The Virtual Trolley Museum

It is with excitement and enthusiasm that we release the virtual Trolley Museum experience: http://capitalskyeye.com/virtual/dctrolley. Thanks to modern technological advancements and tremendous effort from our friends at Capital Sky Eye, we're able to bring the Trolley Museum to you after almost a year of COVID-induced closure.

Not only does this technology allow us to "re-open" the museum while our physical site remains closed, but through the virtual experience we are able to provide access to several of our street cars that are not available for public access - including Capital Transit 1470, our latest addition to the collection. 

The virtual museum will remain online after the physical museum site eventually re-opens, however access may be restricted to paid visitors only. We will eventually be offering a copy of the entire virtual tour for purchase on a flash drive; this would be yours to keep. An announcement will be made once this product is available.

The Trolley Museum wishes to extend our sincere appreciation to Howard at Capital Sky Eye for the tremendous effort, generosity, dedication and time invested in all aspects of this project.

59th Anniversary: End of street car service

100 years of street car operations in Washington, D.C. came to a close 59 years ago today, on January 28, 1962. The image below is one of our favorites; in a symbolic gesture of the end of an era, a motorman shakes the hand of a bus driver, handing off the baton for the next generation of public transit in the Nation's capital.
DC Transit 766, the street car seen on the left, survives in the Trolley Museum collection and is currently undergoing restoration. You can read more about this historic car on our website, http://dctrolley.org.

DC Transit 766, currently undergoing restoration at the National Capital Trolley Museum as Capital Traction Company 27, is seen here with a DC Transit bus at Rock Creek Loop on January 28, 1962.

this article was updated on 1/28/22

Video: Artifact Display and Library Tour

The entire live stream from today is now available on YouTube via the link below. Thanks to those who joined us live - stay tuned this Thursday (1/28) for a special "surprise" as we mark 59 years since the end of street cars in Washington.

Items presented in the video include:
-Washington, Baltimore and Annapolis Electric Railroad roll sign
-Capital Traction Company fare register
-One of John Merriken's original manuscripts for his book "Every Hour on the Hour: A Chronicle of the Washington, Baltimore and Annapolis Electric Railroad"
-Capital Traction Company employee salary records
-Capital Traction Company/Anacostia and Potomac Railroad Union Station track diagrams
-Washington and Old Dominion Railroad Conductor cap badge
-Great Falls and Old Dominion employee breast badge
-Annapolis, Washington and Baltimore Railroad switch lock

Thanks to Eric Madison and Regina Koch for their participation in this video. Additional thanks to Regina for all of the hard work she has done to organize the library and catalog our collection items.

Commemorating 59 years since the end of street car service.

 In lieu of our typical DC Transit Day events, we are pleased to announce two virtual programs to commemorate the 59th anniversary of the end of street car service in Washington.

-Join us live on Facebook (@dctrolley) at 1:30 PM on 1/23 as we take you for a virtual tour of the NCTM Mills Dean III library. Our efforts in preservation go far beyond the trolleys; we're giving unprecedented virtual access to our library and a few of our rare collection items to mark the occasion.

-Watch our Facebook page at approximately 1:00 pm on Thursday (1/28) as we release a special project that we've been working on with our friends at

Capital Sky Eye

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Final Run on the Cabin John Line

January holds the anniversaries of two historic, yet sad, events in the legacy of Washington DC's street cars. One being the end of street car service all together, and the other being the one we recognized this past Monday - 61 years since the last of the street cars ran on the beloved and famous Cabin John line. Originally published December 4 2016, Jesse Smith recalls riding the last Cabin John street car on January 3 1960.

"[61] years ago: It was the very last trolley trip EVER, from Washington to Glen Echo Amusement Park, and to Cabin John. They were beginning to rip up Washington’s old Capital Transit trolley system around D.C., and this was a major line, at the very end of its time. My Granny always liked trains, is much of the reason I do, and had taken brother Spencer and me on our first train trip just a few years earlier (riding the B&O from Silver Spring to Philadelphia and back). So here, January 3rd, 1960, seated somewhere inside this very car, are Granny and little Jesse, riding that historic last trip on Cabin John’s final trolley run. Within just two years, all the trolleys in DC would be gone. And this picture? A chance posting by Facebook friend Guy Span, which he took all those [61] years ago! Thanks, Guy!"
Our thanks to Jesse Smith for his permission to share the post, and to Guy Span who took the photograph.

(This post was originally published December 4 2016 with permission from the author, Jesse Smith. It is republished with minor edits in brackets for clarification.)

Image courtesy, and property of, Guy Span. Please do not download or copy.

Coming Soon

We're working with Capital Sky Eye on the development of something beyond the scope of anything we have done before. We're really excited for what this new "something" will mean for our visitors and look forward to releasing it soon. Stay tuned for updates and details.