Volunteer

Want to help out at the Museum, but don't know exactly what you'd like to do? Take a look at the following list of volunteer areas and maybe one will catch your eye. You do not need experience to help out at the museum. Many of our volunteers have learned the things they do here at the Museum! Our existing volunteers will be more than happy to teach you a certain trick of the trade.

It's our volunteers who make the Museum what it is.

Ask Questions... Get Involved!

Tour Guides / Docents

Our tour guides make history come to life for our visitors. Greet our visitors and bring them on a journey back in time. Teaching them about the old Atlantic Shore Line interurban electric railway which once served the entire southern Maine seacoast from Kittery through the Kennebunks to Biddeford. Guide our visitors through the Museum's exhibit buildings containing streetcars from around the world. An interest in history and the ability to relate it to our visitors is all that is needed.

Ask Questions... Get Involved! John Mecurio - Education Dept. Manager

Railway Operations - Motormen and Conductors

Learn to operate antique electric streetcars.  We teach you everything you need to know to safely operate our fleet of historic streetcars from around the world for the visiting public. Think you're too young to operate a trolley? Think again. The Seashore Trolley Museum is proud to have a Junior Operator program, which allows our younger volunteers to help out.

Have fun operating real electric streetcars while helping our visitors experience first hand what it was like to ride a streetcar, before the invention of the automobile. Enjoy interacting with the visiting public, teaching them the story of the trolley era and its part in the development of our country. Museum motormen and conductors must attend and pass our safety and training courses. After the first year, it is required that all motormen and conductors attend and pass our annual safety requalification course and testing.

Operator and Conductor Training for 2011 Class 1: Sat., May 14th or Sun., May 15th Class 2: Sat., May 21st or Sun., May 22nd

Ask Questions... Get Involved! Jack Naugler - Railway Operations Training

Railway Vehicle Maintenance and Restoration

We always have a task for volunteer craftsmen or tradesmen to do in our year-round restoration program. Supporting our small paid staff in the shop, our volunteers are as valuable as the streetcar collection. Doing the fascinating work of restoring and maintaining our priceless collection of antique streetcars, interurbans, and rapid transit cars.

We are very interested in helping people learn the skills necessary to support our restoration work, and we are also interested in learning any new skills our volunteer craftsmen or tradesmen might bring to us. Some of our shop volunteers work only on weekends, while others donate time during their vacation. Still others set aside one or two days during the week and spend the day much as if they were employed full time in the shop.

If you are retired, a student on summer vacation, or you have some spare time to volunteer on a day off, please consider helping us in the restoration shop to preserve our collection for future generations. Bring your skills and/or an interest to learn a new skill or craft and we guarantee that we will find something you will enjoy doing.

Ask Questions... Get Involved! Donald Curry - Town House Shop Manager

Railway Infrastructure - Overhead, Track, and Signals

Do you enjoy good hard work in the great outdoors? Then volunteering on our track crew, or the overhead line crew, just might be for you. Join our track superintendent to learn the art of laying and maintaining ties and rails. Also, learn how to create and lay continuous welded rail. Learn the intricate science of stringing and maintaining the overhead power lines that carry the electricity, which powers our railway.

If working on railway signal systems sounds like fun then you might enjoy working with our signal superintendent, outdoors and indoors, building and maintaining the signal systems that keep our railway operations safe. The work includes construction, restoration, maintenance, testing, record keeping, and teaching. Training will be provided and we can accommodate your schedule. Become a member of our Railway Signal Department.

	Ask Questions... Get Involved! Chet Bishop - Signal Department
	Ask Questions... Get Involved! Seashore Trolley Museum Business Office

Transit Bus and Trackless Trolley Collection

Are you a person who likes restoring and maintaining antique motor vehicles? If so, then you would enjoy volunteering to help restore and maintain our collection of antique motor buses and trackless trolleys. If you didn't know, a trackless trolley is a bus that runs on electricity from overhead wires. If you enjoy repairing internal combustion engines and other mechanical components found in antique motor buses then volunteering in the antique bus department might be for you. The curator of buses need volunteers to help with the restoration, mechanical repair, and maintenance of the Museum's bus and trackless trolley collection.

Ask Questions... Get Involved! Tom Santarelli - Bus and Trackless Department

Subway and Elevated Train Collection

If restoring subway and elevated cars, that once served such famous American cities as Boston, Chicago, New York, and Philadelphia sounds interesting to you, then you might like to join our curator of rapid transit cars in helping to restore and maintain our collection of subway and elevated cars. Ask Questions... Get Involved! Seashore Trolley Museum Business Office

The Museum Office and other Supporting Roles

Join our team of museum office volunteers supporting of our museum operations. Our office volunteers also support our small, but dedicated, full time office staff in the performance of their daily duties. Some of our volunteer office staff are retired or people with some spare time who enjoy working a few hours each week doing filing, answering phone calls, responding to email messages, and other general office duties.

Supporting museum operations does stop outside the office. Other opportunities for volunteering include various committees that deal with such things like visitor experience, safety, marketing, and education. Also, extra volunteers are needed to make our special events successful and for publicity at railroad shows throughout the region.

Ask Questions... Get Involved! Seashore Trolley Museum Business Office