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

November 2, 2019
Midwestern Transit Through the Years
Clark Frazier will present St. Louis Public Service streetcar operation in 1958 and 1959, plus early MetroLink slides from the 1990s. He’ll also show the Chicago North Shore and Milwaukee Railroad, and the Chicago South Shore and South Bend Railroad, plus some Chicago Transit Authority scenes from 1958–1960 and the 1990s.

December 7, 2019
Classic Streetcars and Interurbans of the World
Clark Frazier returns this month to present classic streetcars from around the world that were still in service in the 1980s, in a whirlwind tour of systems from Austria, Germany, Czechoslovakia, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Switzerland, France, Sweden, Isle of Man, Japan, China, and Mexico.

January 4, 2020
Montréal, Québec City, and their Interurbans
Leo Sullivan will present slides he took, plus images he acquired over the years, of traction in Québec province. Montréal had a large city system that lasted until 1959, which Leo visited frequently. Extending 50 miles to the south was the Montréal & Southern Counties Railway, featuring assorted equipment including large wooden interurban cars. The city system in Québec ceased just before Leo was there, but the interurban division lasted until 1959, one of the last interurbans in North America. Leo will also touch upon several other systems in the province.

February 1, 2020
RollSign Archives
The RollSign archives hold over a century of unique Boston transit images, including many rarely seen views from RollSign contributors through the years. Nick Tomkavage will present a collection of scenes that have never been published, or were published decades ago.

March 7, 2020
George Chiasson’s Pennsylvanian and Midwestern Travels
Taken in June 2019, we’ll see the Pittsburgh Light Rail system; the Ohio Railway Museum near Columbus; a little bit of the National Museum of Transport near St. Louis; a few shots of the flooded Union Pacific along the Mississippi River in western Illinois; glimpses of the Delmar Loop Trolley and Metrolink in St. Louis itself; an extensive look at the Cincinnati Bell Connector Streetcar; and finally, views at the Railways to Yesterday trolley museum in Orbisonia, Pa.

April 4, 2020
The Eastern Mass., Detroit, and the Key System
Donald Nevin will show a DVD compiled by Seashore Trolley Museum from films taken by various rail enthusiasts, mainly in the 1930s. This will chiefly feature the Eastern Massachusetts St. Ry., with stops at Haverhill, Lynn, Stoneham (with service to Sullivan Square), Quincy (with service from Fields Corner in World War II), and Brockton; followed by Boston Elevated Railway trains in Charlestown with connecting streetcar service. We’ll also see ferries of the Boston, Revere Beach and Lynn RR; switching on the Union Freight Railroad (featuring a Climax locomotive); and other scenes. Next will be Getting About, filmed around 1936 by the Detroit Street Railway to show off the company’s operations and history; and finally, March of Progress, made by the Key System during World War II to show off their operations.

May 2, 2020
Herb Pence’s Southeast Asian and Canadian Travels
Herb will show Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (née Malaya); Singapore; a brief stop in Mallorca; the Canadian Railway Museum in Delson, Québec; Boston in 1979; and a final pre-Downeaster surprise.

Additional Meeting Dates (Entertainment TBD):
June 6; July 11; August 1; September 12; October 3; November 7; and December 5.

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.