The Shore Line Trolley Museum is gearing up for a busy new year for volunteers with its annual trolley operator training courses and expanded programming for education.

The museum was awarded a $19,100 capacity grant from the Connecticut Humanities’ Cultural Fund, designed to financially support the state’s museums and artistic, cultural, and humanities organizations. The grant is intended to allow institutions like the museum to develop new strategies and strengthen their internal operations and systems to further bring history and culture to the public. Last year, an awarded grant allowed the Trolley Museum to make improvements in its digital operations, according to Executive Director John Proto.

“Last year, it was used to help us digitize our photographs. We’ve got probably about 70,000 photographs in our collection,” said Proto, who added that the museum is looking specifically at organizing its “Connecticut base photos and maps” of trolley routes for greater education on their expansion across the state and into southern areas of Massachusetts.

“We had at one point on our website something called ‘trolley towns,’ and you could look up the town that you lived in, and it was anywhere in the state,” said Proto. “You could find out where the trolley service ran. We want to resurrect that, we want to make it better than it was, and I think with the digitization of the photos in the street maps, we’re really going to be able to do that.”

Proto said this year’s grant is intended for “expanded program services,” such as its reading program and hosting educational events. The museum is currently expanding programs into ecological topics, such as collaborating with the Branford Land Trust to establish “pollinator habitat and raptor” education and with the U.S. Geological Services to examine the rise in regional sea levels.

“We’re really pushing education, even beyond railroad trolley and transportation education,” Proto said.

According to Proto, 2023 is set to be an important year for the Trolley Museum.

“Sept. 25 is going to be 75 years of [the] end of trolley service in Connecticut,” said Proto.

In recognition of the conclusion of trolley transportation service in the state, Proto said he hopes to have the Shore Line community members share their memories of visiting the museum.

Starting on Feb. 25, the museum began its five-week trolley training course, where volunteers learned the various hands-on responsibilities of operating a trolley line, from the car itself to the railway upon which it transports its passengers.

“They’re going to learn how to obviously run the trolley, but learn and understand why the trolley runs the way it does and why they have to do certain things: why the brakes have to be applied a certain way, why the power has to be applied in a certain way,” Proto explained. “They’re going to learn safety techniques…how to handle emergencies. They’re going to learn how to make sure the track switches are aligned properly…how to understand and operate the railroad signal system.”

Trolley education also goes beyond the practical engineering and infrastructural aspects of the cars. Volunteers will also be educated on the broad history of trolleys, from how they served the public to the geography of their service.

“It’s pretty encompassing because our trolley operators are 95% of the time also the tour guides,” said Proto.

Through their understanding of trolley service, volunteers will learn the integral quality of public speaking as a tour guide for museum visitors. The task is not as easy as simply giving a lecture, but it comes with understanding the demographics to whom a tour guide will speak.

“Because we have visitors of all ages, it’s honing in and being able to relate to the audience,” said Proto. “The same tour you would give to, let’s say, a tour bus of senior citizens wouldn’t be the same tour you would give to a group of fourth graders.”

To pass the training course, participants must pass both a written exam and a road test to ensure their trolley operation and history knowledge. They will also need to work with a mentor for around a month until “there’s a confidence level” that has been achieved, according to Proto.

With 120 active volunteers already lending their help to the museum, Proto views these courses as a way to bolster museum operations further and enrich visitor experience.

“With all the new events that we’ve got in the expanded hours, we’re really hoping that we’re going to be able to supplement an already good crew,” he said. “I took the class 20 years ago this year, and I’ve been running trolleys for 20 years. So hopefully, somebody’s going to come in and, 20 years from now, is going to have the same story that I have.”

If a hands-on approach to volunteering at the museum is not desirable, there are other options to help out. Aside from operating trolleys and the railways, volunteers can sign up for roles in gardening and landscaping, painting and carpentry, administration, or special event coordination. Proto said the latter opportunity will be especially helpful this year, “with all the new special programs that we’ve got coming up this year, we’re going to need a lot of specialized volunteers.”

With the help of its capacity grant to establish new programming and courses to grow a new crop of volunteers, Proto is optimistic about what lies ahead following the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

“We’re expecting to get back to pre-pandemic visitor levels. We were pretty much there in the fall and I would expect it would happen this year. You know, so getting 24, 25,000 people through the door,” said Proto. “We want to make sure the visitor experience is top-notch. A lot of people that are coming through the museum doors now are people that have never been before.”

For more information, visit shorelinetrolley.org.