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About National Capital Trolley Museum
Operates demonstration streetcar rides on a 1-mile loop using restored U.S. and European trolleys; open weekends year-round and additional days seasonally.
History
The National Capital Trolley Museum was incorporated as the National Capital Historical Museum of Transportation, Inc. on January 4 1961, although its organizational roots are recorded as beginning in 1959 and again in 1969 according to museum‑building records. After an initial location in Lake Roland Park, Baltimore, the collection split in 1966, and the museum relocated to its present Colesville, Maryland site, with groundbreaking for the new facilities held on November 20 1965. The museum operated its first streetcar in October 1969 and has run a regular demonstration service on a one‑mile loop ever since, surviving a major carbarn fire on September 28 2003 that destroyed roughly one‑third of its collection. Following construction of three new buildings, the museum reopened on January 16 2010 and continues to function as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to preserving the electric street‑car heritage of the National Capital region.
The Trains
The museum runs a one‑mile (1.6 km) demonstration loop that departs from the Visitor Center, follows Northwest Branch, passes the Dodge siding and returns via the Fish Hook turnaround. Its operating fleet includes Washington Transit cars 0522 (built 1898) and 0509, the 1912 center‑door car WR&E 650, Capital Transit 766 (1918), the sole surviving pre‑PCC streamliner Capital Transit 1053, the first Washington PCC 1101, PCC units 1430, 1470 (acquired July 2020 from the Virginia Museum of Transportation), 1540, and the 1952 Hague Tramway 1006, together with European trams from Berlin, Düsseldorf, Graz, The Hague, Toronto, Vienna, New York, Philadelphia, Johnstown, Brussels and Blackpool. The collection also contains wooden snow‑sweepers 07, 09 and 026, and the museum’s largest assemblage of Washington, D.C., streetcars in the world.
Nearby
More Railroading Nearby
National Capital Historical Museum of Transportation, Inc.
COLESVILLE, MD
2mi away →
Potomac NRHS Chapter
Kensington, MD
5mi away →
National Railway Historical Society, D.c. Chapter
JESSUP, MD
14mi away →
Baltimore & Ohio Ellicott City Station Museum
ELLICOTT CITY, MD
17mi away →
Amtrak
19mi away →
B-RI Railroad Museum
TX
25mi away →
Where to Stay
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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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