The Museum is open every Saturday and Sunday from Noon until 5:00 p.m. except for Christmas and Christmas Eve; and New Years and New Year's Eve. It is also open to the public on Thursdays and Fridays from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. during the following calendar dates: 15 March until 15 May, 15 June until 15 August, and 1 October until 15 November.
History
NCTM was incorporated on January 4, 1961, as the National Capital Historical Museum of Transportation, Inc. Progress was slow at first, but the Museum eventually combined efforts and streetcar collections with a group from Baltimore. The organization found its first home in Lake Roland Park in Baltimore, Maryland. After efforts were thwarted by adjacent property owners, the group divided the collections in 1966. National Capital Trolley Museum moved to its present site in Colesville, Maryland, while the Baltimore Streetcar Museum was formed to focus on Baltimore transit. The site was provided by Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission, and DC Transit leased trolleys for a nominal cost. The organization raised $20,000 to build a car barn. Groundbreaking of the Colesville site began on November 20, 1965. NCTM's original intention was to operate streetcars owned by DC Transit president O. Roy Chalk, but it was not until 1970 that Chalk donated several historic Washington streetcars. In the interim, the museum acquired a small fleet of European trams and a car from Johnstown, Pennsylvania. NCTM ran its first streetcar in October 1969, and since then the museum has operated consistently over its one-mile line. In the winter of 2008–2009, the Museum moved into three new buildings: a visitors' center, a display building for the streetcars, and a streetcar storage-and-maintenance building. Construction of the Intercounty Connector, which crosses the Museum's former location, required the Museum to shift locations in the Park. The Museum reopened on Saturday, January 16, 2010.
Education efforts
The Museum offers a variety of education programs and activities throughout the year. On Thursdays and Fridays each spring and fall, the Museum hosts school field trips by advance reservation. Special summer programs are offered on Thursday and Friday from June 15 to August 15 with age-appropriate activities.
During public hours, street cars leave the Museum from the Dispatcher’s Desk in the center of the Visitor’s Center. The Demonstration Railway is the largest and most popular exhibit of the Museum. The line goes past Street Car Hall and the Maintenance Barn and down into the woods past Dodge siding, along Northwest Branch, and on to Fish Hook loop to turn around for the return trip.
’s silent films are excerpted and displayed continuously in a small theater. Exhibits on the walls leading into the theater link the importance of movies and street cars to community life in the early part of the 20th century.
This exhibit highlights street car transportation in the local communities and includes a working model of the street car line through Chevy Chase, one of the first street car suburbs in the country. This exhibit includes images of the power house at the end of the line, a worker emerging from a plow pit where each street car travelling between downtown and the suburbs is converted from collecting underground power with a plow to an overhead trolley pole. Visitors can use the controller handle to start the street car and can operate a dynamo to generate electricity for the lights in the buildings along the track.
Conduit Hall
An actual piece of track and the steel framework for the underground electrical conduit is on display in Conduit Hall along with a model of a conduit switch. Also in conduit hall are overhead trolleys and a hands-on controller from the early 20th century.
Street Car Hall
Adjacent to Conduit Hall and the Visitor Center is Street Car Hall. At any one time seven or more street cars are on display in this spacious building. Near the cars are illuminated kiosks with information about the street cars in the collection and their history. The display includes the oldest street car in the collection, DC Transit 0522 from 1898. At the end of each street car trip, a docent will take passengers into Street Car Hall and discuss the history of street car development and answer questions.
Accidents and fires
In 1970, its unique air-conditioned PCC car 1512, the "Silver Sightseer," was damaged by arsonists and scrapped. In 1987, cars 1053 and 766 were severely damaged in a collision. One of the worst disasters to ever befall a North American trolley museum occurred at NCTM on September 28, 2003, when one of the two carbarns at the museum's former site burned down. Eight pieces of equipment, comprising about half of the museum's operating fleet and one-third of its total collection of street cars, were destroyed. Washington cars lost included 0509, 1053, 07, and 026. Johnstown 352, Graz 120, and Vienna 6062 and 7802 were also destroyed. The cause of the fire was not definitely determined, though the fire inspector did conclude that it was an accidental fire and not a case of arson. Some of the cars lost, such as 1053 and 07, were the only preserved examples of their designs, while others have examples preserved elsewhere. Immediately following the fire, the museum resumed operations with the remaining cars. Since the fire, the museum has purchased streetcars from or traded with other museums to replace those lost.
