Trolley jollies
Tours through Seattle area on 1940s-era coaches offer some unlikely trips down memory lane
SEATTLE – As bus tours go, Ray Piesciuk chose a most peculiar conveyance on which to take in the sights and sounds of Seattle. It’s an antique – arthritic might be a better word – 1944 trolley coach that rumbled through Madrona on a recent Saturday night. Stalling a few times when its poles dislodged from the overhead wire. A bit bouncy in some spots.
For this, the Chicago-area resident flew to Seattle two days early for a business trip.
“There’s no other place I’d rather be,” he said, sitting behind the bus driver.
In the annals of transportation hobbyists, it’s safe to assume that trolley-coach enthusiasts don’t rank up there in numbers with train buffs or antique-car collectors.
But for trolley geeks, Seattle ranks as a must-stop destination – the only city in the country that allows antique trolleys dating back to the 1940s to ride under the wire grid for tours, according to the Illinois Railway Museum, which stakes a claim as America’s largest rail museum.
“We have (antique-trolley coaches) in museums. But it’s not like a real-life situation like this,” said Piesciuk.
“Out on the streets, with the people. With traffic. Real life, just like when it was in service” back in the ’40s.
He slouched in the seat, arms folded. No other place he’d rather be.
These historic trolleys and motor buses have been touring Seattle neighborhoods, Snoqualmie, Vashon Island and rural King County since 1984, attracting mostly trolley and bus aficionados who revel not only in the mechanical details, but the role these public-transit buses played in people’s daily lives.
With a cheap $5 fare, these tours can also serve as budget entertainment for out-of-town guests during the holiday season.
King County Metro Transit drivers and other trained drivers volunteer to lead the tours as fundraisers to maintain the antique fleet under the auspices of the Metro Employees Historic Vehicle Association, a nonprofit formed in 1981 after Metro started scrapping its old fleet of trolley coaches and diesel buses to renew its inventory.
The volunteer group of veteran and retired Metro drivers reached a deal in which Metro would store 18 old trolleys and motor buses, as long as the group maintains them and pays for fuses and rare parts.
This history needs to be preserved, says Doug Thomson, a Sound Transit light-rail driver who leads the tours. In the early 20th century, these trolleys and diesel buses played an indispensable role in the fabric of Seattle life.
So, six to eight times a year, volunteers drive the old trolleys down memory lane under the wire grid around the city. They take motor buses on longer scenic trips around rural King County.
An upcoming bus trip is the Santa’s Lights Tour, Dec. 12. The festive Christmas-lights tour, with Santa Claus on board, goes through downtown Seattle and neighborhoods to find