Photo by Versageek, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)
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About The Shore Line Trolley Museum
Riding the restored trolleys along the 1.5‑mile (2.4 km) Branford Electric Railway, visitors travel between East Haven and Short Beach through a historic district in Connecticut. The line, operated by the Shore Line Trolley Museum, offers views of coastal scenery while preserving a collection that includes the oldest continuously operating trolley museum in the United States. Volunteers maintain the equipment, and the historic streetcars run on the original double‑track alignment, now partly single.
History
The Shore Line Trolley Museum incorporates as the nonprofit Branford Electric Railway Association on 13 August 1945, founded by Malcom G. Greenaway, Charles F. Munger Jr., and Wadsworth G. Filer, with its first streetcar arriving as a donation from the Five Mile Beach Electric Railway. After the Connecticut Company ends its New Haven streetcar service on 8 March 1947, the association assumes ownership and operation of the roughly 1.25‑mile line on 9 March 1947, acquiring four Connecticut Company cars and three former IRT Third Avenue cars; the company’s remaining streetcar service ceases entirely in 1948. Membership grows from about 150 at launch to roughly 1,000 by 1949, and in 1957 a brick visitor center named Sprague Station is erected at the East Haven end of the line. The museum’s line and facilities become the Branford Electric Railway Historic District on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983, and after severe flooding from Hurricane Irene in August 2011—damaging nearly 90 streetcars—the affected portion of track returns to service in May 2012. Construction of a 750‑foot trolley‑bus loop begins in 2008, is test‑run with ACF‑Brill trolley bus 205 in April 2009, halted by the 2011 flood, and finally completed in 2017, though regular public operation has not yet started as of 2023.
The Trains
The museum’s 1.5 mi (2.4 km) Branford Electric Railway runs from East Haven to Short Beach, using the original Connecticut Company “F” route. Its collection includes Horsecar 76, New Orleans St. Charles Avenue Streetcar 850 (built 1922), Connecticut Company 500 business/parlor car, Manhattan Railway “G” (1878), Interborough Rapid Transit 3344 “Mineola,” Ansonia Derby & Birmingham “Derby” electric locomotive, Brooklyn‑Queens Transit 1001 (first production PCC), Third Avenue Railway System 220 (1892), Hudson & Manhattan 503 “black car,” PATH PA3 745 (survived 9/11), NYCTA R17 6688, and IND R9 1689, together with trolley buses ACF‑Brill 205, MBTA 4037 (1976 Flyer E800), and ex‑Philadelphia 210 used for parts.
Nearby
Coastal Connecticut places The Shore Line Trolley Museum 24 mi from the Valley Railroad and 27 mi from The Railroad Museum of Long Island.
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