As many of us younger fans pause to remember Fred Rogers, who passed away yesterday at 74, let us also thank his memory for his help in producing a new generation of trolley fans.

Photo below from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette shows Rogers at (I assume) the Pennsylvania Trolley Museum at Arden, which featured now and then in Roger's out-of-the-neighborhood field trips to see a real trolley in operation.


lner4472@bcpl.net

The Pennsylvania Trolley Museum, just southwest of Pittsburgh, plans to run this photo on the front page of its next issue of it "Trolley Fare" newsletter. The photo was taken on Pittsburgh Railways "low floor" streetcar #3756 in 1984 when Fred Rogers was filming a segment of "Mister Rogers Neighborhood" at the Pennsylvania Trolley Museum. The shoot was only supposed to go half a day, but Fred was having such a good time it ended up lasting all day. The episode still plays in reruns a few times a year and we know when it runs since the phone will ring for a few days with people asking how to get to our Museum.

In my opinion, "Mister Rogers Neighborhood" is to trolley museums as "Thomas the Tank Engine" is to railroad museums. I know he is responsible for thousands of visitors, born long after the trolley era ended, wanting to visit trolley museums. He was a great man and will be missed.

http://www.pa-trolley.org
ptm@pa-trolley.org