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On September 24, 2022, the Pennsylvania Trolley Museum invited Museum members for a behind-the-scenes tour of the East Campus construction progress and an annual dinner. After the dinner, PTM staff and PTM’s president of the Board of Trustees, Ed Morascyzk, recognized the service of volunteers and handed out awards. The final awards given out were the President’s Volunteer Service Awards, an initiative of the Corporation for National and Community Service that recognizes volunteer service on a national level.

The photos below were taken during the East site tour and awards ceremony.

Full list of 2021 President’s Volunteer Service Award recipients:

Bronze Level (100-250 hours):

Alex Bruchac
Bram Bailey
Brett Freithaler
Chris Walker
Dale Knutson
Dave Woods
David George
Dave Moffett
Dennis Cramer
Donna Becker
Doug Zebley
Jack Samuels
Jonathan Muse
Joseph Brandtner
Judy Pilof
Kathryn Black
Kevin Zebley
Mark Smutny
Ned Apalakian
Ralph Ciccone
Bob Malwitz
Stephen Hudspeth
Timothy Sheffield
Tom Pawlesh
A. William Kiehl

Silver Level (250-500 hours):

Art Rizzino
Artie Ellis
Barrie Baker
Christopher Golofski
David Hamley
Donald Bailey
George Greenbaum
Jack Demnyan
Jeff King
Nancy Young
Richard Rhoton
Robert Frank
Robert Jordan
Tony Jost
Wayne Wicks
Wayne Young
William Fronczek

Gold Level (500+ hours):

Alfred Cooley, Jr.
Bernie Orient
Bruce Wells
CJ Bick
Dan Bower
Dennis Bockus
George Gula
Jack Jost
John Habak
Katie Imler
Larry Lovejoy
Michael Buchta
Robert Popey
Roy Scandrol

BSA & Girl Scout Merit Private Badge Workshops

There are no dates available for the remainder of the 2022 year – thank you so much for your interest and support! We will be opening reservations for private merit badge workshops early in 2023. Sign up for our Scouting newsletter to be the first to know when private merit badge workshops reservations open again.

The Pennsylvania Trolley Museum annually hosts several merit badge workshops, but we understand that these dates and times don’t always work for everyone. We currently have a limited number of dates and times available this season for hosting a private merit badge workshop for your troop or pack. These merit badges are available on a first-come, first-serve basis. These merit badge workshops follow curriculum created by both the Scouts BSA (formerly Boy Scouts of America) and the Girl Scouts of the USA organizations. Merit badge workshops are open to any youth of the appropriate age. Admission to the museum is included with the purchase of any merit badge workshop. Merit badge workshops are taught by certified merit badge counselors.

• Cost: $20 per Scout / $10 per chaperone
• Minimum of 10 Scouts and 2 adult chaperones required
• Most merit badge workshops are 3 hours in length

The full cost of the workshop will be due upon confirmation. Without payment, the workshop will not be considered confirmed. If a workshop is not confirmed within two weeks prior, it will be considered cancelled.

Questions? Please let us know by sending an email to our Manager of STEAM and Education Programs, at education@patrolley.org.

Private Merit Badge Workshop Offerings

These are the following merit badges we currently offer. Please note that some merit badges may have pre-requisites associated with them. If you are interested in a badge that is not offered on the list below, please let us know and we can see if we are able to accommodate your group’s request.

