[PRCo] Re: West Penn Street Car??

[Fred Schneider]

The one titled Philadelphia with the red cars is not properly  
labeled.   It is entirely Lehigh Valley Transit Company's  
Philadelphia Division circa 1950-1951.  I recognized a lot of the  
locations but nothing, of course is in Philadelphia because after  
1926 the company never entered the city of Philadelphia and after  
1949 the cars did not run south of Norristown.   I saw pictures on  
the South Allentown viaduct over the Reading Company ... they may be  
the northern most pictures.   Rich Allman could easily give us a  
minute by minute diatribe on that film.

The one titled Reading shows the last remaining line of Reading  
Street Railway.  For those unfamiliar, most of the suburban routes  
were shut down in the 1920s and 1930s owing to the usual lack of  
riders and too many automobiles out on the farms.  I think the Oley  
Valley Division from Boyertown west toward Reading may have been the  
first casualty about 1926.  Birdsboro quit about 1932.  The RSR line  
to Adamstown in Lancaster County lasted until 1933, one year after  
the connecting cars to Lancaster expired.  The Lebanon Division was  
gone in 1931.  The Norristown operations were eradicated by 1933 ...  
that's SEPTA's Frontier Division today.   And most of the city of  
Reading was replaced by buses in 1947.  However, one route, from  
Reading to Shillington and Mohnton remained because the company was  
seemingly unable to break the 999-year lease with the Reading and  
Southwestern Street Railway.  The courts finally ruled in favor of  
Reading Street Railway and the last poles were hooked down in January  
1952.  All of that line was street running in the City of Reading and  
in the Borough of Shillington.  There was a short portion of side of  
the road operation in Cumru Township, Berks County, between Reading  
and Shillington, and it is illustrated briefly.  But most of the  
private right of way you see in the Reading film is between the south  
borough line of Shillington and the town of Mohntown.  Every other  
car ran beyond 16th St., Shillington to Mohnton ... about every 20  
minutes as I recall.   Today I think it is 30 minutes to Shillington  
and hourly to Mohnton in spite of a population three times larger  
than when the trolleys ran!

Now I'll ask one question.   Don't you find it strange that Reading  
was running those cars with two-man crews in 1951?   Outside of  
Philadelphia, it was probably the last operation with two-men in  
Pennsylvania and without any doubt in my mind, the last two-man cars  
in a small city anywhere in the United States.

Oh, the one quick snap of a steam train at the start of the Reading  
flick... that was at 7th and Penn.  Penn Street was the main business  
drag ... t'aint no mo.  Seventh Street was the mainline of the  
Reading Railroad from Philadelphia to Reading.  All of those  
buildings were torn down in one of those ill-conceived urban ruinall  
schemes a few years back.   My last assignment with the state of  
Pennshylvania was at an address called 625 Cherry Street in  
Reading ... the state office building ... which was a brand new  
building in the eastern half of the block surrounded by 6th, Penn,  
7th, and Cherry.   It butted right up against the railroad.   But by  
the time I got there, Conrail had decided it wasn't going to run  
passenger trains on the old Reading that were not subsidized, and  
SEPTA made an offer to Berks County to continue the service and Berks  
refused to pay saying it would help Philadelphia.   So across the  
street from me was the deserted old Franklin Street Station.

You should see the traffic coming in from Reading every day on the  
Turnpike and on US 422.

Thanks Jerry for letting me see the Reading film.   Brought back a  
lot of memories.   Just after we moved from Pittsburgh, that was  
briefly where we would go on Saturdays afternoons to shop.  Was only  
25 miles from the house we rented until we bought a place.   I  
remember the Mohnton Streetcars.   I also remember steam on the  
Shamokin - Tamaqua - Reading - Philadelphia passenger trains and on  
the Jersey City - Reading - Harrisburg trains.   Even remember pooled  
CNJ Pacifics on the Harrisburg service.  Had we been there just one  
year earlier, there would still have been a Lancaster - Reading -  
Birdsboro - Coatesville gas car.


On Jun 20, 2008, at 7:30 PM, Jerry MATT Matsick wrote:

> Ed, Fred, Derrick - Is this in fact a film on the West Penn ?
> http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=eIGHcHeZwrw
> --
> From the RIVER CITY by the Sea!
> Jerry "Matt" Matsick
> J A C K S O N V I L L E, Florida !
>
>
>