Elisabeth Scott Bocock Streetcar

Head to Track 7 (Track Level) and hop aboard our newly renovated 1918 streetcar.

Rides offered daily. Inquire at the Guest Services Desk.

Richmond's Streetcar System

In 1887, the Richmond City Council hired engineer Frank Sprague to build an electric street railway system for Richmond. A year later, the system (the first of its type in the world) was operational, and Frank Sprague's company became the ancestor of two Richmond corporations: Dominion Power and the Greater Richmond Transit Company (GRTC).

By 1947, motor vehicles were the primary form of transportation, and Richmond's streetcar system was discontinued. More than 300 streetcars were burned; the chasses sold for scrap.

The Bocock Streetcar

In 1982, Elisabeth Bocock of Richmond purchased a 1918 Brill streetcar from Oporto, Portugal, where it was in active service. Mrs. Bocock hoped that displaying the streetcar in Richmond would stimulate interest in a modern light-rail transit system for Richmond.

In appearance, the museum's streetcar is similar to the early streetcars of Richmond, and it employs many of Sprague's patents. It is a single-truck streetcar with two 25-horsepower DC traction motors, one for each axle, operating on 600 VDC supplied by an overhead wire.

This car was briefly displayed at the Science Museum, and then in downtown Richmond. In the late 1980s, the Historic Richmond Foundation moved the car to the GRTC bus barn (which still had streetcar rails!).

The Historic Richmond Foundation gave the streetcar to the Science Museum, where staff and volunteers invested more than 5,000 hours in its renovation.

The refurbishment of the streetcar was made possible by the Elisabeth Scott Bocock and John H. Bocock Trust; Mr. and Mrs. Frederick Scott Bocock; and Mrs. Mary Buford Hitz. Funds from the federal TEA-21 program will be used to lengthen the current 350-foot-long track to a 5/8-mile-long track through the museum's Discovery Park.