• Bear Super Science (2nd – 3rd grade)
• Webelos Engineering (4^th – 5^th grade)
• BSA Environmental Science (6^th – 12^th grade)
• BSA Electricity (6^th – 12^th grade)
• BSA Railroading (6^th – 12^th grade)
• BSA Signs, Signals, and Codes (6^th – 12^th grade)
• BSA Weather (6^th – 12^th grade)
• Daisy Mechanical Engineering Badges 1 – 3 (K – 1^st grade)
• Brownie Mechanical Engineering Badge 2: Fling Flyer Design Challenge (2^nd – 3^rd grade)
• Brownie Mechanical Engineering Badge 3: Race Car Design Challenge (2^nd – 3^rd grade)
• Brownie STEM Career Exploration (2^nd – 3^rd grade)
• Junior Mechanical Engineering Badge 2: Balloon Car Design Challenge (4^th – 5^th grade)
• Junior Mechanical Engineering Badge 3: Crane Design Challenge (4^th – 5^th grade)
• Junior STEM Career Exploration (4^th – 5^th grade)
• Cadette STEM Career Exploration (6^th – 8^th grade)

There are no dates available for the remainder of the 2022 year. We will be opening reservations for private merit badge workshops early in 2023. Sign up for our Scouting newsletter to be the first to know when private merit badge workshops reservations open again.

Standing high in the air for over 40 years along Henderson Avenue was a brown fiberglass horse advertising Lowry’s Western Shop. In the spring of 2022 during a lunch trip to Countryside Deli next door, a group of Pennsylvania Trolley Museum staff noticed a toppled pole and the aforementioned horse which now lay on the pavement with several severe cracks after an unfortunate run-in with a delivery truck the previous winter.

Saddled with the task of arranging the collection of streetcars to best tell the story of the Trolley Era, several Pennsylvania Trolley Museum volunteers and staff came to the idea of acquiring the damaged horse as a potential exhibit in front of the Museum’s rare 1870s horsecar inside the Trolley Display Building. Executive Director and CEO Scott Becker placed a call to Lowry’s Western Shop, and co-owners Gail Cecchetti and Bill Litman generously agreed to donate the horse.

Horses were very important to the advancement of public transportation — horsecars (streetcars pulled by horses) first appeared in Pittsburgh in the late 1850s and were the first all-weather transit vehicle, moving people through the streets on steel rails rather than in the mud and muck. In fact, Pittsburgh ran horsecars comparatively late — the Sarah Street line was one of the last horsecar lines in the United States when it ceased animal-powered operations in 1923.

The Museum’s own horsecar is a typical example of 1870s Stephenson-built cars that ran to the western end of Allegheny City from Pittsburgh until 1907 when the Union Bridge spanning the Allegheny River was deconstructed after flood damage. Car 101 then spent nearly 100 years as a display piece in various locations including the Exposition Hall in modern day Point State Park, town parades, South Park Fairgrounds, and Station Square. In 2004, the horsecar came to the Museum for permanent display.

The Lowry’s horse needed a few significant repairs before it could take its place as a mane exhibit. Ed Morascyzk, President of PTM’s Board of Trustees and owner of the new Prime Collision Center on Route 19 in South Strabane, saw the opportunity for a fun collaboration between local Washington organizations and donated Prime’s services. General Manager at Prime Collision Center Gary Flannery said it made sense for the body shop to take on the horse project since it was damaged in a vehicle accident, and they do a lot of fiberglass repairs on cars.

Kevin Zebley, with the help of volunteer Sarah Wells, transported the horse from Lowry’s to the body shop in the back of his 1965 GMC stake bed truck to be restored and stable-ized. Following behind on the drive over, Kristen Fredriksen, the Pennsylvania Trolley Museum’s volunteer coordinator, was photographing the horse at a stop light when a man in the car in the next lane rolled down his window and shouted over, “Is it dead?!”

Not for long! Upon delivery to Prime Collision Center (the site of the old Route 19 Bowling Alley), the horse was unloaded and placed on a rack alongside the paint booth in the spotless new facility. The body shop technicians had free reign to do a high-quality cosmetic restoration, and over the next few weeks, Gary Flannery shared photos of the horse in progress. In addition to the cracks in the body, the horse was missing most of its hooves, so fiberglass repairs came first.

