The Lake Hopatcong Foundation, a 501(c)(3) organization in northwestern New Jersey is seeking to acquire or loan a trolley car for our site which is located along the former tracks of the Morris County Traction Company. ​ A car with internal restoration is not necessary. ​ Please contact Martin Kane, Lake Hopatcong Foundation, 973-663-2500, marty@lakehopatcongfoundation.org

Background information: Since its founding in 2012, the Lake Hopatcong Foundation has been at the forefront of multiple initiatives to improve and enhance the experience at New Jersey’s largest lake. Although the foundation has been very active in its short history, no undertaking is more important to historic preservation in the lake community than its purchase of the Lake Hopatcong Station in November 2014. An iconic building in danger, located in an ideal location, with perfect space for educational/community programming and plenty of parking, the station will be the perfect future home for the Lake Hopatcong Foundation. When restoration is completed, the Lake Hopatcong Station will serve three distinctive missions. In addition to providing an office for the staff, the station’s former departure hall will serve as a community center for Lake Hopatcong. Classes and lectures will be offered here on a wide variety of lake-related topics including local history and gardening. It will also serve as your one-stop source for information about the lake.

During recent discussions about the ongoing efforts at the Lake Hopatcong Station with the Tri-State Railway and North Jersey Electric Railway Historical Society groups, the idea of locating a trolley car at the station arose. The Morris County Traction Company’s track was formerly located directly in front of our building providing service to Lake Hopatcong and Bertrand Island Amusement Park. The display of a trolley car within view of a very heavily traveled road would bring attention to both our organizations and to how the Lackawanna Railroad, Morris Canal, steamboats, and the trolley all met at Lake Hopatcong. The renovated train station will include an exhibit on transportation at the lake and will include information on related historical organizations. In addition to hosting a wide variety of programs and meetings during the year, the departure hall will also host model railroads every December for the holiday season.

Based on your text it appears you want an exterior display streetcar. Most old streetcar bodies which have been outdoors are pretty far gone as they were built lightly to begin with, had canvas roofs, and got little or no maintenance once retired or recycled as sheds, etc. Since you have not specified any particular historic type, I'd encourage you to build a new replica rather than restore an old one, since you can build it specifically to withstand the weather of living outside and for easy maintenance - something the old cars can't do. It will look the same but continue to look good for much longer at much lower cost. You can also choose to replicate the cars that did run at your location.

Andrea, Many thanks you for your post. That is something we would definitely consider. Our board was hoping for historical purposes to be able to display an actual car since we are going through an extensive restoration of the original fieldstone station.

I would echo Dave's suggestion. It might be easier to build a replica than to rebuild a car that hasn't fared too well in the elements. Not that the idea is to 'fool' anyone, of course, but make a visit to the Railroad Museum of New England, in Thomaston CT. http://www.rmne.org They have what looks like a passenger car, without trucks, sitting next to the station and set up as restroom facilities. Known as the 'Comfort Coach', many people ask what railroad it came from; truth is that it was built from scratch on site.