Trolleys at the New York Museum of Transportation

The Rochester & Genesee Valley Railroad Museum operates for the public in partnership with the New York Museum of Transportation. Each museum is an independent group and each museum is located at either end of a shared two mile demonstration railroad. Our dual museum operation is truly unique!

While the R&GVRRM collection is concentrated around railroad equipment, the NYMT has concentrated its efforts on trolleys and interurbans with the goal of electrifying a portion of the dual museum demonstration railroad. That goal has been reached in part with a portion of the railroad already under trolley wire. Public trolley operations were begun in 2006, and they are now an every Sunday (mid-May through October) offering of the museums.

This video highlights some of the first public operations using one of the NYMT's two ex-Philadelphia & Western "Strafford" cars, the #168. Since this video was shot, the ride has been extended and will be extended even further for the 2008 season!

We hope you will come visit our two museums soon and ride the trolleys!

Category:

Autos & Vehicles

Tags:

• rochester
• railroad
• trolley
• interurban
• ride
• genesee
• transportation
• philadelphia
• western
• strafford
• museum
• train

[LordoftheKaty]

Did all the old Interurban tracks in the country back in the day look as bad as these?

[rgvrrm]

@LordoftheKaty Can't say for sure. I am sure some were better and many were worse. I can tell you that we work very hard to maintain our railroad to the highest standards we can. Many improvements have been made to the portions of the railroad seen in this video including the replacement of over 100 ties and additional ballast. As always, we welcome donations to help us maintain our railroad which is not an inexpensive proposition. Thanks for the interest.

[standerd4000]

ghetto

[stevenisawesome1]

Nice Ride! See you for the Christmas run!

[grizzleybearz282004]

WAS THAT THE TROLLY MAKE ALL THAT FUSS OR THE TRACKS?

[TrainmasterCurt]

Those are some nice trams, i just love trams! I rode on the one at Exporail in Montreal

[1400deadwood]

2:50 or so to 3:25 ~ looks like Kelly Corner in Delaware County. Beautiful area.

[RDG484]

When the Strafford cars were built they had bulkhead doors, high-mounted headlights, vestibule steps and trolley poles for the original low-level Norristown terminal. They were Multiple-Unit passenger cars in every sense of the term. When they were rebuilt the bulkhead doors were sealed and the trolley poles and vestibule steps were removed, making them more aerodynamic while the motors were upgraded-increasing their top speed from 45 to 70 MPH. But they were NEVER called "trolleys" until 1970

[RDG484]

Part 2 (I needed more than 500 characters):

One thing not many people know is that the P&W cars were NEVER referred to as "trolleys" until after the SEPTA takeover. It ran as a railroad only because it used to handle interchange freight and therefore needed FRA control. When the last freight customer discontinued using the line and their last freight car left the line, it was immediately cut off from the outside world and only then became a "High-Speed Trolley."

[RDG484]

I used to ride the "60" cars every Saturday during my late teen years back in the early '80's. there was one motorman who didn't like to sit down as you were forced to do with the Bullet cars so he would take out a Strafford car each time. No. 168 was the only Strafford car with a speedometer and if we didn't have to stop at Haverford going south, it would get up to as high as 75 MPH.