Shore Line Trolley Museum

I’m a huge fan of CT’s history and the trolley lines and railroad lines. I haven’t had a chance to fully experience the museum yet since I only went for the Haunted Isle. But it looked like a good place so I will be visiting it next year.
The Haunted Isle: Long long long lines! Absolutely not worth it. It’s a fair price and they did make a good effort but its nothing impressive. I’d say its worth doing if the lines weren’t so bad. Parking is also bad. We actually parked in a grave yard down the road. We waited around 2 hours to get in. But its always good to support museums like this. So, if you don’t mind waiting in line and have nothing to do, give it a shot.

AWESOME ‘haunted Isle’ for Halloween. well worth the $$ — for $ 12 general admission you get approx 1 hr of fun & terror. Excellent set up & use of space… Actors kept in character & did a great job of terrifying you. Trolley was beautiful & had a great Shinning feel that gets you in the mood for a good scare!

Totally disorganized. State and city need to step in and inspect the safety and security of this place

We went to their Halloween attraction, the haunted trolley, and it was a blast! It was cold– but we were too scared to care! Staff did a great job and seemed to have a lot of fun. Riding on the trolleys to and from the attraction was a nice touch. It really completed the experience for us and made it even more thrilling. We had a great time and will definitely visit next year and bring friends!

While the museum is small and offers a brief overview of the trolley system that once existed in New Haven and Connecticut, the trolley museum does great work to restore trolleys and provide an experience to visitors. I think this is a cute activity for young kids and even senior citizens. I have taken my younger cousins and my 86 year-​old Grandmother here. She talked about it for weeks afterward; it was like taking her back in time when life was simpler. I highly recommend this attraction. It looks great year-​round, but views of Long Island Sound are pretty in the spring and fall as the seasons change. They have a fun Halloween event annually.

My family and I headed to this museum to enjoy Santa’s Trolley Winter Wonderland. All in all a wonderful experience for children and adults. We went during the evening as I knew that once it was dark out we’d be able to enjoy their holiday lights. We arrived and bought our «boarding tickets» without any hassle, the clerk explained in detail everything we needed to know in terms of where we were going, what activities were there for us, and what followed after that up until our arrival back at the trolley «station».
It was very exciting to hear the conductor yell out «ALL ABOARD!» and hurry out to the Trolley for our journey to the «North Pole». Although it was very cold out, the trolley was warm and toasty as well as nicely decorated. The trolley ride made for great pictures and our little believers were all too excited to get to the North Pole and see Santa.
As you arrive to the North Pole, you step out and get in line for some hot chocolate and delicious cookies. Then you can walk around and tour their beautifully holiday decorated trolleys and take some more amazing pictures. In one trolley there were working (toy) railroad tracks with running trolleys on 4 tracks — the boys tend to love these. In another Trolley is where you can meet and take pictures with Santa (here’s what makes this a 4 star versus a 5). Santa is a really a nice gentleman, very kind, and offers treats to the kids, but unfortunately simply does not fit the part of Santa or the idea of Santa… I actually worried that my little believers would question him being the *real* Santa, but to my luck they didn’t…phew!
On we went back onto the trolley for a nice ride through the dark to see their holidays lights and then back to the station where we toured the small museum and even learned how a conductor maneuvers a trolley with the gears.
All in all a great time and recommend to do this at least once for the memorable experience. Our children ages 3 — 12 years all enjoyed.

A small museum full of equipment, pictures, and even a movie of times past when trolleys were a method of transportation in CT. The ride on the trolley itself is narrated by very knowledgable volunteers, and stops at «the trolley barns» to let passengers off to see other trolleys ranging in states and countries. Very inexpensive, a beautiful setting for the ride through marsh with migratory birds present. Children would like the open air ride and they also have events with Santa or Halloween pumpkin patch rides.

A huge disappointment. Very unorganized. Not worth the money.

Great fun for kids — young and old. The ride through the marsh was beautiful. Kids get to ring the bell and collect tickets. Enjoyed checking out the beautiful trolleys from NYC, CT and the real Street Car Named Desire from New Orleans. A CT treasure and great value.
We were also allowed to bring our dog on the trolley and to the barn-​like museum. The guide was very passionate and knowledgeable as he showed us the different trolleys, trains and subways.

The museum doesn’t have their entrance marked, just a lot of signs taped up on the door about a security alarm. The woman behind the counter ignored us in favor of reading the paper, so we checked out the museum and came back. The museum is small and looks to be a family collection. The woman at the desk did her best to avoid looking up when we came back and I had to try several times to get her attention. She wasn’t offering up any information and it took a lot of effort to get her to admit that yes the trolleys were running that day, how much tickets were, and finally to get her to let me buy tickets. I couldn’t get her to tell me when the next trolley was running — did we have to wait a few minutes? an hour? She just said there would be another one before the museum closed.
It got better from there, though. The trolley we rode had been meticulously restored. Our conductor was super enthusiastic. He gave us a tour of their trolley barns and patiently answered a lot of questions. The ride itself was short, but it’s through a nice area so it’s quite scenic.
I know that working with an all-​volunteer staff can be challenging, but sometimes volunteers have to be shuffled around to positions better suited to their demeanor. The woman they had staffing the welcome desk wasn’t so welcoming and might have been better off in a spot where she wasn’t working with visitors. If I hadn’t come from a different state to visit the museum I would have just walked out.

