By Joel Salomon, Rockhill Trolley Museum
Over the past three weekends, the holiday events have been underway at the Rockhill Trolley Museum where I volunteer. We operated trolleys six evenings for the Polar Bear Express and one day for Santa’s Trolley. Volunteers spent weekends and many weekdays decorating the museum area and the entire trolley line to Altoff Siding where many more decorations were placed.
This year, thanks to a generous donation, we were using a new sound system that is synchronized with the lights and decorations at the siding where the cars are reversed for the trip back to the museum site. Along the trolley line, strings of lights are placed on every trolley pole and inflatable decorations were placed thought the trolley line. During the Polar Bear Express, after arriving back at the museum area, all visitors were given cookies and hot chocolate in the pavilion as part of the ride.
During Santa’s Trolley, two museum members that live in Rochester NY came to volunteer at the trolley museum for the weekend and play live music aboard the trolleys. Children were also invited to try their hand on the fiddle. They also played duets in the pavilion using the piano at the museum.
We had a very successful event as during this time frame of six evenings and one day we carried well over 2300 riders. The last evening we carried 600 riders in less than three hours. This last evening is always the busiest and this was the most riders that we have carried in one night in the years that we have been doing this event. Johnstown Traction Company car 311 and 355, York Railways 163, and San Diego U2 car 1019 were all used on this last evening and throughout the event. The wheelchair lift on San Diego car 1019 was used several times during the event to enable handicapped visitors to ride the trolley.
Many visitors attending the event indicated this has become a family tradition while many have just heard about the event and had a enjoyable visit. Visitors traveled an hour and a half hours and up to three hours to attend.
Thanks to all of our visitors for coming out to support the event and a huge thank you to the dedicated volunteers that spent many hours, days and weekends to make all of this possible.