National Capital Trolley Museum
The National Capital Trolley Museum (NCTM) is a non-profit organization located at 1313 Bonifant Road, Colesville, Maryland. The museum operates historic trolleys for the public on a regular schedule.
History
NCTM was created in 1966 by the division of a small museum group located near Baltimore into two separate organizations, one (NCTM) focused on Washington, D.C. transit and the other (Baltimore Streetcar Museum) focused on Baltimore transit. The museum's original intention was to operate streetcars owned by DC Transit president O. Roy Chalk, but it was not until 1972 that Chalk donated several historic Washington streetcars. In the interim, a small fleet of European trams was purchased and moved to the museum's site.
The first operation of a streetcar at NCTM took place in October 1969, and since then the museum has operated consistently over its 1-1/2 mile line.
Collection
At one point or another, the NCTM collection has contained an example of nearly every type of Washington streetcar to be preserved. These include:
- DC Transit 0522 and 0509, pre-1900 wooden streetcars
- 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
- Capital Transit 07 and 026, wooden snow sweepers
The NCTM collection has also included streetcars from Berlin, Dusseldorf, Graz, The Hague, Toronto and Vienna.
Disasters
NCTM has experienced an unusually bad string of disasters that has regrettably pared down its collection. In 1970 its unique air-conditioned PCC car 1512, the "Silver Sightseer," was damaged by arsonists and scrapped. During the 1990s car 766 was 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 a third of its overall collection of streetcars, were completely destroyed. Cars lost included 0509, 1053, 07, 026, Johnstown 352, Graz 120, and Vienna 6062. The cause of the fire was not definitely determined. Following the fire, operations were resumed using the museum's remaining cars.
References
Young, Andrew (1983). Trolley to the Past. Glendale, California: Interurban Press.
