Trolley Tuesday 9/15/20 - Philadelphia & Western Railroad

The eastern United States may have been more densely-packed than the Midwest or western United States, but that doesn't exempt them from having some famous high speed lines. Far from glamorous, or far from any cities, these Appalachian interurbans helped connect the farmlands of Pennsylvania with the major city centers of Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, providing new opportunities for workers and their families across the state. The most famous of these is the Philadelphia & Western Railroad, now referred to as the SEPTA Norris Town High Speed Line. This 102-year-old railroad rose from almost nothing to become one of the most unique and fastest railroads in America, and you'll find out why and more on today's Trolley Tuesday!

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The Best Interurban In The East

The Philadelpia & Western Railroad, as it opened in 1907. The Strafford station is on the far left,
note the "Market Street Elevated" on the right and the "Penn. RR." above.
(Public Domain)

George Jay Gould I, only half the man
(and the moustache) of his father.
Research the "Gould Transcontinental
System" for more insanity.
(Public Domain)

The story of the Philadelphia & Western Railway (P&W) begins on May 21, 1902, when the railroad was incorporated with a capital stock of $450,000 (or $1.3 million today). Its goals were quite lofty, as it it was to be the eastern link of a "Northern Transcontinental Railroad" involving the Western Pacific, Denver & Rio Grande Western, Missouri Pacific, and then the P&W connecting to Western Maryland at York, PA. This entire scheme was the brainchild of robber baron family Jay Gould and his son, George, though the latter denied any involvement or stake in the P&W. The railway never reached its intended goal of York, as after opening its main line to Strafford on May 22, 1907 (five years and a day after incorporation), the railroad reorganized after defaulting on mortgage bonds. In 1912, its original plans to extend out to York and complete what the Goulds started were cancelled and all resources were instead given to constructing a connection to the Pennsylvania Railroad in Strafford and the new Norristown Branch.

Strafford Station in the 1930s, looking East.
Definitely more reminiscent of the Titfield Thunderbolt
than one of the fastest interurbans in America.
(Radnor History)

From Philadelphia's 69th Street Station, the P&W's Strafford Line interchanged with the Pennsylvania Rapid Transit's Market Street Elevated before rambling west for 11 miles, across the Philadelphia & West Chester Railway, before finally ending up in the small, unincorporated farming community of Strafford. This choice of terminus was due to the original plans listed above being cancelled, so the terminal at Sugartown Road, Strafford, ended up using an old farmhouse as a "temporary station". At the time the line opened, a one-way fare cost just 20 cents and trains ran a half-hour schedule every twenty minutes. Notably, the P&W employed heavy 55-lb rail and wide radius curves due to the original transcontinental plans, but it also gave the trains a high turn of speed. Power for the Strafford Line was provided by a third rail, and modern automatic semaphore blocks and the lack of at-grade crossings made this line completely state-of-the-art. However, the colloquially-nicknamed "Pig & Whistle" (perhaps for its farm town connections) could not hang onto high passenger numbers for long, so a new line was opened in 1912.

The elevated Bridgeport Station that was the terminus
of the Norristown Branch, located over 4th Street.
This terminal was later replaced with a new elevated
 station at Swede & Main Street, across the Schuykill River.
(John Smatlak)

The Norristown Branch split from the Strafford line at Villanova Junction, almost 4 miles east of Strafford. The choice to branch further north was smart, as local connections to Bridgeport, Bethlehem, and Allentown meant commuters out in steel and coal country could find convenient access to Philadelphia on board the P&W. The line opened in on December 12, 1912 to more success than the Strafford line, eventually displacing the other line as the "main" line and reducing Strafford to a "branch line". Further enabling the Norristown line's success was the connection into the Lehigh Valley north to Allentown and Bethlehem. This instant service not only extended the interurban's reach, but the competing Lehigh Valley Transit Co. (LVT), was given permission to run trains direct to 69th Street Station under the "Liberty Bell Line" banner. Due to the same heavy grade-separated construction on the Strafford line, average running speeds of 80MPH were not uncommon north of Quakertown.

The P&W system by 1941, showing local connections between the LVT, PTC, Red Arrows,
and other connecting buses.
(Public Domain)

The Cars That Weren't There, and the Ones That Were

1907 P&W Car No. 46 works the Penn's Landing Waterfront
Streetcar in 1990. This car is now located at the Electric City
Trolley Museum in Scranton, PA.
(Voogd075)

Interestingly, when the P&W opened for operation, the cars built for it never ran on the railway at all. 24 cars were built by the St. Louis Car Company in 1906 (22 wooden passenger cars and 2 combination cars), but due to the San Francisco Earthquake, these cars were instead sold off to the United Railroads of San Francisco and the Sacramento Northern Railways to help rebuild their fleet. Before the P&W could get angry, though, an identical order of 22 passenger cars were delivered in 1907 to finally open the Strafford line. The cars not only featured an electric third rail, but also possessed trolley poles for use around the maintenance yard, as you never want to have third rail at ground level. These cars were rebuilt in 1929 and lasted all the way until the 1970s (as you'll find, a lot of cars lasted long on Pennsylvanian rails), but they were eventually displaced on all services by the "Strafford Car"

