Seashore Electric Railway Pamplets

The Seashore Electric Railway got its start in 1939 when a dozen men brought an open summer trolley car from nearby Saco. Now it owns 45 cars from 23 railway systems in 14 states and England. These cars represent the entire development of street and interurban railway transportation from the horse car to the dawn of streamlining. They include a former horse car dating back to the 1870\u27s, an all-aluminum interurban car capable of speeds up to 85 miles per hour, the last passenger trolley and the last electric locomotive to operate in the state of Maine, a double-deck tram car from England, a car carrying the famous destination sign Desire, a car peculiar to Los Angeles -- but known to movie-goers the world over and a sequence of a dozen cars from Boston.https://digicom.bpl.lib.me.us/books_pubs/1115/thumbnail.jp

The Trolley Museum: Seashore Electric Railway on U.S. 1, Kennebunkport, Maine

Opening paragraphs: Since World War II, the trolley car has been vanishing so rapidly from the American scene that few members of the younger generation have ever ridden a streetcar --this despite the fact that nearly every one of our large cities was laid out around an electric railway system. Back in 1939, when the trend to other means of transport was already becoming irrevocably established, a dolzn men in Boston undertook to preserve for posterity, a single open car from Biddeford, Maine. From this modest start has grown Maine\u27s famous Trolley Museum, of which this is the official catalogue. Because the collection represents nearly every phase of car design and development, this booklet is also a history of the trolley from 1873 to 1931. In all the annals of human endeavor, never has so large an enterprise grown and disappeared so swiftly as the traction industry. Less than 70 years have passed since 1888, when the first really successful electric car was placed in service. In 1921, the elenric railway business was America\u27s fifth industry, with 300,000 employees, a six billion dollar investment, and 15 billion riders -- twelve times the number of passengers carried by the steam railroads in the same year. Yet today, but six interurban lines remain of the hundreds which once criss-crossed the nation, and a mere dozen cities in the United States and Canada are still served by streetcars. Most of these are of the silent streamlined type designed by the industry\u27s Presidents\u27 Conference Committee (PCC) in 1936 to meet auto and bus competition. A rare thing indeed is the sight and sound of an old time trolley. Soon, even these remnants will be gone. Only in a museum will it be possible to see and ride what was once the world\u27s most important and certainly most interesting transport vehicle. Here, we hope to perpetuate for future generations, an operating trolley line, with original equipment, amid the surroundings of the era during which this country grew from a rural frontier into the industrial giant and world power that it is today. The booklet is 44 pages. The last ten pages are the front and back of five separate postcards that were on view at the Trolley Museum circa 1958 -- and possibly remain on display there today.https://digicom.bpl.lib.me.us/railroad_pubs/1042/thumbnail.jp

20th Anniversary Seashore Electric Railway Trolley Museum

Tracks the first 20 years (1939 to 1959) of the Seashore Electric Railway Trolley Museum in Kennebunkport, Maine. [The original document is 6 pages. Pages 7-18 are enlarged section of these 6 pages for easier reading and for larger display of the photographs].https://digicom.bpl.lib.me.us/railroad_pubs/1043/thumbnail.jp