The Shore Line Trolley Museum

The Shore Line Trolley Museum, operated by the Branford Electric Railway Association, Inc., strives to educate the public about the story of the trolley and related forms of mass transit in their historic context. The Museum operates the Branford Electric Railway, opened in 1900, which is recognized by the U.S. Department of the Interior as the oldest continuously-operated suburban trolley line in the United States.  The museum’s line and equipment are listed on the National Register of Historic Places as the Branford Electric Railway Historic District.

The Shore Line Trolley Museum maintains several diverse collections of equipment, photographs, documents and artifacts which preserve the history and heritage of the Trolley Era. The Museum owns nearly 100 vintage transit vehicles, and the archives contain nearly 51,000 photographic images, over 4,000 books and documents, and about 1,000 small artifacts such as tokens, hat badges and ticket punches. The vehicle collection is among the most diverse in North America both in terms of geographic reach and chronological spread.