are a major category in the history of transit; they also add significantly to the experience of our passengers. At the Trolley Museum, our staff follow fairly strict guidelines that dictate proper dress while "in service" - these guidelines have been established based on some of the actual uniforms motormen/trolley operators and conductors wore in Washington DC to give our visitors an authentic experience (the mannequin on display in the Main Hall of the museum shows an original DC Transit uniform.)
 |
| This is a later uniform worn by motormen and operators when DC Transit System, Inc., was the operating transit company. Notice the airline-style cap and general motif of the uniform. DC Transit was owned by O. Roy Chalk, who also owned Trans Caribbean Airways. |
The current NCTM Uniform consists of a white uniform style dress shirt, preferably with epaulettes, and navy pants with a black belt. Shoes must be black and socks navy. In cooler weather, dress jackets must also be navy. Both shirts and jackets must have the NCTM patch on the right sleeve, approximately two finger widths down from the shoulder. Ties must also be navy, and usually must be worn unless the temperature is above 80 degrees.
On an even more detailed level, have you noticed the name badges and cap badges our staff wear?
These badges are virtually exact copies of the original badges once worn by street car operators and conductors in Washington. Here's an example of an authentic badge - notice the similarities?
The Website???
Yes, you read that correctly. Our website design is actually influenced by the paint scheme worn by street cars when DC Transit System, Inc. was the operating company. Take a good look at this screen shot of our website:
Now look closely at this photo of DCTS 1101:
Notice the similarities in the color schemes?
A sharp eye will also notice that the logo on the top of our website (National Capital Trolley Museum) is in a font similar to the "D.C. Transit" lettering on the side of the street car in the above photo. The museum hired an artist to recreate the font and create a spelled out version of the museum's name in the same font.
The Building
Our buildings were designed to reflect the architecture and general design of street car "barns" and facilities in Washington. Not only does this add to the authentic experience we strive to provide our visitors, but they make for excellent and one of a kind photos, like the night time scene above, taken in 2016. No photoshop here.
The next time you're at the museum take a good look at the car barns painted on the wall in our Rock Creek Railway model trolley display. You may notice some similarities reflected on our car barns.
 |
TOP: A rare 1921 timetable from the City and Suburban Railway of Washington. By 1921, the C&S Railway was owned by the Washington Railway and Electric Company (WRECo), before eventually becoming fully merged into WRECo and dropping the C&S name.
BOTTOM: A rare employee's pass for the Annapolis Short Line Railroad, an electrified railroad that was eventually purchased by the Washington, Baltimore and Annapolis Electric Railroad Company. |
The Trolley Museum has taken pride in our efforts to preserve not only the history of Washington DC street cars, but also the history of transit in Maryland and parts of Virginia. Our Mills Dean III Library contains a virtually incalculable number of individual slides, negatives, photos, books, lanterns, uniforms, fare boxes and much more from both Washington DC street car companies and Maryland interurban and electric railroads and communities. While most of these items are rarely placed on public display, our volunteer staff work hard to catalogue and preserve these precious artifacts for research and reference. Historic preservation of smaller items is just as valuable as preserving the big street cars themselves.
Yes, you also read that correctly. The museum ultimately gets all of our electricity from the Potomac Electric Power Company, or PEPCO. PEPCO was the electric company part of the Washington Railway and Electric Company (
you can read more here). Eventually, the electric company was removed and formed into an independent electric utility provider.
The paper tickets you receive when you purchase admission at the museum are printed by the Globe Ticket Company, who also printed transfers, passes and other paper fares for the street car companies in Washington.
So the next time you're at our museum, look closely during your visit and see if you can recognize some, or all, of these continuities. There are a few more, even more discreet, continuities reflected in our facilities and on our railway itself - see if you can find these. Let us know what you find!
We'd like to take a quick moment and thank our many dedicated volunteers. From restoring street cars to giving tours of Street Car Hall, they do it all. And we appreciate it.
If you'd like to join our team of volunteers, please visit our website at dctrolley.org or send us a message for more information. Welcome aboard!
