Philadelphia Suburban Transportation Scenes-Ardmore Trolley Slideshow & 8mm Movies

[@Strommy777]

My Family moved to Ardmore in 1970, literally a few houses down Haverford Road from the Ardmore Junction PW station. While the trolley had been replaced by then these still bring back so many memories. Thank you for posting this!!!

[@tassiebaz]

Hi Strommy777, Thanks for watching and for your comment. I'm glad you liked the video and appreciate you taking the time to let me know. It's my pleasure to be able to share these memories in a way that I never could have imagined when I took these pictures over 50 years ago. Cheers, tassiebaz.

[@mister_fjk1972]

Very well done and comprehensive. My mom would drive down from Broomall to go shopping at 69th St. and I couldn't wait to see all the trolleys lined up on the side like the images you provided. Thanks for these great memories that I cherished.

[@tassiebaz]

Hi Francis, Thanks for watching and for your kind words. I'm glad you liked the presentation and hope you'll look at some of my other ones that may be of interest to you. Regards, tassiebaz.

[@dasingaman1]

It’s crazy to see this in 2019. I’m 34 years old and to see West Chester like like this is mind blowing. The trolley tracks are now an island in the middle of the road.

[@tassiebaz]

Hi dasingaman, Thanks for watching and for your comment. Yes, the whole thing happened before your time. Regards, tassiebaz.

[@juniatapark54]

Rode those as a child and dumb teen. I wish I had paid more attention. We often don't appreciate what we have until it's gone. Cliche but true.

[@tassiebaz]

Hi juniatapark54, Agreed. But at least you rode them, and you can still see them in presentations like this. Don't forget Media, Sharon Hill, and Norristown are still there. Regards, tassiebaz.

[@tomsayen9295]

The Red Arrow Trolley system served us well for many years. Never had a late trolley in the two years I took it from Ardmore to Bonner High School. The heater in those trolleys would burn your feet off! Now a private busway along the same route from Ardmore end of the line to Oakmont (near the Wawa).

[@tassiebaz]

Hi Tom, Thanks for watching and for sharing your memories of the good old days. Stay well. Cheers, tassiebaz.

[@tomsayen9295]

@@tassiebaz thank you for digging up those pictures. I live on county line road near where the private busway begins. Today it is loaded with walkers and joggers.

[@tassiebaz]

@@tomsayen9295 It's my pleasure to be able to share these memories. Cheers, tassiebaz.

[@WestRiverRR]

Thank you for sharing this. I rode the Ardmore line several times when I was young.

[@tassiebaz]

Hi J Robinson, Thanks for watching and for taking the time to comment. I'm glad you enjoyed the presentation, Regards, tassiebaz.

[@lisaheisey6168]

A bit before my time. I was born in 1965. But, I used to work in Ardmore and have ridden Philadelphia and Delaware County public transportation a lot.

[@tassiebaz]

Hi Lisa, Thanks for watching and for taking the time to comment. Stay well. Cheers, tassiebaz.

[@mountabrahamunionhs]

Rode this line quite a lot in the 50s and 60s and lived right next to the tracks at one time. Nice job with this video! Thank you for putting this together.

[@tassiebaz]

Hi Albert, Thanks for watching and for the kind words in your comment. It's my pleasure to be able to share these memories with persons of like interests. Stay well. Cheers, tassiebaz.

[@albertcarello7328]

Albert Humphies: Do yo remember hearing any horns on these trolleys or just gongs?

