[PRCo] Re: West Penn Street Car??

[Richard Allman]

Fred-not sure anyone would want the inch by inch narrative for Liberty Bell 
line, thoough if there's any hue and outcry, I'll do it. Two man operation 
in PA after 1951? Red Arrow Center Entrance cars and some West Chester rush 
hour service as well carried a conductor, sitting right behind the motorman 
on the drop seat. RICH
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Fred Schneider" <fwschneider at comcast.net>
To: <pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org>
Sent: Saturday, June 21, 2008 11:54 AM
Subject: [PRCo] Re: West Penn Street Car??


> 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 !
>>
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