"Strafford" Car No. 164 (originally 64) crosses the
Schuykill River Bridge between Norristown
and Bridgeport, June 1978.
(John F. Tucker III)

The "Strafford" Cars were an attempt by Brill to make a smaller, home-grown version of the high speed cars popularized by the Kuhlman Car Company of Cleveland, OH, but with multiple-unit capabilities. The original three 50-series cars were outshopped from Brill between 1920 and 1921 and featured enclosed vestibules and 60HP traction motors giving them a top speed of 45 miles per hour (usually the standard service speed of an interurban. However, they were never rebuilt so their slow speed made them a hinderance to the other, much faster trains. These were later displaced by the new "Strafford" Cars of 1924 to 1929, which not only featured rewound traction motors (now generating 100HP) that gave them a 70MPH top speed, but also vestibule steps and bulkhead doors that allowed passengers to move from car to car. They also lacked trolley poles, as the shops could now just connect an extension clip to the third rail shoe to move them around the yard. A third version, the 160 series, were born out of rebuilds in 1931 and 1935 and took over Strafford services before the line closed in the 1950s.

Faster, Faster, and Faster Still

The famous "Bullet" on the Norristown Line's
elevated section in the 1950s, approaching either
Norristown or Bridgeport. 
(David Sadowski) 

The Brill Car Company was still looking to innovate for its local customers, and the lack of crossings on the P&W gave them the incentive to make an even faster interurban. Working with the P&W, who was upgrading its line by the late 1920s to permit increased high speed operations on an already-head-on-collision-free double track main line, Brill looked at the Cincinnati & Lake Erie "Red Devil" cars developed by P&W Vice-Chairman W. L. Butler. The all-aluminum bodies led Brill to use that for their cars, but with a difference: these would be the first streetcars designed in a wind-tunnel. In 1931, eleven new 55-foot long, double-ended "Bullets" emerged from Brill's Philadelphia factory and set to work on the Norristown line. Their four 100-HP traction motors, combined with their light 24-ton weight and rakish, windsplitting nose meant the Bullets could hit a maximum safe speed of 92 miles per hour. A record attempt test run in 1930 covered the whole 13.5-mile Norristown line in just 11 minutes, while normal service maintained an impressive 16-minute route schedule with stops. 

At the Rockhill Trolley Museum, Bullet No. 205 makes way for "Liberty Liner"
803-804, "Independence Hall" during the 2016 "Philadelphia & Western Day".
(HeritageRail News)

New Owners Play Fast and Lose

Red Arrow Brillliner No. 9 cozies up with a crew of Brill
Master Units (including car No. 83) at the 69th Street Yard
 in Upper Darby, Philadelphia, 1969. The Red Arrows 
bought 10 Brilliners for local city use, which all ended
up in SEPTA ownership.
(Marty Bernard)

However, fast bullets could only carry a line so far. The P&W was never in any good financial straits despite their fast and reliable service and, by 1946, it had reorganized itself and its upcoming 50-year bond maturation in 1960 were rated as "uncertain" and "a margin of safety over interest at small." This set it up to be purchased by the neighboring Philadelphia Suburban Transit (PST, otherwise the "Red Arrow Lines") in 1954. The LVT had gone belly-up in 1951, and the Red Arrows were only interested in keeping the main link at Norristown, abandoning the Strafford Line at Villanova Junction in 1956. As National City Lines ownership was wrecking the local Philadelphia Transportation Company, the Red Arrows invested in more second-hand equipment to maintain the high-speed service set by the P&W.

Red Arrow Streetcar No. 63 meets Liberty Liner 801-802
"Valley Forge" at Ardmore Junction, May 30, 1964.
(Photographer Unknown)

The biggest purchase by the Red Arrow were two articulated trainsets originally owned by the Chicago, Milwaukee & North Shore Railroad (famously, the North Shore Line). Originally the famous "Electroliner" high speed sets, which ran at 90 miles per hour between Milwaukee, WI and Chicago, IL, the Red Arrows purchased them in 1963 following the closure of the North Shore line and rebuilt them heavily with new third rail shoes, removal of the trolley poles, more doorways in the center cars, and a swanky new paint scheme. Their ability to exceed 100 miles an hour made them invaluable, and they entered service under the new name of "Liberty Liners", with ex-North Shore 801-802 becoming "Valley Forge" and 803-804 becoming "Independence Hall." The Tavern car was refitted to now serve coffee and pastries in the morning and alcohol and snacks in the evening. They ran from 1964 to 1978, when SEPTA decided that the trains were too heavy for their 75-lb upgraded rail and the motors were just too hungry for the electrical demand. 

