I'm looking for a little background information here about Trolley Valhalla, which was one of the earlier trolley museums in Pennsylvania. I know very little about the organization, but I'm pretty sure that it was absorbed into the Buckingham Valley Trolley Association (which has now transferred its equipment to the trolley museum in Scranton). Can anyone provide any historical data about Trolley Valhalla - timespan of the organization, location, size of collection, etc?

Frank@gats.com

> I'm looking for a little background
> information here about Trolley Valhalla...

For a while back in the 1960's, the Trolley Museum of New York and Trolley Valhalla shared a location to store their cars. I don't know much more than this, but there are some current members of TMNY who would remember this. I'm on the road right now, but e-mail me at info@tmny.org next week to remind me to ask them about Trolley Valhalla.

Trolley Museum of New York
info@tmny.org

> I'm looking for a little background
> information here about Trolley Valhalla,
> which was one of the earlier trolley museums
> in Pennsylvania. I know very little about
> the organization, but I'm pretty sure that
> it was absorbed into the Buckingham Valley
> Trolley Association (which has now
> transferred its equipment to the trolley
> museum in Scranton). Can anyone provide any
> historical data about Trolley Valhalla -
> timespan of the organization, location, size
> of collection, etc?

Trolley Valhalla was really a paper organisation formed by some individuals who owned cars. There was a proposed museum in Tansboro NJ, and Everett White had his cars there for a while. (These later formed the TMNY collection.) The Tansboro site became untenable and the cars were moved to another site in NJ but a museum there was also stillborn. The owners sold their cars to the BVTA (now ECTMA) and they are part of that collection.

The Electric City Trolley Museum Association

The only write up I have sen on the "organization" is in Andrew Young's Trolley to The Past" (something like that) history of the street car preservation movement. The section on defunct projects talks about the group. I think that they had a conflict between PA broad gauge and standard gauge equipment which led to the split up of the group. I have heard them called the only portable trolley museum that ever was. TM

ted_miles@NPS.gov

I am not a "trolley" person(sorry), but I can shed a little light on the subject through some old Steam Directory books.

The 1970 Steam Directory list the Tansboro site. It notes a 1/2 mile ride rapidly being extended.
The picture shows a car 5205 with a sign "63-Haverford". This Photo and listing are in the 1972 Directory as well.

The 1971 Steam Directory lists the Tansboro site as well. There is a picture of car #5327, but I do not know what company it came from.
The sign in the window says "60 Baltimore"

I was 7 that year. My Dad took the family on a ride over to Tansboro. We lived in Nothern DE.
We took the Chester-Bridgeport ferry across the Delaware River. A ride which has been gone since about that time.

We got to the site to find a few cars, but they told us that there were no rides. I'm sure I was a grumpy kid for the ride home.

I hope I was of some help.

Alan Levy

alanl759@aol.com

Back in the ancient times of the mid-1970s Trolley Valhalla was introduced at an ARM meeting as being:

"Trolley Valhalla of many places in New ersey"

An old timer

> The only write up I have sen on the
> "organization" is in Andrew
> Young's Trolley to The Past" (something
> like that) history of the street car
> preservation movement. The section on
> defunct projects talks about the group. I
> think that they had a conflict between PA
> broad gauge and standard gauge equipment
> which led to the split up of the group. I
> have heard them called the only portable
> trolley museum that ever was. TM

Actually, the Tansboro site had dual-gauge track, with a RR gauge or trolley gauge to dual gauge switch. PRT/PTC/SEPTA have both gauges so that was not a problem. Incidentally the trolley gauge is 62 1/4" in Philadelphia. The city trolleys and the Elevated use that gauge, while the Broad Street Subway, PATCO and P&W are RR gauge of 56 1/2" Red Arrow's trolleys are 62 1/2" gauge. Red Arrow wheels are wider and differently profiled than city wheels and the Elevated is itself different. Nevertheless, gauge was not a problem at Tansboro.

The Electric City Trolley Museum Association

> The Tansboro site became
> untenable and the cars were moved to another
> site in NJ but a museum there was also
> stillborn.

The other site for Trolley Valhalla after Tansboro was at Jobstown, NJ (near Fort Dix). Plans were to utilize a section of the former PRR Kinkora Branch right of way. I think it was around 1975 that the Trolley Valhalla folks began moving several cars from Jobstown to Buckingham Valley, PA to operate on the NH&I.

Regards,
Jim Robinson

Thanks for the information! Are there any cars left in Tansboro, or were they all moved the the BVTA site? Speaking of which, didn't BVTA have several sites? I didn't think they kept their entire roster at the Penn's Landing location. I'm not sure what the current situation of much of the BVTA collection is, as - last I checked - not all of their equipment had been moved to Scranton. Are all the cars not yet moved to Scranton in a central location, or are a few still scattered around?

Frank@gats.com