Photo by Frank Hicks, Wheaton Maryland, via Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)
National Capital Historical Museum of Transportation, Inc.
Upcoming Events
About National Capital Historical Museum of Transportation, Inc.
Operates demonstration streetcar rides on a 1-mile loop using restored U.S. and European trolleys; open weekends year-round and additional days seasonally.
📍 COLESVILLE, MD 14950
History
Incorporated on January 4, 1961 as the National Capital Historical Museum of Transportation, Inc., this nonprofit is known today as the National Capital Trolley Museum. Early progress was slow; the group first found a home at Lake Roland Park in Baltimore and pooled streetcar collections with a Baltimore organization, but after opposition from adjacent property owners the collections were divided in 1966 — the trolley museum moving to its present site in Colesville, Maryland while the Baltimore Streetcar Museum formed separately. Land came from the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission, DC Transit leased trolleys for a nominal cost, and members raised $20,000 for a car barn, breaking ground in November 1965. The first streetcar ran in October 1969, and DC Transit president O. Roy Chalk donated several historic Washington streetcars in 1970; in the interim the museum had assembled a small fleet of European trams plus a car from Johnstown, Pennsylvania. A devastating September 2003 carbarn fire — among the worst disasters at any North American trolley museum — destroyed eight pieces of equipment, about half the operating fleet, but the museum resumed running immediately and rebuilt the collection through purchases and trades. Construction of the Intercounty Connector across its former location forced a move into three new buildings in the winter of 2008–2009, and the museum reopened in January 2010, where it continues to operate streetcars over its one-mile demonstration railway and holds the world's largest collection of surviving Washington, D.C. street cars.
Nearby
Where to Stay
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Rent a Car
Most heritage railroads sit well off the interstate. Picking up a rental at the nearest airport is usually the easiest way in.
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