My husband is a big train fanatic so he couldn’t wait to take our two children (both 2 years old) on a trolley ride. We’re lucky to live rather close to the Electric City Trolley Museum in Scranton, PA. The trolley museum is located on the grounds of the Steamtown National Historic Site and is conveniently located in Downtown Scranton, not too far from Interstate 81 and the Central Scranton Expressway.
There are trolley excursions four times a day (10:30 am, Noon, 1:30 pm and 3:00 pm) five days a week, Wednesday through Sunday. Since we live close we were flexible on times. The boys woke up well so we decided at about 9:30 this morning to pack them up to take the 10:30 trolley ride. It was a beautiful spring day so why not enjoy it.
We arrived to buy our tickets at the trolley museum about 10:25 am. The people in the museum were so nice, offering to call over to the conductor to let him know we were on our way and not to start the excursion without us. The trolley loads up at the platform in Steamtown, just a short walk away for adults, but with the kids we drove closer to the area in the parking lot to save the walk with their short legs.
The trolley cars are really nice and very clean. They are not air conditioned, so on a hot summer day I can imagine it could get very hot in the car. You do get a nice breeze once the trolley starts moving – there are windows that open in the car. There are no screens or any kind of protection on the windows so we made sure to keep a good eye on the children to make sure they didn’t get into any kind of mischief.
The conductor comes aboard and takes your tickets, just like the conductor must have done when the trolley was actually in operation. The ride cost $5.50 each for adults – children under 3 were free. There is a fee schedule on the trolley museum’s web site www.ectma.org.
The ride itself is about five miles long, and the total time of the excursion is less than an hour. You do get to ride through the Laurel Line Crown Avenue Tunnel, about one mile in length. My one son did get a bit frightened the first time we went through the tunnel, but was a real trooper on the return ride. The excursion goes along the Laurel Line and Erie Rail Road up to PNC Field on Montage Mountain, the home of the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees. There are separate excursions to the game that include a ride on the trolley and tickets to the game. I’m not sure how much that costs, but I think it’s a nice way for train enthusiasts and baseball fans to combine two pastimes in a fun day.
When you get to PNC Field there is a new trolley shop building, where the cars are housed. It looks like there will be some displays there in the future, but right now it’s pretty much a bare building as the memorabilia and displays are created.
All in all it was a fun time for us today. The boys started getting restless on the ride home. While child safety seats are not required, we held the boys on our lap or kept them next to us on a seat. They were starting to get antsy, wanting to run around the car which of course we did not let them do. I think that as they get older they will probably enjoy the ride a lot more. We didn’t venture into the museum itself just yet. I think we need to wait until they are a little older for that.
I would highly recommend a day at the Electric City Trolley Museum for anyone who enjoys history and/or trains. It’s not that expensive and it is a value for the enjoyment you get out of the ride. Click here to view more trolley car photos.
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Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved.
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