Seashore Trolley Museum

It’s a great museum if you’re interested in antique trolleys. It would be even better if they had an audio tour available.

Great museum with its own history. Great location. You really need to start with the trolley ride followed by the backstory tour. Great store. Didn’t try the food. Great staff. Fun for whole family.

Great family activity! Went there with a 5 year old and he had an absolute blast! He was very excited to ride in 2 different trolleys (each round trip is about 20 – 30 minutes or so) and better yet, climb on all of the different parked trolley types. Trains depart every 40 minutes and go in a loop. His father was equally interested and excited. Wish we had more time to explore (we spent about 1.5 hours). Highly recommend!

I’ve been going to the Seashore Trolley Museum since I was probably around 10 years old and it remains, to this day at 27, one of my favorite places to spend a day when I’m back home in New England. The entrance fee is nominal, and your money goes to maintaining the operations of the museum as well as the restoration of the various vehicles the museum has on display, so it’s money well spent.
Seashore is great whether you’re a kid or an adult. For the price of admission, you have access to a huge collection of trains, trolleys, buses, and other public service vehicles, in addition to unlimited trolley rides down a mile or so of track that traces the route of a former rail line, while the conductor gives you a history lesson on the museum and the rail route you’re riding. There’s also a restoration shop with an overhead catwalk, where you can look down and see various trolleys being repaired and restored. When you’ve finished your stay, hit up the gift shop for some fun toys, souvenirs, books, or t-​shirts.
Some tips: you’re going to be doing a lot of walking, so wear comfortable shoes! I’d recommend steering away from sandals as some of the ground is sand and gravel. Also, since a lot of the museum is outdoors, sunscreen is a good idea, or a sun hat or parasol if you’re susceptible to sunburns or don’t do well in the heat. Also, there are no food facilities on site, so either plan to grab lunch before or after your visit, or bring a picnic lunch to eat there.

It didn’t cost us much. A little bit of work going up and down. I enjoyed myself. These guys know there stuff. If here come bring kids that can climb fairly well. It is by donation only

Truly a hidden gem! This was such a refreshing change of pace for this area. It is worth the stop whenever you are in the area. It is a wonderful thing to be able to go back in time like this. You really learn how hard work and ingenuity built the trolly systems around the world. The same hard work and dedication is what makes this museum so special. Everyone involved has a passion for the material and it really shows. You will learn things you never thought you needed to know. Walking through the antique cars from around the world really gives you a nostalgic feeling that is not felt often. What a lucky stop for my wife and I on our trip to Maine. Stop in for yourself; when your ears are greeted by the peaceful 40’s era music and you lay your eyes on a classic trolly ticket booth, you’ll know you’re at the right place.

A delightful little excursion when you’re visiting the area. (Get it? Excursion? It’s a trolley museum… OK, laugh now, you know you want to.)
It’s completely unexpected that in Coastal Maine there is a streetcar museum, but hey, why not. This place is entirely run by volunteers, and the facilities were built by volunteers… how can you not love that?
Very informative and friendly folks throughout, and your admission is only $ 10. They have the typical «learn something» areas, and then you exit the «depot» and can take as many 1.5 mile rides as you wish on an antique trolley car (and you can switch up cars each time, too).
I love how all the train conductor volunteers are in uniform and absolutely follow all the rules bringing trains in and out of the loading areas. So cute!
We rode on a beautifully restored (yes, volunteers do the restoring, too) open air car from 1902 that originally travelled in Connecticut. The track they run you up and down was a real railroad track back in the day that transported folks from Kennebunkport to Portland every day.
It’s charming to me to find a group trying to preserve the past, and from this group to do so in such an appealing way is awesome.
Sure, your kids will love it. But we are a childless couple in our late 40’s, and we liked it, too. So take an hour break from your sunbathing, shopping, and people watching to join them for a ride. Who knows, you might even learn something!

This summer as a group of friends we decided to go visit the Seashore Trolley Museum. Every member of the group were bus drivers, and we were excited to see both the trolley and bus collection. We were even more excited to realize that the museum had one of our old company buses, and were excited about seeing it.
When we arrived at the museum or original expectations were quickly surpassed! We hadn’t realized how large the museum grounds were and found it a blast to explore the lot without hassle from any staff. The staff members were extremely welcoming and answered all of our questions, but again didn’t follow us around the grounds allowing us to spend as much time looking at the collection. At one point we sparked a conversation with an employee who eventually gave us a private tour of one of their closed trolleys! It was overall an amazing experience, and I look forward to attending the museum in the future.

Very family friendly! My son loved riding the train!

Grown-​ups can appreciate the history, while kids will get a kick out of climbing up and down and in and out of a large collection. Many of the trolleys are operational, and make runs on a short private track. This museum is all the more astonishing as it is run largely by volunteers. One note: old trolleys in an active railyard — NOT wheelchair friendly.

