Tat’s Bizarre Travels

WASHINGTON, PA – Today was a quick trip down to the Pennsylvania Trolley Museum. “Trolley’s aren’t strange!” you may say, and I guess you would be right, but I’ve got a strange obsession for public transportation. Busses, trains, trolleys, I love them all. I get really excited when I have the opportunity to take public transit to wherever I’m going. I feel grown up and important. I think it may have something to do with being a kid and my gram taking me to the city on a bus. It was always a big deal.

The Pennsylvania Trolley museum is on the small side, and the basic tour earns you a ride on the trolley and a tour of a couple of the restored trolleys. For an extra fee, however, you can get the once daily tour of the car barn which has a big ol’ bunch of trolley’s in differing states of disrepair. I kinda like the 50’s style trolleys (surprise, surprise) more than the earlier ones. And we only got to board 2 trolleys other than the one that meanders about the grounds. I would have like the opportunity to wander on my own, but since this is pretty much a volunteer only establishment there are no docents to yell at you for climbing on an antique in the process of being restored.

The trolley museum also opens it’s doors for birthday parties, and today it was Christian’s and he was four. He and his party goers got to crisscross the grounds in a very cool green 50’s style trolley and I was jealous. Obviously I need to get to know Christian so I can ride the 50’s style trolley.

The museum has a gift shop decked out with all sorts of souvenirs from books to t-shirts to models. They also have postcards, and a wonderful assortment I might add. Not only do they have a half dozen that have the words “Pennsylvania Trolley Museum” across them, but the have stacks of vintage cards that depict trains as well as trolleys. My favorite is a great club car postcard from (you guessed it) the 50’s. The description on the back states:

“The Sun Lounge - Delightful, patio-like club car on Seaboard Railroad’s SILVER METEOR, between New York and Florida.”

It was a great souvenir to take away, and a public transportation lovers dream…(seriously, if I could buy the real club car I would make it my first house.)