One of the Association’s most popular activities is our monthly meetings, which are held at the Midtown Hotel, 220 Huntington Avenue in Boston. They are always open to all and free of charge.

Meetings begin at 7:30PM, typically on the first Saturday of every month. A short business meeting (including a detailed current events segment on MBTA news and transit happenings near and far) is followed by an entertainment program, consisting of film and digital slideshows, videos and films of past and present transit operations from around the Northeast, the nation, and the world. Entertainment begins at aproximately 8:15PM and generally lasts about two hours.

In the event of severe weather, we may be forced to cancel a meeting. A notice will be posted on the home page of this website, and on our Facebook and Twitter feeds, by 4PM the day of the meeting in the rare event of a cancellation.

We are always looking for presenters at future meetings! If you are interested, please contact us. We generally seek presentations of historic or recent-event subjects, especially those involving cities in the Northeast.

Upcoming Meetings

August 4, 2018
Avoiding Liability in Transportation Planning: Streetcars, Bicycles and the Roadway
Franklyn P. Salimbene, senior lecturer in law at Bentley University, presents a paper on a suit in Seattle, Washington, involving several bicyclists who sued the City for injuries they sustained resulting from their wheels being caught in the flange of streetcar tracks on the new West Lake Avenue North streetcar line . The presentation includes a brief historical perspective on the development of streetcars and bicycles as means of transportation in the late 19th century, the legal underpinnings and decision regarding the Seattle suit, and methods being developed in three cities to resolve the dangers of the interface between streetcars and bicycles on urban roadways. The paper can be accessed in advance of the presentation by clicking here. Note, this is rescheduled from January, when it was cancelled due to weather.

September 8, 2018
Southern New England Railroad & Trolley Operations in the Mid-20th Century
Donald Nevin presents two videos of New England railroad and trolley. The first DVD, A Great Railroad at Work, is a publicity film made by the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad in 1942 to illustrate to the general public all the various aspects of railroad operation and maintenance, from bookkeeping to marine operations to train operations. The second DVD, The Connecticut Company, is footage filmed by rail fans of the Connecticut Company’s trolley operations from 1945 to 1948 in the New Haven Division, which was the last to operate trolley service, which also includes bonus footage of some of the older electric locomotives of the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad.

October 13, 2018
Boston in the 1960s through the 1980s
Our Annual Meeting! Paul Shackford will project his own version of “Lost Boston”, in Kodachromes he took of different transport scenes in the Boston area from the mid-1960s to recently: the Elevated Railway, Harvard Station before the Red Line was extended, the New Haven Railroad from Back Bay to Forest Hills before the Southwesr Corridor project, Central Artery and the Lechmere elevated section in the West End.

November 3, 2018
Portland Streetcars
Nick Tomkavage will present a contemporary review of the Portland, Oregon streetcar network, one of America’s preeminent modern systems. Nick will show images and video clips of light rail and bus operations, including a few historical photographs. Highlights will include views of the Portland Transit Mall, Union Station, the Steel Bridge, the Tilikum Crossing, and many more scenes of streetcars running in the street and in private medians.

Additional Meeting Dates (Entertainment TBD):
December 1, 2018; January 5, 2019.

Past Meeting Entertainment Reports

We have offered a wide variety of entertainment through the years, and provide detailed reports of past meetings at the link below.
View Entertainment Reports

Items for Sale at Our Meetings

We typically offer a selection of books and other items for sale as part of our effort to offset the cost of room rent and meeting expenses. As such, we typically do not permit outside vendors to sell items at our meetings.