Shelburne Falls Trolley Museum Moves from the Past into the Future
Sam Bartlett, director of the Shelburne Falls Trolley Museum, stands in the control room of trolley car no. 10.
The museum, which is open weekends and holidays from Memorial Day to the end of the October, and on Mondays in July and August, is a place where memories are made. After guests enjoy a 15-minute ride on the historic trolley or on a century-old caboose, they are treated to a fascinating pictorial history lesson about life during the period when trolleys were the rage.
“This is a living museum where people can actually experience what is was like when trolleys began replacing the horse and buggy as the means of travel in this area,” said Sam Bartlett, director of the museum. “We get a variety of visitors here. Some don’t know a thing about trolleys, but most have an interest in history so they come to expand their horizons.”
And there is a lot of knowledge and enjoyment to be gained from a visit. Adults can peruse the museum’s artifacts and historic photos, while tots play with wooden trains and older children operate the model trains on display. Adults and older children can also board a handcar and become an “instant motorman” as they pump it along a set of railroad tracks. Or, they can ride a caboose built in 1910 in St. Albans, Vt, and sit in seats with a sweeping view that is accessible only via a steep, iron ladder.
The museum centers around the story of the life and restoration of an 1896 trolley that ran from Shelburne Falls to Colrain. It is a tale filled with magic and fascinating facts about a bygone era.
Early Timetables
Bartlett said trolley fever swept the nation from the 1890s into early 1920s. “These little towns were afraid they would wither and die if they didn’t have a trolley,” he explained, comparing it to the demand today for relaible broadband service.
Shelburne Falls’s first trolley car was built in Springfield by the Wason Manufacturing Company. The 6 ½ mile line it ran along connected the freight yard served by the joint Boston & Maine- New Haven railroad station in Buckland to the town of Colrain.
The tracks ran alongside the North River, where cotton was made into gauze, absorbent pads, and other sanitary goods in two large mills. “During World War I, these mills made enough cotton gauze to stretch all the way across the country every year,” Bartlett said.
Before the trolley, the raw cotton and gauze were transported between the railway and mills by horse and buggy.
It was a slow process, and in time a group of businessmen got together to form a private company with the intent of building a trolley line. Its construction heralded life-altering changes in the community that expanded options for local people.
“In the early days, the trolley was mostly used for going to the doctor, the bank, or for shopping,” Bartlett said. “It cost a nickel to ride, which at the time seemed frivolous, but it soon became necessary as people caught trolley fever.”
People soon began riding the trolley to get to the train station to escape the confines of their towns. “North Adams was a big destination for an outing,” Bartlett said. “And young people who were dating took the trolley to the Colrain Inn to get ice cream. It cost 50 cents for two servings and the same amount for two people to ride the trolley. It was a popular place to take a date even though it took a good chunk of a man’s paycheck in the early years.”
It also expanded the option of where they could live. Most people had resided within a half-hour walk of the mills, while shop owners lived over their stores. But the trolley gave them the means to move away from the village or out of the tenements built by the mills to house their workers.
In 1908, due to growing demand, a second trolley line was built. “The trolleys carried cans of milk and barrels of apples from farms as well as mail and railway express packages. In addition, they often pulled separate little boxcars filled with cotton or gauze to and from the mills,” Bartlett said, adding that the destination was usually Springfield, Boston, or Worcester.
The trolley was also used to transport vinegar made by a cider mill in Colrain, which was in high demand. “In a good year, that mill made 500,000 gallons of vinegar,” Bartlett said.
In addition, it carried children to the high school in Shelburne Falls. Every morning after doing farm chores, students arrived in wagons filled with milk or produce, which they loaded onto the trolley, then took home again empty at the end of the school day.
Bartlett said the owners initially assumed the trolley would be able to run across the iron bridge that runs over the Deerfield River and connects Buckland to the town of Shelburne. But selectmen didn’t like the idea, and denied them permission. As a result, goods had to be carried over the bridge by horse and buggy before they could be loaded onto trains.
Twelve years after the trolley line became operational, a separate concrete bridge was built. “It cost $20,000, which is what it had cost to use horses and buggies for 12 years,” Bartlett said.
However, as time went on, the line became less profitable and in 1927, the decision was made to abandon the trolley, since trucks had become a more efficient means of transportation.
Preserving History
The bridge was left standing, because it connected the water supply on the two sides of Shelburne Falls. But neglect transformed it into an overgrown eyesore.
However, in 1928, a local woman came up with the idea of turning it into a Bridge of Flowers. The Shelburne Falls Woman’s Club ran with the idea and raised $1,000 to make the idea a reality. They put up a fence and had 80 loads of donated loam and fertilizer delivered to the site, which was then planted as a garden.
The Bridge of Flowers quickly became a popular tourist attraction and last year, 30,000 visitors strolled across it.
Trolley car 10 was also saved in 1927, when a farmer named Frank Johnson asked if he could buy it. Although the other cars were scrapped, he wanted the engine for its sentimental value.
“He and his children rode to school on it, his milk was delivered on it every day and he met a schoolteacher while he was riding it who later became his wife,” Bartlett said, adding that the trolley passed by Johnson’s farm 28 times each day until it ceased operating.
After Johnson had the motor and wheels removed, the yellow trolley car sat on his land for 65 years. “He used it to store farm equipment and tried raising chickens in it, but discovered the interior was too hot. His children also used it to play cops and robbers,” Bartlett said.
In time, Trolley car 10 was passed to his son, Marshall Johnson, who donated the historic engine after the idea of creating a museum was brought to his attention. “The Johnson family wanted the trolley preserved, but they couldn’t do it on their own, so they were happy to give it up,” Bartlett said.
The freight house and yard at Shelburne Falls have also been preserved as part of the museum’s operations, and the ticket office in Shelburne Falls still stands at the Shelburne end of the Bridge of Flowers.
A motorcar, which can be operated by visitors under supervision, is on loan from Harvey Allen of Amherst who found it lying in a field in 1956.
In recent years, the museum has been feted as an attraction on the Shelburne Falls “Art Under the Stars” walks, as well as part of its Moonlight Madness event, which occurs each year on the Friday after Thanksgiving. “It’s really popular here. People line up to take rides on the trolley and have crafts for them to do while they wait,” Bartlett said.
Moving Forward
This year has been one of the best since the museum opened. “A lot of kids drag their parents back. It’s much loved by hard core munchkins,” said David Bartlett, who helped found the museum.
Sam Bartlett agreed. “One little boy learned the days of the week because he wanted to anticipate when he could ride the trolley,” he said.
Still others, like 80-year-old John Pickett, who travels from his home in Kinderhook, N.Y. about five times a year to visit, say they love the museum and all that is has to offer.
“I’m just happy to sit on the porch, watch the trains go by and ride on the trolley. It’s a good life,” he said.
And one that visitors can’t seem to learn enough about as they ask endless questions about the days when trolley fever was all the rage. n
