This Sunday June 19th, Father’s Day Dad’s Ride Free on Historical Streetcar #23.  Wendy Kelly of Nelson Kootenay Lake Tourism wrote an excellent article: Ten Great Reasons To Spend Father’s Day On Streetcar #23

Here driver Stu Griffett and his son Lake are getting ready for Father’s Day.

See you on The Rails                Happy Father’s Day!

The Nelson Electric Tramway Society is excited to announce that they are Open For The
Season 2016.  We are open for rides 7 days a week from now until Thanksgiving and you can see our schedule here.

This year while the tracks were quiet the volunteer crew spent over 2000 hours refurbishing Streetcar#23.  One of the new features is room for a wheelchair and increased access to help those with limited mobility, we are still however working on creating wheelchair access to the Streetcar…a project we are currently focused on.

With the seats redone, the car repainted and trucks/shoes…it feels like a new Streetcar! Thank you to all that helped make it happen.

We have plenty of fun and events planned this year so we look forward to seeing on the rails.

Stay Tuned……

The Nelson Electric Tramway Society (NETS), that run Streetcar#23, have been very busy since the end of last season. But before we talk about the new streetcar, let’s get caught up.

Walk and Jim take in the donations on our annual Fill the Birney food drive.

Fill The Birney Car
For the second year we have attempted to fill Birney Car 400 with donations of food. This annual event is about giving back to the community by giving free rides for donations that are distributed to all of our local food charities and this year was huge success. We brought in more food than last year and many local businesses were very excited about getting more involved in 2016. Thank you to Save on Foods, Safeway, The Co-op Country Store, The City of Nelson and everyone else I may not have directly mentioned…Thank You!

The New Chamber Office in the Rail House

Annual General Meeting
Yes it is that time of year again, our annual general meeting, come and get involved, or find out what is in store for the 2016 year. It is April 5th, 2016 at 7:00pm upstairs at the NEW Chamber building in the train station. All are welcome! Learn more about how you can volunteer to Drive, Host and Help.
For more info call 250.352.7672.

Brand New Streetcar
OK, it is still Streetcar#23, the original, but she needed maintenance and sometimes it can be very extreme. This year from Oct to Jan over 1,000 volunteer hours have been put into dismantling, re-engineering, rebuilding, refurbishing and detailing Streetcar#23, when she rolls out of the Barn in May, it will be like Nelson got a brand new streetcar.

Streetcar #23 has all of her seats removed and re finished

Streetcar #23 has been worked on constantly since shutting down in 2015 of last year

Streetcar #23 will be back…opening is scheduled for Friday May 20th

Opening 2016
We are scheduled to open on Friday May 20th, the Victoria Day long weekend. Be the first to ride on the New Streetcar#23. There will be free rides to people in Heritage Costumes.

For more information please call us at 250.352.7672.

See you on the rails

Nelson BC, The Nelson Electric Tramway Society (NETS), operators of Streetcar 23 and Birney Car 400, are planning their second annual Food Drive this Saturday October 3rd 2015 from 10 am to 5 pm in an effort to raise much needed non-perishable food items as well as cash donations to help the less fortunate to cope with day to day challenges.

The Food Drive has been named “FILL THE BIRNEY CAR” and each donation would permit the Donor to unlimited free Streetcar 23 rides, as well as an admission into our newly constructed Museum and the chance to win some fabulous prizes donated by local businesses.

“Last year we had a great time and raised a considerable amount of food for those in need.” Says Jim Robertson of NETS, “It is unfortunate that we have this need in nelson but we like help the community whenever we can.”

This year the Fill the Birney Car will be on Saturday October 3rd from 10am to 5pm. We look forward to seeing you there.

Jim Robertson of NETS is excited to invite the community down to the Grand Opening of the Streetcar Barn Museum

The Nelson Electric Tramway Society (NETS) are ready to officially open their latest project, the Car Barn Museum. On Monday August 3rd they are inviting the entire community to come on down from 11am to 4:30pm with free streetcar rides and Museum admission.. At 1pm there will be a special Grand Opening Ceremony with ribbon cutting, tours, cake, refreshments, classic cars and special guests.

NETS have been working toward this goal ever since they rolled out Streetcar #23 in 1992. The idea was to create a working museum of Nelson’s History. The first phase of this project was to get Nelson’s original streetcar operational and then over time create additional opportunities to enrich and educate the community. The goal of NETS recent history was to create a dedicated space for displays and historical artifacts. Over the past two years the Car Barn, with the help and love of volunteers, has been renovated to include a dedicated museum space and displays throughout the barn.

Over the years, many artifacts and photos have been entrusted to the Society by community members who wished to keep Nelson’s streetcar heritage alive for future generations. The Museum project has given the society an opportunity to present these items to the public. The artifacts are now housed in a dedicated museum space with additional equipment displayed throughout the car barn.

