Apr 13, 2026 By Jon Andreassi 3 min read

Radios, computers and typewriters were on display this weekend at the Pennsylvania Trolley Museum for the third annual Vintage Tech Fest.

The event took place Saturday and Sunday at the Chartiers Township museum.

“We’re celebrating the technology of the trolley era, which in Pittsburgh is anywhere from the early 1900s to 1999 when the vintage PCC cars stopped running in the city. So we have everything here from typewriters, quill pens, a printing press, to more modern things like retro gaming and 1970s and ’80s computers,” said Kristen Fredriksen, the museum’s manager of visitor experience.

Organizations and individual collectors set up myriad displays, providing demonstrations and perhaps a walk down memory lane.

“Everyone who brings things out to showcase here is very passionate about what they collect, so it’s kind of like having a museum within a museum for the weekend,” Fredriksen said.

One collector came from St. Clairsville, Ohio with more than a dozen typewriters in tow. David Cannon said he has been collecting typewriters for more than 15 years.

His collecting began after he had made a comment to his nieces that if he ever wrote a book, he would buy a typewriter.

One niece, who has struggled with heroin addiction, found a Remington Rand Model 17 typewriter from 1947 in her grandfather’s basement and gifted it to Cannon.

“She was going to sell it for drugs. She remembered me saying that I wanted a typewriter. This was her first victory over drugs. She has been clean ever since,” Cannon said.

He added all of his typewriters hold some personal significance to him.

“Every single one of these typewriters in here, either who I was with when I found it, who gave it to me, a great place that I was, somebody coming up to me and saying, ‘My father passed away, I know you do typewriters,” Cannon said. “So at this point I feel an obligation to keep these machines alive. I also love writing with them. There’s no feeling in the world like sitting down to a typewriter and writing a story.”

Near Cannon’s display was Jay Graham’s bevy of old Apple computers, specifically the Apple II series.

The computers were running retro video games and programs like VisiCalc, the first electronic spreadsheet tool.

Graham said his first computer was the Apple IIe, but he eventually started using IBM computers.

“I always had a passion for the Apple. I was an Apple fanboy from way back. So about 2003, 2004 I started collecting Apple equipment again,” Graham said.

Graham has met Apple founders Steve Wozniak and the late Steve Jobs. He says the story of the company had always been interesting to him.

“It was just the whole aura of Apple. Apple was a company where, you know, they built this in the garage,” Graham said.

Also represented at the Vintage Tech Fest was Washington Amateur Communications, or WACOM. This group of ham radio enthusiasts had their equipment set up in the trolley museum and were making contact with other operators around the globe.

Club President Joe Caldwell said it was a bit of a “mini field day,” referencing the annual AARL Field Day that takes place each summer.

He hopes the tech fest can help spread the word about WACOM.

“I think a lot of this is just making people aware that our club exists and the hobby is still thriving,” Caldwell said. “We’re still around, we’re still thriving.”