Connecticut Trolley Museum

06/20/2026

Going to be a great day today! We're open today from 9:30am-4pm, come out for unlimited trolley rides (as time allows), great activities for kids in the Visitor's Center, and of course, the Connecticut Fire Museum!

06/19/2026

Shoutout to volunteers Larry, Jaden, and Sailor for completing a full cosmetic restoration of our 1800's pump car! You'll be able to see this little pump car in action at Everything That Moves day on Sunday, June 21st, AND in the East Windsor American 250 Parade on Saturday, June 27th!

06/18/2026

On Tuesday, Bumblebee Landscaping LLC posted about the training session on the Geismar Tie Inserter.

We got straight to work and in three hours, two of our volunteers removed, inserted and spiked two new switch timbers and switch stand as part of our ongoing upgrade of our mainline. Historically, this would have taken a much longer amount of valuable volunteer time and effort. Thanks to Bumblebee Landscaping LLC for the training, knowledge and equipment for us to speed up our work.

Funding for the new ties, ballast and spikes was provided by a grant from the William and Alice Mortensen Foundation, who have generously provided funding for several projects each year, including our upgraded Pumpkin Patch platforms in 2025.

If you would like to join us as we upgrade our mainline and other areas, please send us an email at [email protected].

If you would like to make a contribution to help us buy additional ties, ballast, or track materials. Please visit our website at https://www.ct-trolley.org/support-and-community/donate/

06/17/2026

On tap for this Sunday:

✔Everything that Moves Day & Trolley Parade!
✔Hog Tied BBQ Food Truck
✔Father's Day
✔First Day of Summer

Father's Day is a great time to bring Dad to the Trolley Museum, hope to see you here!

06/16/2026

A couple of weeks ago, we dove into trolley cars designed to handle freight. Did you know there were trolley companies that had trolley cars designed to keep their lines clear of snow as well?

The Eastern Massachusetts Street Railway company had several types of snow clearing equipment on their roster. In 1928, the company had 39 snow sweepers, 53 snowplows, and 5 flat cars with plows. A majority of this snow fighting equipment is also a great example of trolley cars given a second life.

There were several series of snow sweepers. Sweepers P600 - P611 were all purpose built as snow sweepers in 1920. Sweepers B612-B621 were built from 1922-1923 and were originally 14-bench open cars. Sweepers E1-E17 were originally Express Motor freight cars built in 1920.

The Eastern Massachusetts Street Railway Company also had several series of snowplow trolleys. Their purpose built snow plows were all built from 1894 to 1910. They also had a series of plows that were built from retired express motor freight trolleys . The remainder were built from coal hauling trolley cars and were a combination of shear plows and event several rotary plows.

All of this snow removal equipment, in addition to active passenger cars equipped with plows and snow brushes, were responsible for keeping the lines open for the over 500 freight, wrecker, coal, and passenger trolley cars to continue to operate.

Snow fighting equipment played a vital role in the operation of the trolley companies. Many examples of this equipment lives on at the trolley museums around the world. For example, at the Connecticut Trolley Museum, we have snow plow #12 from the Springfield Terminal Railway in Vermont, and Snow Sweeper #010 from Capitol Transit. Sweeper #010 is on display in the museum Visitor's Center.

06/15/2026

Join us for the first Educational Presentation on August 1st! Steve Cormier will be presenting "Good Golly.... Missed Trolley", a presentation about the Huckleberry trolley line and the negative economic impact the lack of trolley service to the Western Massachusetts Hilltowns had on that area. Attendees will also have the opportunity to browse the Trolley Museum Exhibit hall before and after the presentation.

These events are included with any level of membership, and are $5 for non-members.

06/13/2026

Happy Saturday! We're open 9:30am-4pm today, with the last trolley ride departing at 3pm.

Don't forget, to support the Shore Line Trolley Museum during their closure, we are donating a portion of the admission proceeds from Branford, CT and East Haven, CT residents to the Shore Line Trolley Museum. If you're a member there, you do receive free admission at the Connecticut Trolley Museum, so come on out and enjoy a ride, or several!

06/12/2026

This weekend will be warm, but not so humid! It'll be a great weekend for a ride on an open trolley, AKA a breezer! We're open Saturday and Sunday 9:30am-4pm, with the last trolley ride at 3pm each day!

Last Saturday, the The Shore Line Trolley Museum sustained damage during a strong thunderstorm and will be closed this weekend. To help them out, we will be donating a portion of admission sales from anyone visiting from East Haven, CT or Branford, CT. So if you're from these towns, come on up and support your local museum!

06/10/2026

East Windsor Historical Society's American 250 event is coming up soon! Both the CT Trolley Museum and the CT Fire Museum will be participating in the parade, and the trolley museum will be exhibiting at the event as well.

East Windsor residents will receive free admission to the CT Trolley Museum on the day of the celebration, Saturday, June 27th!

Memorial Day Parade 1947, Windsorville section of East Windsor. Today, we remember and honor all those that died while serving.

06/10/2026

We've been working with New England Railroad Uniforms to bring this button to life for the first time in 100 years! These can be ordered by emailing [email protected]