[@robrussell5329]

What's all this stuff about route numbers? We called it the Ardmore trolley. Living at Ardmore Junction, we had two trolley lines - the Ardmore line and the P&W. so you couldn't just say, "the trolley." Even if you were going to 69th St., is was still, "I'm taking the Ardmore trolley to 69th St." (Although the P&W was a much preferable way to go to 69th St.) As kids, we considered those trolleys our personal playthings. We had our favorite ones - the double digit numbers. And the ones we hated - the single digit ones - too plain looking. We'd put our ears on the tracks to hear them coming (it worked!) We'd put stones (those brown stones between the ties) or pennies (never a nickel or dime!) on the tracks and watch the trolley flattened them. Wintertime meant... Snowball Season! The drivers didn't like snowballs, and sometimes they'd stop and get out and say, "I'm calling the the cops. I know where you live!" At the creek in Merwood Park (Cobbs Creek), you could even stand under the trestle and watch them go by overhead. 0 One hot summer afternoon, the tracks across from Oakmont School caught on fire. It was the grease from the trolleys. The shout out, "here comes a trolley" was always exciting to hear. Sometimes we'd even TAKE the trolley to Ardmore. I'm talking summertime, age eleven. And not telling Mom. With all of .75 in your pocket, you could get there and back, get a coke and hamburger at Taylors, and walk around Ardmore for two hours. Maybe get a candy bar. A pretty good day, all in all. It was never the same after the buses.

[@tassiebaz]

Hi Rob, Thanks for watching and for sharing your great memories. I can certainly appreciated the kinds of things you did when you were a kid, as I did many of the same things. I would guess route numbers had something to do with computers and route recognition. Or may just their way of "progress and modernization". Stay well. Cheers, tassiebaz.

[@keith1938]

thank you very much for the program, I use the 103 Septa bus and it has it's own road and I became curious about this trail. Nicely done

[@tassiebaz]

Hi keith, Thanks for watching and for your kind words. Glad you enjoyed the presentation. Regards, tassiebaz.

[@Poisson4147]

Many thanks for this video! I grew up along the Media-Sharon Hill lines and have fond memories of the old Brill and St. Louis cars. Converting the Ardmore line to buses was a major loss and, at least as I heard it, was pretty much avoidable. By 1964 the existing fleet had been reduced by wear, tear, and accidents and there were no longer enough cars to serve all three lines. Supposedly Red Arrow tried to buy some surplus trolleys from another system but couldn't scrape together enough cash. Ardmore was the shortest route and got the ax.

[@tassiebaz]

Hi Poisson Volant, Thanks for watching and for your comment. Yes the Ardmore line conversion was a real loss. I rode the last car and still remember it clearly. Besides the car shortage, the desire to improve West Chester Pike may have been a factor. Regards, tassiebaz.

[@Poisson4147]

@tassiebaz: Very true, rebuilding WC Pike out to Llanerch was definitely a contributing factor. It probably would have doomed service within a year or two, although what I remember from the time was that the car shortage was the proximate cause. Rebuilding West Chester Pike also killed the West Chester line in 1954. The tracks ran beside the original two-lane road but there wasn't enough land to move them to the edge of the new 3rd and 4th lanes, and the need for left-turn lanes precluded converting the existing ROW to a median. The other factor, of course, was the tenor of the times which made cars supreme. The Department of Transportation was then called the Highway Department and lived up to its name at every turn. I very vaguely remember reading that Red Arrow actually got tax breaks for abandoning both the West Chester and Ardmore routes.

[@tassiebaz]

Hi Poisson Volant, I guess we're lucky they didn't want to widen Garrett Road. Regards, tassiebaz.

[@scottrobinson5223]

Thanks tassiebaz for sharing many great photos and films - especially the stills at 15:07 and 15:14. These brought back a flood of memories of my youth. I lived in Ardmore very close to the County Line station as a kid, rode these trolleys to 69th Street to roller skate at Chez Vous roller rink, and remember the transition to the limited access dedicated busway. Great memories of my youth with scenes near my elementary school (Chestnutwold), ball fields for pre-Little League play near Ardmore Junction, and Ardmore itself where my friends and I could go to a Saturday afternoon matinee for 50 cents and see two movies in the years these pictures were taken! The only business still operating, that I know of, is Yearsley's which can be seen at 4:32, on the far side of the tracks just over the top of the yellow truck cab. After the trolley line was gone I became a paperboy for the Philadelphia Bulletin and the shack where we picked up our papers is to the left at 6:37. Thanks for the effort to put this together - you made my day!

