mardi 21 mai 2013

Seaport Trolley Museum

My Dad's birthday is the 23rd and mine is the 24th. To celebrate, we both got Sunday off and headed up to Kennebunkport, Maine. What's up there, you ask? The Seaport Trolley Museum, the largest electric railway museum in the world - a must-visit for railfans. We got an early start and spent the whole day together, which was so nice as we hadn't been able to do that in such a long time. If you follow me on Instagram, then you already know what we were up to, but if not, here's all of the details.


Instead of taking the Amtrak Downeaster like we had our last time in Maine, my Dad rented a car. THIS beauty, knowing that I am obsessed with Mini Coopers. I don't actually know how to drive, but I wanted to keep it soooo bad.


This is the workshop with the trolleys they are currently restoring. All of the restoration work is done by volunteers, which is incredibly admirable but also tremendously sad as that means that the process takes forever.


They've restored two or three trolleys to full, working capabilities. So the tour begins with a 30-minute ride and introduction to the story of the Museum and then we are free to wander the grounds. 






Don't ask me how, but somehow in the moments after my Dad took this picture, I was on the ground on my back. Story of my life, I suppose.



On top of trolleys and subway cars, they also have an impressive collection of auto-buses.


Then they have this. And many others like it, we discovered by trespassing a little. Going back to when I said it was tremendously sad, the really heartbreaking part is that five trolleys are being worked on while two hundred others are rotting away waiting to be taken care of.

They have a few double-decker buses from various cities in the United Kingdom. How on Earth did they get a hold of these? And also, how on Earth did they get them to where they are now? I would actually really like to know. 


Another thing I'm really curious to know how they got a hold of is the outbound half of Northampton Station, formerly of Boston's own Elevated Line.

If you're passing through the region, I would suggest checking it out. My Dad and I had so much fun wandering the grounds and its a great way to spend a little time outdoors. Thanks so much for reading and I hope to see you again soon!

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