Gone are the Electroburgers and tavern atmosphere, as the Liberty Liners
advertised their hip and trendy coffee bar aboard their limited expresses.
(Rockhill Trolley Museum)

Prior to the arrival of the N-5s, SEPTA bought a set of
former CTA 6000-series cars in the late 1980s to
maintain the High Speed Line service.
(Joe Testagrose)

By the 1970s, the Red Arrow Lines fell into the ownership of the South Eastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority and that included the Norristown High Speed Line and its gaggle of outdated rolling stock. The oldest cars were still the original 1907 St. Louis wooden cars, still operating and even passing into SEPTA ownership, while the Strafford Cars continued to operate despite not serving their namesake down any longer. Over the next few years, SEPTA began a mass retirement of the heritage stock with the last old cars being the now-antiquated Bullets which were officially retired in 1990. Replacing these heritage cars were the new Asea Brown Bovery N-5 types outlined in the National Model Railroad Association (NMRA)'s "Capital Program" Modernization presentation in 1993, Though squarer in profile, they maintained the design standards set by the Brill Bullets (low profile chassis, single car setup) and the Electroliners (high platform boarding only) but operated at a considerably-sedate 70mph. 

The Asea Brown Bovery N-5 demonstrator car No. 451, eventually renumbered 130.
(Joe Testagrose)

The Philadelphia & Western Today

The current Norristown High Speed Line
service map, outlined in Purple with red
"Express" and blue "Limited" services.
(SEPTA)

Today, the Pig & Whistle continues its trot between Norristown and Philadelphia. It carries, on average, 3 million people a year and is classified as an "interurban heavy rail line" under SEPTA's capital budgets. The former "Route 100-Norristown" name was removed in 2009 by popular demand, and since then the line has had a shaky history with several accidents that have since tried to slow the line down. On July 6, 2012, two cars became detached between Beachwood-Brookline and Penfield Stations, resulting in two being injured when the cars struck each other. In September 2017, an unoccupied N-5 car crashed at 69th street station, injuring more than 40 people and forcing the line's speed limit down to 55 miles per hour. Like the South Shore Line, the High Speed Line also operates stations at a primarily request-stop service, with the only main stations being 69th Street, Ardmore Junction, Radnor, Gulph Mills, Highs Park, Dekalb Street, Bridgeport, and Norristown. The line to Strafford is now the Radnor Rail Trail, with the Ithan Substation and surviving as a preserved building in Wayne.

Ithan Substation No. 1 in Wayne, PA, 2009. Following railroad service, it was sold to
Thomas Newhall (president of the P&W) in 1920, who used it as a recreation room,
squash court, and gun storage. Following the death of his wife in January 1947, a depressed
Newhall took his own life in the building six months later. 
(Pmcyclist)

P&W Strafford Car No. 64 (still in East Troy paint)
poses at the Electric City Trolley Museum in front
of Bullet No. 206 (the de-icer) in 2016.
(Frank Dutton)

Plenty of pieces of the Philadelphia & Western survive today, including four Strafford cars, seven Bullets, one original wooden car, and of course the two Electroliners. One Strafford Car, No. 64, is located at the East Troy Electric Railroad in East Troy, WI, and heavily rebuilt from an earlier SEPTA conversion as a de-icing car in 1989. The car was traded to the Electric City Trolley Museum in Scranton, PA, in 2010 for three Cleveland PCC's. The Rockhill Trolley Museum in Rockhill Furnace, PA has four pieces of ex-P&W rolling stock, with even possessing a "Liberty Liner", 803-804 "Independence Hall", in operation. Electric City, on the other hand, has five pieces in their collection, including a Bullet and several Strafford cars like No. 64. "Valley Forge", former North Shore 801-802, is now preserved at the Illinois Railway Museum in original condition. Finally, of the Bullet cars, three of them (203, 207, and 208) are preserved at the Seashore Trolley Museum in Kennebunkport, ME, in ex-SEPTA condition, while one (206) is preserved at the Electric City Trolley Museum as a converted de-icing car.

P&W Bullet No. 203 sits behind the famous "State of the Art" car
at the Seashore Trolley Museum in 2002.
If you would like to donate to the restoration of the "State of the Art" Car,
please visit the Seashore Trolley link below.
(Matthew D. Cosgro)

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Thanks for reading today's Trolley Tuesday Post! On Thursday, we take a ride on the Johnstown Street Railway before we take a look at a beautiful train in the neighborhood next week! Sources for today include the Tredyffrin Easttown Historical Society Quarterly from 1979, a .PDF of the 1993 NMRA presentation on the modernization of the Norristown High Speed Line, and PhillyTracks' coverage of the P&W. Museums shoutouts today are extended towards the Rockhill Trolley Museum, Electric City Trolley Museum, East Troy Railroad Museum, Illinois Railway Museum, and the Seashore Trolley Museum. As usual, if you want to find myself or my editor, please follow our twitters and support us by maybe buying some merch from our store! My editor also has made his own board game, which you can purchase here. Until next we meet, ride safely!