“The Car Barn Museum will have many benefits for the community, from keeping our history fresh and accessible to tourists and students, to giving retired people an opportunity to still be engaged with the community.” Says Jim Robertson NETS B.O.D./Project Manager, “The best thing about this project is that it will always be growing and developing, we are looking forward to helping keep Nelson’s history alive.”

On Monday August 3rd everyone is invited down to celebrate the grand opening of the NETS Car Barn Museum in Lakeside Park with free admission to the museum and free rides all day on Streetcar#23. Events start at 11am with tours of the museum and car barn and a special ribbon cutting ceremony at 1pm. For more information call 250.352.7672, info@nelsonstreetcar.org or come on down and visit them in Lakeside Park, right beside the soccer fields and next to the Nelson Rowing Club.

The tracks are clear and the power is on…Streetcar #23 is running on schedule this Canada Day.  Thank you to all the helped make it happen!

Come on down to the Trolley Barn to check out our Canada Day Exhibit with extended Barn Tours, Museum and Birney Car 400.

We look forward to seeing you down here and wish you a Happy Canada Day!

Nelson BC – Last night Nelson experienced the storm of the year, decade, century as trees all over Nelson were blown over.  Power in the City was out for most of the night, but it was the devastation in Lakeside Park that has hurt us most.

There is a tree down on the Car Barn, there is no power and about a dozen trees all over Lakeside have fallen.  We still need to asses the damage to the wires and also see if there are any trees down along the tracks.

#1 Streetcar #23 will not be running today (Tuesday June 30TH) and we will update the web and Facebook when we are up and running.

#2 Grab your gloves and come on down to the park.  Yep we need some help getting cleaned up after the storm and could use help.

We will keep you updated and let you know our progress by the end of today.

See you under the trees….on the rails.

On behalf of the Nelson Electric Tramway Society we would like to wish you the very best

NETS Member and Driver get a jump start on Fathers day with Car Barn Tour and ride on Streetcar #23

this Father’s Day by inviting all Dads and Kids for a free ride this Sunday June 21st.

You can also get a tour of the Car Barn and check out the new displays in the Museum.  The new attraction that the Streetcar Car Barn Tours and Museum brings makes an excellent addition to a ride along the water front from downtown to Lakeside Park.

We look forward to welcoming all Dads and Kids on board for a free ride this Father’s Day Sunday June 21st.

The Trolley will be running from 11:00 am to 4:30 pm and the Museum will be open around noon and until Walt Shuts her down….(4pm-ish)

Also stay tuned – July 1st The Nelson and District Credit Union has sponsored free rides for the entire day and the Tramway Society are planning a big display in the Car Barn and the Museum.

See you on the Rails

The crew at the Nelson Electric Tramway Society are so excited about the new museum

Nelson and District Credit Union Staff checking out the model display of Streetcar#23

that they are going to get it runny 7 days a weeks starting now!

The Streetcar Museum is located in the Trolley Barn at Lakeside park – hours of operation will be from noon to 4pm for tours and group bookings.

Our volunteers have been getting lots of donations for the museum but we we still have plenty of room.  We even have room for volunteers if you are looking to help.  “There are plenty of fun projects that we could use help with.” says NETS President Walt Laurie, ” Just come on down any day of the week, phone us first, but if you don’t get us – look for Streetcar #23, they will know what is going on, where we are and also be able to take a message”

The Museum is by donation and does have a fun gift shop with Nelson Streetcar souvenirs.  Come on by the Trolley Barn in Lakeside Park behind the Tennis courts beside the rowing club.

See you on the Rails and In the Museum!

2015 Streetcar Season NOW OPEN (well starting this Friday)

The tracks are clean, the drivers are excited and we are ready to roll for our 2015 Season.  Streetcar#23 will be in full time operation 7 days a week starting this Friday May 15th from 11am to 4:30pm.

This year the Rotary Conference in Nelson got a sneak peak at some of this years specialty charters, including excerpts from the Haunted Heritage Tour

This year promises to be the most exciting yet as there are going to be more specialty tours, family fun events and community fundraisers.  A schedule of our special events will be posted ASAP.

You will definitely want to check out our New Museum that will be in open this Friday and on weekends while we are in operation(we also might be open some weekdays), exactly what times and dates you ask?…good question, but we don’t know yet…we are planning a soft opening of the museum this Friday and are getting our displays and tours in order.  We will keep you informed to specific dates and times as we figure them out.  We are planning a big grande opening celebration in early August.

We could use your help, if you would like to volunteer for Museum, the Barn or the Streetcar, come on down and meet our crew and sign up.

If you have any Trolley treasures in your basement and would like to see them displayed in our museum, we would be more them happy to help make that happen.

We look forward to seeing on the rails!

Stay Tuned for More Fun