Next up came primer, a basecoat, and then paint. Sarah Wells, the Museum’s horse expert and enthusiast, submitted reference photos to Prime Collision Center of typical bay horse coloring and markings. With the horse in the home stretch, Gary’s wife Rose painted the finer details of the mane, hooves, tail, and face to make the horse more realistic.

Sarah finished gathering up the proper tack to display the horse — the fittings are authentic. Soon enough, the Pennsylvania Trolley Museum received notice that the horse was ready to return. Protected by furniture blankets for padding, the horse was carefully loaded up and hauled back to the Museum where it was mounted on sheets of plywood for display.

The horse made its debut during the 2022 Washington County Agricultural Fair. Each morning, a cavalry of volunteers pushed the horsecar out alongside the building and staged the horse ahead of it, spotlighting the scene at night with LED lights. The Museum wanted to harness the excitement of the Fair and draw attention to the improvements in exhibits and facilities; in fact, just beyond the horsecar on display, trolley riders could see the recently-completed steel frame of the future Welcome & Education Center. The emerging building, the intricately painted horsecar, the new four-legged friend, and the cavalcade of streetcars bound for the Fair jockeyed for visitors’ attention.

The Museum invited Lowry’s Western Shop co-owners Gail Cecchetti and Bill Litman to visit the recently-refurbished horse on Friday, August 19, 2022. Both were impressed with the work — the 45-year-old horse now looks brand new again. Bill and Gail, along with Pennsylvania Trolley Museum Executive Director and CEO Scott Becker and Prime Collision Center owner Ed Morascyzk posed on the front platform of the horsecar. After a bit of foal-ing around, Gail and Bill thanked the Museum for their horse-pitality and hoofed it back to their store. From now on, this show pony will greet guests in the Trolley Display Building at the Museum where he hopes to become a colt sensation!

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We’ve been champing at the bit to share this story for the past few months – we intend to have a naming contest for the horse in the near future! Stay tuned to the Pennsylvania Trolley Museum’s social media channels for details. We send our gratitude to Prime Collision Center and Lowry’s Western Shop and appreciate their generosity in making this possible!

The horse and Horsecar 101 as seen from the trolley line

On Sunday, August 7, 2022, the Pennsylvania Trolley Museum hosted 28 professionals from different transit agencies around the country and 4 PRT employees as part of APTA’s Sustainability/Operations Planning and Scheduling Workshop.

The visit was organized by Pittsburgh Regional Transit, and the group arrived on a New Flyer 3400 series low floor articulated bus. PRT’s Chuck Rompala gave attendees a history of PAT Transit PCC 4004 which was opened for their inspection. Next, the visitors rode a vintage restored streetcar, and PTM Executive Director/CEO Scott Becker led a tour of the Trolley Display Building and Wexford Station covering the trolley era and the Museum’s East Campus development. The attendees asked many great questions and seemed to really enjoy their visit. Chuck Rompala thought it was important that the attendees got to learn more about transit history since most of them are transit planners at their respective agencies. Photos: Scott Becker

The steel has arrived and the new Welcome and Education Center is taking shape very quickly! Follow along here for photos of the progress!

About this time last year, we were thrilled to see Trolley Street take shape. The steel erectors are on site as of early August 2022 and it’s incredible to watch the building come out of the ground at such a rapid pace.

The first column went up around 7:30 a.m. on Wednesday, August 3.

By the end of the second day, 18 of 27 columns were up and much of the connecting horizontal steel members had been installed.

Columns at the center of the building began going up Monday, August 8, along with roof rafter beams.

By Wednesday afternoon, August 10, about 60% of the skeletal structure was complete.

By Thursday morning, August 11, museum staff met to begin planning a topping off ceremony.

A view from the East on August 11 clearly shows the shape of the building. Very exciting!

On August 15, 2022, the Pennsylvania Trolley Museum held a beam signing and topping off ceremony to celebrate the completion of the structural steel construction. A video from the event can be found on the PTM YouTube channel!

Construction on the roof started soon after.