‘Immaculate resurrection’ Pennsylvania Trolley Museum unveils restored Terrible Trolley
Brad Hundt/Observer-Reporter
Pittsburgh was both on the ropes and riding high when the 1980s got underway.
The steel industry and other types of manufacturing were declining, unemployment was rising and families were looking elsewhere for jobs and opportunities.
But even when the region as a whole was absorbing some hard punches, Pittsburgh’s professional sports teams were at their most triumphant. The Pittsburgh Steelers won a Super Bowl in 1979, its third since 1975, and the Pittsburgh Pirates won the World Series nine months later. Three months after that, the Steelers pulled off another Super Bowl win, handily defeating the Los Angeles Rams.
To celebrate the Steelers’ victories, Port Authority Transit in Pittsburgh launched what it called “the Terrible Trolley,” named after the yellow Terrible Towel that Steelers fans waved at games and rallies. Painted in black and gold, it traveled down the city’s streets from 1980 to 1986. It was rebuilt in 1989, then finally retired in 1998.
But what started its life as Streetcar 1713 in 1949 is back. On Tuesday morning, the restored Terrible Trolley was unveiled at the Pennsylvania Trolley Museum in Chartiers Township, with a fresh black and gold paint job and vintage ads from the 1980s in the trolley’s interior.
According to Jeanine DeBor, the “beautifully restored and nostalgic streetcar” is a tangible symbol of the Pittsburgh region’s pride in the Steelers.
The trolley was restored in a relatively quick two years and was carried out in a partnership with the Washington County Tourism Promotion Agency. The process started in February 2023 when Scott Becker, then the Trolley Museum’s director, received a call from a KDKA-TV producer about the Terrible Trolley. He knew the car was in the hands of a private collector in Ohio. When Becker contacted him, it turned out the collector was selling it and hoping it could find another home.
From there, it was transported from Ohio to the museum’s headquarters and restoration work got going, with the Tourism Promotion Agency providing the majority of the funds.
Tom Rooney, a member of the family that owns the Pittsburgh Steelers, called the restoration of the trolley “an immaculate resurrection.”
Earlier in its life, the Terrible Trolley was just another streetcar, going by the humble moniker of Streetcar 1713. It was built in 1949 by the St. Louis Car Company, and originally ran on Pittsburgh Railways’ Charleroi and Washington interurban lines.
“The car is in our history and in our blood,” said Bruce Wells, the manager of restorations at the Pennsylvania Trolley Museum. “It’s had a long and fateful career.”