A Gerhard Salomon Film Clip Norristown Line, Ardmore, Media, Sharon Hill, Cars on West Chester Pike Featuring P&W Bullets, a Liberty Liner, 1949 St. Louis Cars, Brillliners, Center Door Car 63.
At a time when the only car was the family car... living at Ardmore Junction (Merwood / St. Denis School), we had it made. That was where two Red Arrow lines intersected. As early as age 10/11, we could take the trolley to Ardmore to hang out, shop, go to the movies, smoke cigarettes - or, go the other way to 69th St. to do the same. By 14, we were taking the P&W every day to Carroll (lot's of stories there...) On weekends, could go the other way, also to 69 St., or even into Center City on the El. Great for p/t jobs, getting around, and basically growing up. All safely. In 1976, "60 Minutes" did a piece on public transportation in the U.S. and rated the P&W as the best system in the country, even over the fancy new ones like BART and MARTA. Yes, the P&W had the old rickety Bullit cars that might jar you around (especially on curves,) but they ran frequently, in all weather, and on time.
Thanks for the memories .... grew up in Ardmore in the mid-60's and remember the transition from the trolley to the dedicated bus line between Ardmore and Darby Road
This video brought back SO MANY MEMORIES. I rode the R100 Norristown High Speed (aka P&W) line for years during high school and college. I can still smell that old HO train set smell. LOL! A link to your video was posted on a FaceBook fan page I started called "Growin' Up in Havertown". We have over 4,500 members in our group and this will jar a lot of memories for our members. Thanks so much for posting this :)
Minor "poke" - just "100", never had an "R" in front of it because the ex-P&W isn't part of the Regional Rail division. There've been more than a few cases where people got on the wrong line because they thought the 100 / NHSL / P&W fed into the Regional Rail system at 30th Street 😆
I loved this video! It really made me remember many many good times! Things were so much easier back then!Now the world went and got in a big ass rush lol...
The Ardmore line was lost in the general collapse of private transit operators in the Philadelphia region during the mid-1960s. Some of Red Arrow's trolleys dated back to the Depression and were no longer serviceable. That didn't leave enough cars to serve all three then-existing lines. Even well-run systems like Red Arrow were in bad shape; reportedly they didn't have enough cash on hand to buy even a couple of cast-off trolleys, let alone order new ones. Result? They picked the most vulnerable line - Ardmore - and ripped it up.
Red Arrow scrapped up enough to buy the two Electroliners. Then SEPTA purchased some CTA el cars and regauged some of the almond joy subway cars. Patched kit bashed the Red Arrow and successors made do with what they had.
Isn't it interesting how in so many of these clips there are others who are also taking pictures! In those days, these lines were so much a part of regular life there, it's interesting to see how many more there are like those of us who can't get enough of rail transit.
I first seen a Red Arrow Lines Trolley on the Media line when it stopped at the Springfield Woodland Avenue Station in early 1963. I always wanted to ride on the Red Arrow Lines Trolley. I lived in Ridley Park at that time. My late father worked the swing shift at Boeing in Ardmore at the time. I seen the Ardmore Red Arrow Lines Trolley Station with a double ended PCC Trolley car ready for its trip back to 69th. Street Terminal in Upper Darby. Philadelphia Metropolitian area had & still has the most Trolley line miles in the nation. Many cities nationwide made a fatal mistake by eliminating the Trolley car lines. Many Metropolitian areas woke up & brought back the Trolley Lines.
👍👍 Losing the Ardmore line was a foolish tragedy. IIRC they needed maybe 3 cars to replace Brills that were out of service, but couldn't scrape together enough cash to buy even second-hand equipment.
9:17 Why was there solo many riders? Where were everyone coming from/going? It don't look as if there's too much going on for all of these people at this stop
It's such a shame (crime?) that the Ardmore line was abandoned. There were so many "what ifs" - what if the state hadn't been pushing so hard to eliminate trolley service on West Chester Pike? What if the Red Arrow fleet had been large enough to provide full service? We'll never know.
I work in Planning. What people have to understand that while many see public transportation as great, there is always an element of public pushback who are certain aspects of public transportation as bringing "undesirables" to their previous out of reach neighborhoods.
This is the first video I've seen of the 100 or in this case, the 200 departing the Norristown Transportation Center back when it was in Main St. Now it's DEP building.
@@Rob774 That attitude continues, even where neighborhoods are _already_ in reach. As you probably already know, SEPTA has plans to add a spur to the NHSL/P&W that will serve the big shopping and office complexes in King of Prussia. It’s intended to replace several slow, overcrowded bus lines that currently serve those facilities. The project has inevitably attracted a small but loud group of opponents who don’t want it to bring "those people" into the area ... despite the fact that "those people" are *already* using the existing buses AND the P&W's been running through a number of upscale communities for over a century without issues.
@@Poisson4147 Very aware and your second paragraph is what I've told to countless others while riding the 100. "Those people" are already there, working in your restaurant's, car dealerships and the mall. the Route 125 has been going there for decades. Nobody does a home invasion and makes for public transportation as their getaway. "Hold that train!!!"
Very much. In fact back in the 1970s the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission discussed using the Cardington branch as part of a connector between the P&W and PATCO, but it never got beyond the "gee it would be great if ..." stage. That failure was a double tragedy because PATCO was designed to be compatible with the P&W specifically to allow a later connection. If that plan had ever come to pass, it would have completed the P&W's original goal of running across Philadelphia and into NJ.
Sadly, because of declining ridership in March 1956, the Strafford Branch of the Philadelphia and Western Railway was discontinued. Closing 10 stations west of Villanova.
I read somewhere that during the P&W era they had a nonstop Limited that went from 69th Street directly to Norristown in under 20 minutes. any truth to that? It seems possible. But was the ridership there to warrant such a run?
At least during my ~40 years of riding the line, the Limiteds always made 3 or 4 stops. Radnor, Gulph Mills, and Bryn Mawr were common because they're all high-patronage stations. I can't speak about time before that, though. It's possible that in the days when the Liberty Bell Line ended in Norristown instead of Upper Darby there could have been enough transfers to fill up a non-stop run.
I was 19 pushing 20 When The Ardmore Trolley called It quits I was sorry I never rode and photographed it on 29 December 1966 it was a event that change my life Forever I started photogragphing the remaining line almost 50 year later I accumulated a big collection of color slides using a 35 mm camera I now do digital but will not get rid of my vintage equipment too sentimental in value
