Cincinnati Transit Historical Association

Welcome to the Cincinnati Transit Historical Association

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For those attending monthly meetings in person at Queensgate, our location has changed as of July 2025. Jump to Location Change

Interested in streetcars? Railroads? Trolley buses? Transit history in general? Or is your interest more in present day transit activities?

fleet

For over 40 years, the Cincinnati Transit Historical Association (CTHA) has been dedicated to the preservation of transit information, photos, and memorabilia from transit agencies centered around the Tri-State (Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana) region. Members have interests across the transit spectrum from railroads to streetcars, and from city transit buses to over-the-road buses to trolley buses.

The CTHA offers several benefits to members

An 8-times-per-year newsletter with various historical stories and information
A monthly meeting where slides and movies are presented featuring past and present transit systems of member interest. Not necessarily confined to southwest Ohio and northern Kentucky
A fleet of six operable restored transit buses, which are regularly seen in car shows, parades and other public and transit-industry functions in the region.
A library with a large collection of transit related books, as well as photos, negatives, records and other memorabilia.

As a 501(c)(3) non-profit, donations are tax deductible. Income from donations and memberships help keep our fleet roadable and helps us execute our mission to preserve history

How Can I join?

Click over to our membership and donation page HERE. There are two ways to start or renew a membership:
- Print a form, fill it out and mail it to us with a check
- Sign up online with a credit card

Monthly Meetings

Monthly meetings are held on the third Saturday of the month (except December). Due to ongoing construction at Queensgate, we've been forced to move the monthly meeting to Connections Christian Church, at 7421 E Galbraith Rd in Madeira. This is near Kenwood Towne Center. See map.

Arrive between 7:00PM and 7:30PM, and one of our members will let you in.

The October 2026 CTHA Show is from ... me. Dayton's Non-Trolley Buses

We had a cancellation of our regularly scheduled program due to a medical issue. Fortunately, the member is recovering and the prognosis is good.

Completely unrelated, when I went to Bus Day at the IRM on Sep 26, one of our non-local members was there, and he asked, "Can you re-run that show you put on at the Motor Bus Society a year ago?" Requests for shows are **always** extremely highly valued, but at the point of questioning, it appeared that our schedule was full up until April of next year. I told him that we'd look at it, and see when we could schedule me. And now, here we are.

We are going to discuss Dayton's Non-Trolley Buses, providing their history in the Gem City prior to the dawn of the RTA in 1972. For obvious reasons, most Dayton bus discussions surround the trolley buses. The gas and diesel bus history sometimes gets the short shrift, but not this night. Here's a unique factoid ... Dayton replaced a rail line with a 'bus' in 1883 and then converted it back to rail in 1888.

The program is Saturday October 17 at 7:30PM Eastern time and will originate from Connections Christian Church in Madeira.
For those who are unable to attend in person, we will also offer this presentation via Zoom at www.zoom.us.

To join us online, please click (or copy/paste) the registration form

https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/36xkcqfrRLaxOFIZoeQZWA

to sign up for the show

We will be at the CTHA Library at Bond Hill from 230PM to 530PM on Saturday October 17 before the show. Members are welcome to stop by and visit; please drop me an email at cintranshistassn@gmail.com to let me know you're coming, and I'll send you my text number so that when you get there, I can let you into the building.