U.S. COLLECTORS OF TRAMS

Press, Volume XCIV, Issue 28130, 20 November 1956, Page 8

U.S. COLLECTORS OF TRAMS

Hobby Growing As Tracks Vanish

CONVERSION FOR MANY PURPOSES

(From a Reuter Correspondent) WASHINGTON.

As tramway systems disappear from America’s towns, old trams have become so numerous and aroused so much nostalgia, that they have given rise to one of the nation’s newest hobbies: collecting them. “Rail fans,” banding into groups, buy or receive as gifts specimens of various vintages from all over the United States. They restore and repair them, and exhibit them to the public. And some enthusiasts actually ride them.

East of New Haven, Connecticut, members of the Branford Electric Railway Association maintain an outdoor tram museum with two miles of track.

The Seashore Electric Railway maintains a half-mile of track near Kannebunkport, Maine. The oldest car in this collection dating from 1879, was drawn originally by horses, and was later equipped with motors. The 400 members of the Seashore Society own 45 trams but are especially fond of a double-decker tramcar recently presented to them by Blackpool, England. Never popular in the United States, these two-deckers predominated in England.

Former New York cars swing along the streets of Lima, Peru; Sao Paula, Brazil: Bombay. India, and in Vienna, and other old-timers have gone to pasture as roadside diners, tourist cabins, and emergency homes.

One began its second life in Prichard, Missouri—as a church.

Among the 15 large cities which still retain trams, scarcely one has not abolished a sizeable number of lines, or has considered doing so. Tracks, which totalled 40,500 miles 30 years ago, have shrunk to 6700 miles. Cars in use have dwindled from 62,800 to fewer than 6000.