Developing Equipment Standards for the Vintage Trolley Field

Vintage Trolleys offer a combination of transportation and nostalgia, and have also proven to be a successful economic development sparkplug in many US cities. The year 2005 begins with about 19 active Vintage Trolley operations around the country, and many more in the planning process. Like contemporary Light Rail vehicles, Vintage Trolleys transport people, operate on rails, and typically utilize electric propulsion, but in most cases the similarities end there. The types of vehicles employed by today’s Vintage Trolley operations range from “restored original” equipment dating to the early 1900s to newly built “replica” vintage cars. In addition, the service conditions under which these Vintage Trolley vehicles are operated are often quite different than those found on a typical Light Rail or other rail transit system. While the rail transit industry has been steadily generating consensus standards covering many technical aspects of its present generation of equipment and infrastructure, these standards do not typically make provision for the unique vehicles found in Vintage Trolley operations. For this reason, the APTA Vintage Trolley and Streetcar Task Force created a unique document to establish appropriate standards for equipping and operating Vintage Trolley vehicles in an urban public transit environment. This paper presents a summary of the contents of the Vintage Trolley Vehicle Equipment Standard, along with background on the process used to assemble it. A brief survey of Vintage Trolley equipment currently in operation in the US is also presented, further illustrating the diversity of the equipment now in operation and highlighting the importance of the Standard.

• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/oclc/7p
• Supplemental Notes:
  • Full conference proceedings available on CD-ROM.
• Corporate Authors:

  American Public Transportation Association

  1666 K Street, NW, Suite 1100
  Washington, DC  United States  20006
• Authors:
  • Smatlak, John
• Conference:
  • Rail Transit Conference, 2005
  • Location: Pittsburgh Pennsylvania, United States
  • Date: 2005-6-5 to 2005-6-8
• Publication Date: 2005

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Print
• Features: References; Tables;
• Pagination: 9p
• Monograph Title: Rail Transit Conference Proceedings, 2005

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Electric trains; Infrastructure; Light rail transit; Light rail vehicles; Propulsion; Rail transit; Streetcars; Trolley cars; Urban transit; Vehicle design
• Subject Areas: Design; Operations and Traffic Management; Passenger Transportation; Public Transportation; Railroads;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01002132
• Record Type: Publication
• ISBN: 1931594155
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Jul 18 2005 2:17PM