A postcard of the Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Tech Trolley or Technical Special Car. With the construction of the Electrical Engineering building (Atwater Kent building) in 1907, the Electrical Engineering Department at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute was able to expand its focus on Electric Railroad Engineering with the Tech Trolley, a forty-foot trolley that allowed students to test speed, voltage, current and resistance of rail lines, both inside and outside of the Electrical Engineering building. The Trolley was Pullman-green with gold trimmings and had side and end doors but no regular steps, a precaution for persons who might otherwise mistake it for a passenger trolley. Rolled out of the big west door of the Electrical Engineering building, it tested around 3878 miles of New England's Electric Railways before it was finally decommissioned in 1937.
Is a part of the Worcester Polytechnic Institute History Collection. University Archives and Special Collections, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, George C. Gordon Library, Worcester, Massachusetts. http://www.wpi.edu/+library
