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The Seashore Trolley Museum was founded in 1939 with one open trolley car, No. 31 from the Biddeford & Saco Railroad Company. Over the years thousands of members have followed the founding fathers by helping the Museum grow to be the premier electric railway museum in the world. Today, our collection contains over 250 transit vehicles, most of them trolleys, from all over the United States, Canada, and many other countries. We are the oldest, and largest electric railway museum in the world.
The Seashore Trolley Museum is a non-profit, educational institution, staffed almost entirely by volunteers. The Museum is devoted to the operation, restoration, and preservation of a very important part of American transportation history.
Our Beginning - Slideshow of the Museum - Mission Statement
The start of the Seashore Trolley Museum and the streetcar preservation movement, Biddeford & Saco No. 31
Photo by Rick Russell
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- by Ed Dooks
The museum started with Ted Santarelli, John Amlaw and Gerald Cunningham who were on their way to a railfan trip in Lewiston, Maine, on the 19th of April in 1939. They had passed their favorite little small town trolley system, the Biddeford & Saco Railroad, which ran open cars much later than most other systems in the summer time. Gerald Cunningham said, "Fellows, they have ordered the buses", meaning that the Biddeford & Saco was going to give up the trolleys.
A fan trip on the Biddeford & Saco was arranged and the idea to save the car was proposed. Jerry Cunningham went to the president of the Biddeford & Saco Railroad, Mr. Stride, and after some negotiation the price of $150 to purchase open car #31 was finalized. Ten people put forth a $15 contribution and the car was saved. However Mr. Stride had promised the Rotary Club in Biddeford there would not be derelict car bodies in Biddeford or Saco. They had to move the car out of town.
This is the way we started, with one car, with no great thought that we were going to have more cars or that we would develop into a museum of this size.
- Ted Santarelli, October 10, 1987 |
Ted Santarelli and John Amlaw found a small strip of land, which was cut off in the old days by the abandoned Atlantic Shore Line from the farm that belonged to George Hill in Kennebunkport. The land was rented for $5 a year with an option to buy, which they did several years later. Car #31 was moved to Kennebunkport and on Saturdays and Sundays the group built track and worked on their only car.
The next year, the Manchester Street Railway in New Hampshire was ceasing to operate trolleys. They had a beautiful trolley worth preserving. Negotiations were started and the result was car #38 being moved to Kennebunkport. People driving by stopped to see the trolleys and get a ride. The museum was born. Incorporated in 1941 as The New England Electric Railway Historical Society, a non-profit educational foundation, and operator of the Seashore Trolley Museum, is still collecting transit vehicles and people are still stopping by to see the trolleys.
- by Mark Forman
View a Slideshow of selected scenes around the Museum, giving you a feel of what you will see when you visit us. A special thanks goes to Seashore Trolley Museum member Mark Forman for creating and hosting this presentation. This is a .mov file and requires a media player such as QuickTime.
The Seashore Trolley Museum, a primarily volunteer not-for-profit organization, is the operating entity of the New England Electric Railway Historical Society. The mission of the Museum is to present a living history of public transportation relevant to North American life through community-related educational programs. The Museum shall collect, restore, preserve, exhibit and demonstrate the operation of significant transit vehicles with emphasis upon traditional streetcar and interurban service, including rapid transit, trackless trolley and bus service with select world wide comparative representation. The Museum shall provide a repository for artifacts and information of an educational and historic nature relating to the origin and development of the transit industry and its contribution to modern society. 
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