The collection of some 300, YES that is correct 300 rolling stock, was the topping to my two month vacation visiting some of the museums on this part of the continent. Although much of the collection lies in areas not open to the visitor, that which was available for viewing was heart rendering. I visited the last open weekday of the season which was Columbus Day, the day was cloudy but that failed to put a damper on my visit; two streetcars were offering rides throughout the day. The folks are ALL knowledgeable and are more than willing to fill you in on any information concerning a particular rolling stock. The rolling stock which is sheltered is just exquisite; the book store is surprisingly very well stocked with rail related books. Two guidebooks are available for sale, both are reprints from the mid-1990’s so I purchased both but I highly recommend that you buy «Historic Cars.». Make this collection a MUST VISIT!

A friend found this museum in a guide book and wanted to check it out. I didn’t know what to expect from the world’s largest electric railway museum, so my expectations weren’t too high.
However, I was pleasantly surprised!
Now, this place will really only appeal to you if you take mass transit or have an interest in mass transit. They’re situated on a few acres of land, and by labor of love, they have restored a few trolleys (that work wonderfully) which take you around the property. Keep in mind that some of these trolleys are 100+ years old!
With your admission, you can check out the warehouse where they are actively restoring trains and trolleys from all around the world (some from as far as Budapest, Hungary.) I wasn’t too much a fan of this part, as I found the shop very musty smelling and a trifle warm in temperature. My favorite part was going inside the old NYC subway cars, hanging from the vintage straphangers and ringing the bell that would request a stop. Also, seeing the old school ads brought out a ton of laughs– especially if they involved deodorant that apparently keeps you smelling fresh for 5 days (!)
As for the tour itself, the guides could be a bit more humorous and bubbly, but other than that they were still pretty informative and could answer everyone’s questions.
Props to the gift shop, as I was able to enjoy a bottle of Moxie (a soda that’s only available in Maine) for only $ 1.50. Overall, I had a great time and I highly recommend to those who are looking for a unique museum experience.
Oh and quick tip– this is mostly an outdoor museum, and I was lucky to visit when it was warm and sunny. Not sure how much fun I’d have if it was raining or if it was freezing out.

We recently went back to Sea shore for members day back last Fall. It was just as great as the last time we visited.
The staff was friendly and helpful. They even took me to the back Bus sheds on a private tour.
If you haven’t been, please stop by. Its work the trip.

An excellent museum! Our four-​year old son loves trains and this was the ideal museum for him. We took him to Edaville Railroad and the North Conway Scenic Railroad and the trolley museum was his favorite! He loved the trolley ride and seeing the various buses and trolleys on the property. The restored trolleys are works of beauty. Worth the trip for anyone who loves trains or trolleys.

This is a GREAT place if you are into antique railroading and trolleys. They also have a selection of antique buses. The grounds may not be neat as a pin, but that is because the collection is so huge, not everything has been restored. There are also a lot of spare parts and they have to go someplace! To a railfan, piles of train/​trolley bits are not ugly, they are interesting…
The Museum has various special events during the year, and there are always trolleys to ride. You can walk around the collection, watch the staff restoring trolleys, browse the large gift shop, etc.
This is a great place to bring small kids. I don’t know why other reviewers say the staff is rude. I have never seen that. They all know a lot about the museum, and are volunteers. They are there because they want to be there.
So if you want to step back in time and relax, I highly recommend Seashore!

My parents have brought me here since I was knee height, and now I occasionally visit with my girlfriend when we’re in the area. I would have to say that the place has come a loooong way over the years. The volunteers are very informative and the work they put into saving our history is incredible with some things they’ve been working on lately.
They have a room that you typically find in any museum, static displays along the walls, but it’s professionally done (compared to some other museums like this) and there’s plenty of imagry to go with the text. A nice balance where I didn’t get overwhelmed with reading.
The volunteers were friendly as we went out for our trolley ride. One of them joked that as we’re moving they’d turn the air-​conditioning on. The breeze felt good on the warm day. The ride was pleasant through the museum and out into the woods. Looks to be a long to-​do list for the group with some of the things we passed. The history lesson at the end of the ride was informative and makes me look at Canobie Lake Park with a different eye (you’ll have to visit to learn what I mean).
It was nice being able to walk around and look over everything, seeing the handywork that tradesmen did back in their lifetime. Think of it as walking around a car show and admiring all the different models.
On a side note, my girlfriend got a kick out of seeing a Yankees logo on a train from New York (she’s a native). Something for everyone!
Overall, I would recommend this visit for anyone with a family. Who can go wrong riding the trolleys all day. I saw one kid riding at least two different trolleys! Also, it was a nice break from walking around the Port with the girlfriend. There’s only so much standing around in stores I can take. Oh and she enjoyed it too. She thought the Pumpkin Patch thing in the fall the volunteers talked about was cute.

Was just reminded of this place when I saw it mentioned on Jeopardy (no joke). Went there in 2004 — before the days of Unilocal — with a group of developmentally disabled adults. The treatment we received there was reprehensible at best. The staff there seemed terribly inconvenienced and slightly disgusted that they had to serve our clients. Will never ever EVER go back. Don’t even know what they had to offer honestly because we hardly got in there before leaving thoroughly offended.