Trolley Car Graveyard, USA

Outside of a small town in Pennsylvania, a vintage Trolley Car Graveyard lies hidden in the woods. This rusting collection of treasures from a by-gone age wait patiently for restoration. As the decades roll by, and spray-can wielding teenagers tag the carriages, it seems increasingly likely this forested track will remain their final resting place. A pot-hole ridden dirt track leads to the trolleys, which are stored in an area that used to be part of a firm that repaired coal carriages.

These trolley cars are owned by a local man, a retired Army Engineer. He acquired his first street car over 30 years ago, and his collection has been growing ever since. As these trolley cars became available from various cities across America, he snapped them up in order to preserve them for future generations. A lot of cars came from Ohio and Pennsylvania transport companies; Philadelphia Suburban Transportation, Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority, Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority and Port Authority Transit of Pittsburgh. Some have been brought here from further afield, including Boston and Kansas City. The owner of these wonderful examples of vintage Americana transportation hopes that one day, the right buyer(s) will come and restore these cars to their former glory.

Most of the street cars date back to the 1930’s and early 1950’s. They were built in the popular, streamlined Art Deco style of the time. Public transport and automobiles were given these sleek shapes and bold designs, to reflect the futuristic wonder of technological advances made at this time.

The most common car types were built by the St Louis Car Company, there are also numerous examples of Pullman-Standard postwar-style streetcars. There are more modern St Louis Car Company rapid transit cars built in the 1980’s and 1990’s. Several trolley cars lay on their sides, where their wheels and axels have been removed and used to restore active carriages elsewhere. These specimens were too far gone for restoration, so they served as donors to maintain other cars both within this trolley car graveyard as well as those still in service.