Chris Walker knew from an early age that he wanted to turn his hobby into a career. Growing up in McDonald, PA (a mere 20 minutes from the Pennsylvania Trolley Museum), Chris always had an interest in transit and was drawn to both the historic cars at the museum and the trolleys in Pittsburgh. “I liked riding the real thing in the real world,” he recalls.
His early visits to PTM inspired Chris to become a docent at age 13, giving tours and greeting guests. “I would usually work during events – they’d put me in the car barn so there was someone there,” he remembers. In those days, the museum was much smaller. When Chris was 18, he started volunteering in the archives and operating the streetcars. “It was almost like a training course for what I ended up doing as my job.”
Now in his mid 30s, Chris’s career in transit is in full swing. He previously worked in service planning at Port Authority and put together timetables for buses and trolleys; coincidentally, Chris was the third consecutive Pennsylvania Trolley Museum volunteer in that particular position after George Gula and Art Ellis. “I think volunteering down here helped me get a job. Volunteering shows that you have an interest and they always like that on a resume.”
In 2022, nearly 8,000 passengers rode trolleys to the Washington County Agricultural Fair. During that week each year, the Museum resembles an actual rapid transit system. It’s thanks to Chris Walker that the Museum can haul so many riders – he developed the clever seven-car schedule that maximizes passenger capacity while minimizing headways during his tenure as PTM’s operations manager.
His more recent roles at the Museum center around the history of transit in Pittsburgh. Chris was the project manager for PTM’s most recent publication, Pittsburgh: Streetcar City. “The book was 20 years in the making – it’s something that started in the late 1990s that we picked up a few times on and off. In 2018, we started it again and I just wanted to get it done.” Chris brought in graphic designer George Zrust to help with the visual layout of the book with the goal of appealing to the general public. In less than a year, PTM has nearly sold out of the original printing and a second printing of a thousand more books has been ordered.
This year, Chris became PTM’s Archives Manager and has been arranging regular work sessions to help organize and preserve documents, photos, and artifacts. Chris’s extensive knowledge of PTM’s collection has led to his involvement with yet another department – store merchandising! He’s furnished blueprints and drawings for retail specialist Connie Clutter to create unique designs for new products. “That’s a cool project!”
The 23 years that Chris Walker has spent at the Museum have gone by more quicky than he seems willing to admit. “That seems like a long time,” he says skeptically. Brightening, he adds, “I met my wife here when she was an intern in the education department during graduate school.”
We thank Chris for his many contributions to the Pennsylvania Trolley Museum. Those interested in participating in Archives work sessions or in other departments can reach out to Kristen at volunteer@patrolley.org.