[@tassiebaz]

Hi Scott, Thanks for watching and for your detailed and interesting comment. I am glad you enjoyed the presentation as much as I enjoyed photographing it and putting it together. As these scenes get older, the streetscapes become as interesting as the transit vehicles, even though the background images were mostly unintentionally captured. You may find my other four Red Arrow presentations interesting, especially the one of the 69th Street area. The other three are Garrett Road, Sharon Hill, and Media. Regards, tassiebaz.

[@scottrobinson5223]

Thanks - just saw your whole collection. The street scenes are important and while I don't get back to the Ardmore area often, I can often compare in my mind "then and now." My dad worked for PRR so my brothers and I were able to use our company pass to ride the entire PRR suburban system "free" and through the PC era until we moved from the area in 1972. I had bought a Praktika 35MM camera from E. Germany probably around 1970 or so and I need to dig up the slides I shot. Again, thanks for putting all of these together.

[@francie18]

Wow! What a terrific video!

[@tassiebaz]

Hi francie18, Thanks for watching and for your kind words. I'm glad you enjoyed the presentation. I've got 4 more Red Arrow presentations (69th St., Garrett Rd, Media, and Sharon Hill) on KZbin and lots of other Philadelphia stuff. Please have a look if you get a moment. Regards, tassiebaz.

[@francie18]

@@tassiebaz Thank you, I definitely will have a look at those. I used to live in Upper Darby and this brings back some fond memories.

[@tassiebaz]

Hi @@francie18, I'm sure you'll see some sights from the "good old days" which I hope you will enjoy. Regards, tassiebaz.

[@MMendelG]

thanks, tassiebaz!

[@timberlago]

This is an excellent video! Im curious where I might be able to find a higher quality image of the map of the stops you showed early on in the video. Thanks!

[@tassiebaz]

Hi Benjamin, Thanks for watching and for your kind words. I'm glad you enjoyed the video and appreciate you taking the time to let me know. Regarding your question about a higher quality image of the map, it was scanned from a timetable. I looked on the Internet but couldn't find such an image anywhere. I can produce a higher quality image but can't attach that file to this reply. What I just did was stop my video at the map and copy it to my clipboard using print screen (prt sc). I then opened a Word document and copied the image into Word, cropped it and enlarged it producing a higher quality image. You can then save it as a file. I saved it as a pdf. I hope this explanation suits your needs. If not, let me know and I'll see if there is another solution. Cheers, tassiebaz. 😃🚋 kzbin.infogaming/emoji/7ff574f2/emoji_u1f603.png

[@MMendelG]

At 2:04: Look at the short lived P&W articulated consist. I remember those (used to go to Penfield and watch them come through). I think that they had been bought from a light rail line in Chicago.

[@tassiebaz]

Hi MMendelG, Thanks for watching and for your comment. Those trains were "Electroliners", a pair of streamlined four-coach electric multiple unit interurban passenger train sets operated by the Chicago North Shore and Milwaukee Railroad between Chicago, Illinois, and Milwaukee, Wisconsin. They were built by St. Louis Car Company in 1941. After the North Shore ceased operations in 1963, the sets were sold to the Philadelphia Suburban Transportation Company and renamed Liberty Liners. They were retired in 1978. For more pictures of these and the P&W Bullets and Strafford Cars, have a look at my "Philadelphia - Norristown High Speed Line - the P&W" at kzbin.info/www/bejne/oJyUgYmKjsd3o7s.

[@michaelgornish5551]

BTW: I found an add-on for Microsoft's old Train Simulator that included several of the Red Arrow trolley lines, but I haven't been successful in getting it to work...Since it is over 15 years old, and the program is no longer supported, the simulation is probably not very sophisticated, but I guess I just wanted to try to recreate it. Your clips of Philly area rapid transit are just wonderful. Happy Holidays.

