By Bram Bailey

Well, we have the Bunny Trolley, the Pumpkin Trolley and the Santa Trolley, but by far the lesser known of our trolleys is the Garbage Trolley.  For the last four years I have come down to the Pennsylvania Trolley Museum during the Spring Clean-up to run what I fondly call “The Garbage Trolley.”  Over the winter, our right-of-way collects a lot of trash.  Just as we clean up our rolling stock and facilities for the upcoming operating season, it is necessary to police the trash along the right of way.  This year I brought model railroader and railfan Jeff Gray along to assist on this project.

As everyone who knows me can attest, I am an unapologetic PCC fan.  Whenever I get the opportunity operate one, I jump at the chance. One of the best days I ever had at PTM was during the County Fair when we were short of operators, and I got to run the 1711 for a full shift all by myself.  Of course, I am a firm believer that since the PCC was designed as a one person car, a PCC needs a conductor as much as a fish needs a bicycle.

Running the Garbage Trolley gives me an opportunity to operate a PCC all by myself and at the same time do a service for the museum.  In years past the dubious distinction of Garbage Trolley, or GT for those who prefer acronyms, has gone to the 1711, 14 and 2711.  This year the honor went back to the 1711.

When we arrived at PTM the morning of March 30^th, we pumped up New Orleans #832 for a ride down to the Trolley Display Building and fired up the 1711, performed the walk around inspection, then did the line check.  I have always enjoyed the line check.  Just a leisurely ride over the railway early in the morning looking for any imperfections and enjoying a cup of coffee while you are at it.  During the line check I was also scoping out the magnitude of the trash that needed to be collected — it was going to be a busy day for us.  This year the litterbugs were prolific in pursuit of their chosen craft.

With the line check complete, we got out some trash bags, put on some rubber gloves and headed up the valley towards Arden.  There was a lot to collect at the Main Street Crossing and Fairgrounds, but the valley was relatively free of trash.  Once we got back to Main Street, Jeff found a deer carcass that had likely bounced off a vehicle on the highway.  That was a little too big and nasty for us to handle, so we reported it and continued on from there to Richfol filling both of our trash bags.   We took a lunch break then then headed outbound towards the East Campus.  That area was a bit of a challenge; never before had either of us seen so many packing peanuts.  It took the best part of the afternoon to finish it.  Once we were done, we took one last lap around the railway looking for stuff we missed on the first pass.  In the end, we filled four large garbage bags with trash.

To add some fun to Garbage Duty, we elected to carry on the “Washington County Litter Bug Survey” I started last year.  The results of the 2023 edition are as follows:

• Gatorade edged out Coke and Pepsi as the favorite soft drink.
• Bud Light beat out Miller Lite by a single can as the beer of choice by Washington County Litterbugs.
• The abundance of Slim Jim wrappers proved once again that they are the favorite snack in our informal survey.
• Taco Bell became a contender in the fast-food wrapper category, but McDonalds still holds the lead with Burger King placing a distant third.
• Marlboro remained the cigarette of choice.
• The Smokeless Tobacco folks picked up their trash and did not place in this year’s contest.
• The most numerous award went out the ubiquitous packing peanut.

Some weird and humorous stuff we encountered:

1. We picked up a clear plastic disc that looked like a contact lens for the Jolly Green Giant.
2. Don’t even mention packing peanuts to either Jeff or I for at least the next six months. There must have been an airplane carrying those things that crashed upwind of our location.  I never saw so many of those things outside of a shipping room.
3. Thankfully, gone were the disposable face masks that made up a preponderance of our haul last year.

Operating the Garbage Trolley gave me the opportunity to treat Jeff to some “Rare Mileage” as we took a clockwise trip down Volunteer Boulevard.

When I got home, I was telling my wife that I had an enjoyable day on the Garbage Trolley.  I certainly got my exercise — according to my smart phone, I got in 13,727 steps that day.  Yes, I will volunteer to do it again next year.