• daytontrolleys.net
• Local Legacy Title Page / Table of Contents
• The Story
  • Title Page / Table of Contents
  • Background
  • Enter the Electric Streetcar
  • Enter the Electric Trolley Bus
  • Company Overviews
    • Dayton Street Railway
    • Oakwood Street Railway
    • Peoples Railway
    • Dayton-Xenia Railway
    • City Railway
    • City Transit
    • City Railway
    • The Christmas Bus -- A Dayton tradition
  • Transition from Public to Private
  • The Fight to Keep the Trolleys
• The Dayton Trolley Fleet
  • Dayton trolleybuses purchased new
  • Dayton's used trolleybus fleet
  • Dayton's seasonal trolleybuses
• Dayton Trolley Routes
  • Don Brabson's trolley route history
  • City Transit trolley routes circa 1958
  • MVRTA route changes in the 1980s and 1990s

Previous Page

---

The "Seasonal" ETBs
The MVRTA "Seasonal" Trolleys: While the Xmas Trolley was kept, the MVRTA Marketing Department, headed by Mrs. Virginia King, ex-City Transit of course, came up with additional promotional trolleys. These were the famous Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter trolleys, each professionally decorated by the Blommel Sign Company.
These trolleys graced the local streets for two or three years until the almost-thirty-year-old Marmons became impossible to maintain. The Xmas Trolley lasted until 1988, when it was donated to San Francisco. It is still operated in December there. But the period during which the specially painted trolleys ran is still fresh in many local and far-away observers' minds as a time of exuberate marketing for the public transit cause.

Year	Scheme	Model (Year Built)	Dayton Number	Former Owner	Their Number
1960	Keys	Marmon-Herrington TC-44 (1947)	610	Kansas City Public Service	2533
1963	Easter	Pullman-Std (1947)	441	City Railway	441
1965	Christmas	Marmon-Herrington TC-48 (1951)	540	Cincinnati Street Railway	1481
1966	Christmas	Marmon-Herrington TC-48 (1951)	537	Cincinnati Street Railway	1486
1968	Christmas	Marmon-Herrington TC-48 (1948)	561	Columbus Transit Co	607
1969	Christmas	Marmon-Herrington TC-48 (1948)	561	Columbus Transit Co	607
1970	Christmas	Marmon-Herrington TC-48 (1948)	561	Columbus Transit Co	607
1971	Christmas	Marmon-Herrington TC-48 (1948)	561	Columbus Transit Co	607
1972	Christmas	Marmon-Herrington TC-48 (1948)	561	Columbus Transit Co	607
1973	Christmas	Marmon-Herrington TC-48 (1949)	509	City Railway	509
1974	Easter	Marmon-Herrington TC-48 (1949)	509	City Railway	509
1974	Christmas	Marmon-Herrington TC-48 (1949)	509	City Railway	509
1975	Winter/Christmas	Marmon-Herrington TC-48 (1949)	509	City Railway	509
1975	Spring	Marmon-Herrington TC-48 (1948)	561	Columbus Transit Co	607
1975	Summer	Marmon-Herrington TC-48 (1949)	510	City Railway	510
1975	Fall	Marmon-Herrington TC-48 (1948)	559	Columbus Transit Co	643
1976	Bicentennial	Marmon-Herrington TC-48 (1949)	501	City Railway	501
1976	Christmas	Marmon-Herrington TC-48 (1949)	509	City Railway	509
1977-88	Christmas	Marmon-Herrington TC-48 (1948)	559	Columbus Transit Co	643

Notes
No special painted ETB in 1967
#559 was stored each year until December, when it ran in revenue for one month. Its final year in Dayton as the Xmas trolley was 1988, after which it was donated to San Francisco Municipal Railway, where it survives today as their Xmas Trolley.
M-H #501 was restored in City Railway paint scheme in 1983 by MVRTA to celebrate 50 years of ETB's in Dayton. It was part of the MVRTA historical fleet until about 1988. After a few years on static display in Carillon Park, it was returned to MVRTA, where it remains inoperable.
In 1984 MVRTA restored #515 in City Transit Co's. paint scheme. After a few years use, it was sent to Dayton's Carillon park in trade for #501. #515 is on static display inside the Carillon Park Transportation Building.
All other special seasonal Marmon-Herrington ETB's have been long ago scrapped.
MVRTA's last Xmas trolley, all-white Flyer #942, had special seasonal panels affixed to its sides, had a music system, and served for two or three winters in the mid-90s. It was scrapped with the rest of the remaining Flyers in 1999.
Data from Don Brabson, Edw. O'Meara, and NATTA Databook II.

---

---

Don Brabson's Route Histories