[@tassiebaz]

Hi Michael, Thanks for your comment. I am really happy to be able to share my pictures with people who have a similar interest. All the best for the holidays. Regards, tassiebaz.

[@losh330]

At least the 101 and 102 are still around.

[@tassiebaz]

Hi Lucian, Yes, I guess we're lucky they didn't want to widen Garrett Rd. like they did West Chester Pike. Don't forget other miracles like Route 15. Regards, tassiebaz.

[@josephheston9238]

I was only a newborn baby when the line was abandoned.

[@Martin98Baumann]

Very good video. Can you clarify the caption at 16:19 ? Does it mean no cars reached Ardmore on the last day?

[@tassiebaz]

Hi Martin98Baumann, Thanks for watching and for the kind words in your comment. There was a huge snowstorm (I think 24 Dec 1966) a few days before the final trip (29 Dec 1966). After the snowstorm, the trolley only ran to County Line and never got to Ardmore for the last few days. Stay well. Cheers, tassiebaz.

[@albertcarello7328]

They should bring this line back.

[@tassiebaz]

Hi Albert, They never should have abandoned it. Cheers, tassiebaz.

[@albertcarello7328]

@@tassiebaz Hopefully they'll consider bringing back this line. I sure hope they do

[@tassiebaz]

@@albertcarello7328 Hi, I would love to see the line come back. First of all, remember this is SEPTA and Philadelphia we are talking about and they have not been particularly progressive when it comes to this kind of thing. Next, the middle lanes of West Chester Pike would have to be restored to rail operation, and I don't know if the state would be keen to do that. However, miracles do happen, so we'll keep our fingers crossed. Cheers, tassiebaz.

[@albertcarello7328]

@@tassiebaz With Biden wanting to fund rail transportation perhaps maybe that could be considered. Make the middle lanes for the trolleys and the roadway wider from the outer edges. These Kawasaki Trolleys are high tech and would provide swift transportation from West Chester to 69th Street. Also it would be great to have the Ardmore Line restored if possible.

[@tassiebaz]

@@albertcarello7328 Hi. We'll keep hoping!!! Cheers, tassiebaz.

[@RedArrow73]

1:04 - "...rrrRIGHT, Ardmore!!"

[@imanacer]

Could someone tell me the route the Ardmore trolley took once it was reaching Ardmore? Looking at a modern map, I can trace the old route using the SEPTA road. From what I can tell, it went Lippincott, then Sheldon, then Cricket to Rt. 30. Beyond that I can't trace it. Where was the end? Or did it loop around at retrace its route? If it looped, where did it do this? Be as detailed as you like, I'm very interested in that end of the line. Thanks for any information.

[@tassiebaz]

Hi imanacer, Thanks for watching and for your comment. From all the historical information I have seen, the line never went beyond the terminal at Ardmore, and never crossed Lancaster Avenue (Rt. 30) there. When the line opened in 1902, the original end of the line was at Sheldon Lane and Elm Avenue, a bit short of its final terminal. The line was extended to the Ardmore terminal in 1905. The cars were double-ended, so they just went into the Ardmore terminal, reversed ends, and went out the same way they came in. There was some interest in extending the line further, but it never happened. Stops between Ardmore Junction and Ardmore included Belmont Ave, County Line, Spring Ave., and Athens Ave. Hope this helps. Regards, tassiebaz.

[@imanacer]

Thank you!

[@onestepbeyond7240]

Anyone notice the hearse waiting & crossing ? 2:55

[@RedArrow73]

# 73 is now undergoing its 2nd restoration at PTM, Washington, PA. Donate if you can.

[@tassiebaz]

Hi RedArrow73, Thanks for watching and for the update. Stay well. Cheers, tassiebaz.

[@AABB-pc4mo]

👍

[@tassiebaz]

Hi AA BB, Glad you liked it. Cheers, tassiebaz.