KENNEBUNKPORT, Maine — Being a trolley operator, even on the mile-and-a-half or so of tracks at the Seashore Trolley Museum in Kennebunkport, is serious business that requires training and annual renewal of your license.
Lee Mathews, 84, of Brewer has been a member at the museum for 52 years. Among other roles, he’s one of the operators of the museum’s trolleys, which make half-hour loops around the museum grounds several times a day.
“You’ve got to be well-qualified to operate a trolley car here,” said Mathews.
Though he’s decidedly by-the-book today, there was a day in 1945 when he wasn’t.
Mathews’ father, as a railroad employee, had a permanent trolley pass that he gave to Mathews on Saturdays to ride the rails around Brewer and Bangor. One day near Ohio Street, the trolley operator gave Mathews a turn at the controls.
“The trolley car operator said, ‘Do you want to operate the trolley car?’ I said sure. I was just 14 years old,” said Mathews. “I went by the people at the first stop. He took over stopping for me. … I didn’t know much about the brakes back then.”
Regardless, the experience spawned a lifelong fascination of rail transit that endures to this day.
“I got bit,” he said. “To see them running again, it’s just a fascination.”
