Terrible Trolley returns to Western Pennsylvania

Apr 30, 2023

The vintage streetcar painted in Pittsburgh Steelers colors has a new home at the Pennsylvania Trolley Museum in Washington County.

The vintage streetcar painted in Pittsburgh Steelers colors has a new home at the Pennsylvania Trolley Museum in Washington County.

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The vintage streetcar painted in Pittsburgh Steelers colors has a new home at the Pennsylvania Trolley Museum in Washington County.

A beloved piece of local history has found a new home. The Terrible Trolley is now at the Pennsylvania Trolley Museum in Washington County.

The streetcar was once owned and operated by the Port Authority of Allegheny County. It was painted black and gold to celebrate the four Super Bowl championships won by the Pittsburgh Steelers teams of the 1970s.

The idea came from Kim Sever, a 9-year-old girl who wrote a letter to then-Mayor Richard Caliguiri suggesting that the city paint a trolley to honor the Steelers.

Caliguiri forwarded that letter to the Port Authority. A short time later, the Terrible Trolley was born.

"This was a big deal," said Scott Becker, executive director of the Pennsylvania Trolley Museum. "In the 1970s, Pittsburgh had lost a lot of jobs because the steel mill industry had closed in a lot of places, and the Steelers were doing great. They had won a lot of Super Bowls, and they brought a lot of hope to the city, so I think that this trolley is representative of the era and we're really thrilled to be able to have it here."

The streetcar was retired in 1988, and then rebuilt. It returned to service in 1989 and ran until 1998 when it was retired for good.

The Terrible Trolley was privately owned in Ohio for the past 25 years before the museum was able to acquire it.

The vintage car will be repainted black and gold and be made operational again so it can eventually run on the four-mile track operated by the museum.