Don't confuse this with the better-known B&O Railroad Museum located near Oriole Park at Camden Yards. The Baltimore Trolley Car (or Streetcar) Museum is far off the tourist track, in a dingy but somehow charming industrial area at the north end of town.

There is a handsome brick Visitor Center with museum displays that are as well-presented as at any of Baltimore's many museums. Historic photographs, a ten-minute movie shown in a replica trolley car, several trolley models and a working model-railroad-type miniature trolley system comprise the indoor displays, but the real treat is parked outside.

At least five handsomely-restored and fully operational trolley cars are ready to run, and they'll take you on a bouncy ride down half a mile or so of track. A different car departs about every 20 or 30 minutes, and you can ride as much as you like for one admission charge.
It's a real hands-on (or seat-on) way to get a feeling for the mass transit of an earlier day.

The cars represent a wide historical variety, from the 1890s to the 1950s. There's even the unrestored shell of a pre-1890s horse-drawn streetcar. To see it, you have to be an adult and request the special tour of the car barn.

The entire project is run by a group of 400 or so volunteers, of whom about 50 perform the work of running the museum and gift shop, maintaining and rebuilding the cars, laying track, giving cheerfully knowledgeable tours, and, of course, acting as motormen for the car rides. You can tell that they are just grown-up kids who are tickled to have the biggest model train set in town.

Because it is an all-volunteer operation, hours are limited. The Museum is open on Sunday afternoons only, with some Saturdays added during peak seasons. The Visitor Center gift shop has books and photographs about the history of streetcar transportation in Baltimore and elsewhere, along with the usual t-shirts and such. No food is served.

Be aware that the Baltimore Streetcar Museum is hard to find. It's down in a valley below an old railroad bridge at 1905 Falls Road, just north of North Street. The Yellow Cab Company office is on the edge of a cliff overlooking the Museum, but the cabbies have never heard of the place.