Established in 1999, the Electric City Trolley Museum is owned by the Electric City Trolley Museum Association. The museum began as
Metropolitan Philadelphia Railway Association in the 1960s. Its first car site was in the
Tansboro section of
Winslow Township, New Jersey, then on a site in the
Jobstown section of
Springfield Township, Burlington County, New Jersey through which a portion of railroad track ran. The local residents did not want a tourist attraction in their backyard and the governing body passed an ordinance in 1973 prohibiting trolley operation in the municipality. In 1978, the group was renamed the
Buckingham Valley Trolley Association when it relocated to
Buckingham Township, Pennsylvania. The trolleys then operated on a portion of what is now the
New Hope Railroad. As of 2019 the museum still maintained a restoration shop in the Township. In 1982, the trolley operation was moved to the
Delaware River waterfront in
Philadelphia as the
Penns Landing Trolley. There the line operated on the
Belt Line Railroad from the
Benjamin Franklin Bridge to Fitzwater Street. Real estate development pressure however forced the museum to move the cars from pier to pier several times. When the cars had to be moved to an outdoor location at Laurel Street they were vandalized and electrical components stripped by scrap thieves. The museum left Penns Landing in 1996 to relocate to Scranton. == Exhibits ==