Last updated: 8/27/2010
1313 Bonifant Rd
Silver Spring, MD 20905
Check the website of the museum for schedules of street car rides and museum operations.
An admission ffee and ride fees are collected. Please see thw museum website for current and seasonal pricing.
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Mr. Kenneth Rucker
phone:
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The NCTM Visitor Center, the street car rides through Northwest Branch Park, and our Educational Program are all designed to fulfill the Museum's mission to collect and preserve objects related to the electric railway systems of the region and to use these objects to interpret the role of these transportation systems in the growth and development of the region and the impact of this technology on people's everyday lives.
Although brand new in 2009, the Visitor Center evokes street car history in some of the design features of the building and the car houses, taking the visitor back into the times when the building, operation, and maintenance of street car systems occupied a substantial portion of the nation's workforce.
The Main Hall provides several glimpses back into history, about the street car's influence on various local communities, about the ubiquity of the street car in urban environments as portrayed in early movies, and a working model of street cars, automobiles, and pedestrians in Chevy Chase during the 1930's.
Please plan to take a ride on the street car (from the Main Hall) and experience the living interpretation of bygone days - a ride into the woods as Maryland and Virginia would have looked more than 100 years ago when the first electrical street cars went out beyond Washington DC city limits.
The Museum Shop and Admissions Kiosk is located just inside the entrance to the Visitor Center. The Museum Shop offers a variety of items for personal use or for gifts for children and adults. The book offerings include works for adults about various streetcar and electric railway lines (historic and current) and local history as well as readers and coloring books for children. Corgi toy streetcars are available for the inner child in all of us while plastic trolleys of various colors are available for younger enthusiasts.
The National Capital Trolley Museum was founded in 1959 after the abandonment of streetcar service in the District of Columbia had become a certainty. The Museum opened to the public in 1969 at its present location in Northwest Branch Park in Montgomery County, Maryland.
The Museum's volunteers constructed and have maintained a visitor's center, car barns, and a demonstration railway. These volunteer efforts continued with maintenance and on-going development of the Museum's facilities.
The Museum receives no government support for its day-to-day operations, which are funded solely by fares sold, gift shop sales and donations. The Museum does from time to time receive government grants for specific capital and restoration projects, and is grateful to the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission for the free use of parkland and support of its development efforts.
electric streetcars (1898-1945)
electric street railway equipment (1908-1939)
streetcar postal cards
photographs
railroad and street railway equipment
ephemera relating to the electric streetcar
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