I took my fiancé here for his birthday because he loves history and museums. The museum itself is small, but has many interesting things. There isn’t so much stuff to overwhelm you (or small children). The trolley ride was fun and the guide was SO NICE. He was so proud of the museum and all it has to offer. The tour of the stored trolleys was amazing. You could easily make this an all day event or stop in for a couple of hours. I would recommend it!

Judging by the other reviews here, I must have gone on an EXTREMELY off day. It started with getting the tickets, no big deal there, the lady behind the counter was nice enough. We were there for the Meet Santa, have hot chocolate and cookies trolley ride. So we get on the trolley, and wow this thing was old and not very well maintained. Ripped seats, and I really felt like this thing was about to just run off the tracks.
On our way to meet Santa, for some reason, the trolley stopped at least 3 times. I believe they were fixing something. This was fine, until the Conductor (mind you, this is a trolley full of KIDS to go see Santa), yelled out «AWW F**K»). I’m sure you can figure out the letters I left out. I was with a total of 4 kids and 3 parents, and all of the parents heard it, but didn’t want to make a scene in front of the kids, who did not seem to hear it. So on we go…
We get to the area where we’re meeting with Santa, and he’s in another run down trolley, with only one way into him and one way out of seeing him. This created quite the bottleneck, of people trying to get in and out, and was just a needless hassle, but it was dealable.
After meeting Santa (nice enough guy, but the suit could use a LOT of work), we went into a sort of garage with a stockpile of trolleys that had been decorated for the holidays. It was nice, the kids got to run from trolley to trolley, checking out the decorations, and us parents got to take pictures.
After that, we were ready to go back to the station and just leave, so we decided to ask one of the workers «when is the trolley coming back to pick us up»? The guy could not have been more rude to the mother I was with. He couldn’t even take a second to actually look at her, just mumbled «5 minutes» and walked away.
I will honestly never take my child here again. It was miserable, dumpy, and just not a great experience for us parents. For the kids, they saw Santa. They didn’t care much about anything else, so that makes it just a little bit easier.
If I hadn’t only paid about $ 19 with a Groupon that I had bought, I would have probably demanded a refund.

great place. we had lots of fun. Trolleys were build in 1700−1920s. Stuff is nice, tells you some history. Great family attraction!

First of all, the folks here are extremely friendly. Second, the location of the property is very unique in that it seems the most unlikely place to set up a trolley line. The line is very scenic and incorporates a number of curves over marsh land. Third, much of the rolling stock is sheltered in car barns. The day I visited was Pumpkin Patch Day. Two car barns were open, one where the cars were decorated with pumpkins and the other which served as the storage shed for the three cars which were offering rides. I was sad that the other barns were not open for viewing but at least I’ve seen part of the collection. A few of the displays in the museum bldg are outstanding; one in particular shows what goes on in a trolley controller, resistance grid and motor. The store sells a visitor guide which gives the visitor enough information on the restored collection.

They only had one car running not worth the $ 10.00 fee, no open cars running at all, limited view of trolleys stored not impressed at all, it was my last visit

Many complain the price for this place is more. I would say, for maintaining so many old trains and with less visitors, you would have to pay the suggested price.
The kids will enjoy the trolley ride for sure with decent scenic ride. The adults will enjoy different models of trains from early age. But, the train conductors are very old and have very little energy and enthusiasm in explaining the facts to the visitors and keep their attention. While my son enjoyed the ride, we were really bored by the explanation provided by the conductor.

My father has been wanting to visit this trolley museum for a while, but finding the time to go has been an issue for us. We eventually went in the summer of 2009.
Admission prices were in line with other museums like this. The tickets are for unlimited rides all day. The museum exhibit area was nicely done with a few interactive things for kids.
The ride is very scenic compared to other trolley museums, which was a nice change. The day we had went they had two cars running. This was nice, but the way their tours ran we found it hard to get onto the other car.
My only little problem of the visit was the fact that the trolley ride stopped while the group went into the carbarns for a tour. Doing this once is nice, but for a repeat traveler and not wanting to do the tour again you’ll either have to wait or walk back to the visitors center. This is where the timing is against you if you want to ride a different trolley car.
Overall I enjoyed my visit, my dad was glad to have been able to get down and visit too. The ride was scenic, the volunteers were friendly, and the cars on display were clean and in great condition.