President Biden gave a speech today outside at the Electric City Trolley Museum on his "Build Back Better" agenda. The Scranton Mayor, Paige Cognetti, and US Cong. Matt Cartwright (D-Lackawanna) specifically mention the Amtrak train from NY to Scranton. Stephen Gardner and Bill Flynn from Amtrak attended.

Here's the you tube video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5SmwV06fXk

The orange car at the beginning is P&W 401 (St. Louis 1907) built as a box motor and almost immediately put in service as a work car. After the speech, Biden moves to a reception in fromt of Delaware Electric Power (Wilmington) 120, a single-truck car from 1904.

http://www.ectma.org/collection.html

Phil Mulligan

In his speech, Biden mentioned living in Green Ridge and riding the trolley. Scranton 1929 "Electromobile" 505, currently under offsite restoration, is one of the cars that ended Scranton trolley operation on the Green Ridge Suburban line in 1954.

He'll have to come back and take a ride.

Phil Mulligan

First rule of political speeches:
ALWAYS assume that any personal-remembrance reflection made by the speaker is either:
1) a garbled train-wreck of the confused, mis-remembered, and physically impossible (i.e. remembering something that happened when he or she was two months old or not born yet, for example, or remembering something that never happened, like choo-choos on an electrified line or GG1s on the Horse Shoe Curve);
2) the complete fantasy of a speechwriter.

That's every politician that uses such blustery anecdotes, EVERY time.
And I won't even go into that fact that this is Joe Biden we're discussing here.

Give it a rest Sandy. Speech writers can sometimes get it right. This memory is at least possible, and he does seem to enjoy the rails.

GME

Congratulations to ECTM for receiving their 10 minutes of fame.

Think of the further uproar here if Joe wore a brown suit!

Wesley

I can't speak for others, but as for me, I suspect the following:

1) Trump (in what few speeches I ever watched of his), as a not-a-textbook-politician, seldom/never felt the need to engage in the cliched folksy banter of story-telling and personal anecdotes that is the stock in trade of most other political speechmakers, especially the ones attempting to appeal to the "common man." Trump would have just gone straight to bloviating balderdash and japing jingoism.

2) Those who are inclined to support Biden--meaning just about anyone that would attend a speech by him, campaign or otherwise--will of course unquestioningly eat up anything he says. Same for Trump supporters at a Trump speech.

This applies here to this forum as a potential thought experiment:
Suppose a politician of any stature approaches your museum or operation to propose a media event at your place, or on your train or trolley or PV or whatever. It's someone prominent enough that 1) you may probably get statewide or even national media attention, if only two lines in an article or four seconds on the national newscast; 2) the politician is controversial enough that it's likely at least some of your staff/volunteers/members would object strenuously.

Do you refuse, staying out of controversy??
Do you charge them (or their campaign or PAC or whoever) "rack rates," including extra overtime for the security likely to be involved?
Do you take the "no such thing as bad PR" approach?
Do you do it "free" in hopes of "payback" in the future, as some seemed to imply might be involved with Steamtown and Biden?

And, most importantly, does your answer vary depending on who it is, Trump, Biden, Pelosi, McConnell, whoever?
Supposing it was Al Sharpton, the "Tea Party," Black Lives Matter, or a "Thin Blue Line" rally?

Rather irrelevant to this forum.

Joe Biden has mentioned Scranton and trolleys several times over the years. He told Hillary Clinton in 2016 that as a child he had climbed a tree on a dare and jumped onto the roof of a passing trolley. He also admitted to hitching rides on streetcar bumpers and tugging on the retriever lines to break contact and annoy the motormen.

Factually, I can tell you that Joe Biden's childhood home was at 2446 North Washington Avenue. This was literally feet from the terminus of the Green Ridge Suburban line. A young Joe Biden undoubtedly watched the cars pass by and the motormen switch ends from his front yard many, many times.

I can also tell you that Scranton Transit car #505 frequently ran the Green Ridge Suburban line, was operating during all of Joe Biden's years in Scranton, and had automotive style bumpers which would be easy enough for a kid to stand on.

You may make your own determination, but Joe Biden and Scranton car #505 share a history of being in the same space at the same time. I can't imagine him having a recollection of Scranton without trolleys, particularly at that time, and I can't imagine a better snapshot of 1950s Americana, whether you care for the man or not.

(*Image of Car #505 at the terminus of the Green Ridge Suburban line borrowed from the Rockhill Trolley Museum website, photo taken 9/8/38 by the late Ed Miller.)

Politics aside, is this the first sitting president to visit a traction museum?

All that old Biden stuff is meaningless, he is now POTUS.

He spoke from the grounds of the SNHS. We now know that he and his staff know it exists.

He went on at great lengths about how important Scranton is to him.

Now all we have to do is figure out how to connect his love of Scranton with his awareness of SNHS and get him to do what's needed to get the place out of its doldrums.

I think I have an idea that might work??

Worth a try. Hope springs eternal.

Ross Rowland