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

July 8, 2017
Chicagoland Electric Railroads
Donald Nevin will show us slides he took of one of the last surviving electric interurban railroads, the Chicago, South Shore and South Bend, from the 1960s to the 1980s. We’ll also see the Illinois Central to South Chicago, plus the Chicago, North Shore and Milwaukee in its last few months of operation. This meeting will be on the second Saturday of the month to avoid conflict with the July 4 holiday.

August 5, 2017
Electric Transit in the 1960s, Part 1
Leonard Bachelder will present Part I of a slide show on electric transit in the 1960s and early 1970s, featuring many systems in North America that have since have undergone great changes or disappeared. These include Baltimore, Boston, Brooklyn, Calgary, Cleveland, Dayton, Edmonton, El Paso, Fort Worth, Halifax, Hamilton, Jersey City (PATH), Johnstown, Kitchener, Los Angeles, Milwaukee, Montreal, Newark, New Orleans, New York City subway (a small sample), and Chicago’s North Shore Line.

September 9, 2017
Early Railroads Serving Boston’s Inner North Shore
Bill Lieberman (a BSRA member living in San Francisco!) will present a visual summary of steam railroads that served Winthrop, Orient Heights, and Revere Beach in the 1870s and ’80s, based on his upcoming book, The Train on the Beach. Learn about narrow and standard gauge railroads that complemented — and sometimes competed with — the Boston, Revere Beach and Lynn Railroad. This meeting will be on the second Saturday of the month to avoid conflict with the Labor Day holiday.

October 14, 2017
Transit Archive Volume 3 (BSRA Annual Meeting)
Donald Nevin will present a DVD that includes three silent films made in the 1920s by the Chicago North Shore and Milwaukee Railroad: “Along the Green Bay Trail”, showing passenger operations; “The Pace of Progress”, showing express freight operations; and “El Cars to the Eucharistic Congress” on June 20–24, 1926. This DVD also includes one silent film made by Chicago Surface Lines in the 1920s: “Safe Highways”, showing trolleys in staged accidents. This meeting will be on the second Saturday of the month to avoid conflict with the Columbus Day holiday weekend.

November 4, 2017
Electric Transit in the 1960s, Part 2
Leonard Bachelder will present Part II of his show on electric transit in the 1960s and early ’70s. Tonight’s segment includes Philadelphia (PTC and Red Arrow), Pittsburgh, St. Joseph, St. Louis, San Francisco, Saskatoon, Seattle, South Shore Line, Staten Island, Thunder Bay, Toronto (about 60 slides), Vancouver, Washington, and Winnipeg. This show will feature many electric trolleybuses as well as streetcars.

December 2, 2017
Jim Schantz’s Seashore Trolley Museum Update
Seashore Trolley Museum President Jim Schantz will provide an update on recent progress at Seashore, including restoration of some important Boston cars, Seashore’s activities in Boston, and recent developments in the trolley system in Lowell. Finally, he will report on the museum’s participation in the streetcar activities of the American Public Transit Association and the Community Streetcar Coalition, and involvement with new streetcar projects across North America, with bonus photos of some European transit systems from 40 to 45 years ago.

Additional Meeting Dates (Entertainment TBD):
2018 dates to be announced.

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.