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Aug 14, 2009 8:38 pm US/Eastern
KD Country: Pennsylvania Trolley Museum
WASHINGTON, PA (KDKA) ―
Scott Becker's invitation is a ticket to ride.
The old Pittsburgh trolley car is one of nearly 50 rolling remembrances of transportation past at the Pennsylvania Trolley Museum in Washington County.
The museum's executive director says an old orange car on display once was "state of the art."
"It was the latest and greatest in 1925. It first ran out on the interurban line to Washington and Charleroi, and later on it was used during World War II on Neville Island, where it took shipyard workers back and forth to work," he said.
Electric trolleys first appeared in Pittsburgh in 1890. But the first street cars on tracks, drawn by horses, date back 150 years. The sesquicentennial is being celebrated by a photo exhibit at the Trolley Museum. They also have a single street car.
"This car's really a survivor," Becker says, walking out onto the platform. "It's the last existing Pittsburgh horse car, and it dates back to the 1870s."
Though the old wooden car now gleams, it was in terrible shape when they got it.
"The joke around here is that the museum wanted it in the worst way, and that's the way we got it," Becker laughs.
One of the museum volunteers is Ohio resident Dave Carpenter, who recently rescued a 1911 Pittsburgh electric trolley car from a museum in Cleveland.
The high step on street cars in those days made things difficult for women wearing the long dresses of the era.
"Those ladies would have to raise up their skirts to get on this car," Carpenter smiles, "and show their ankles. That was taboo."
Times have changed.
The
Pennsylvania Trolley Museum will offer rides through the Washington County Fairgrounds during the annual fair, which runs from August 15-22.
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