The "Trying To Remember Riding The Trolley" Story

Foreword:  Talking with my friend Jere about the trolleys that ran in the city of Lancaster.  I really don't remember ever seeing a trolley car or even the tracks along the streets of the city of Lancaster.  Jere remembers riding on them from time to time until the tracks were finally removed from all the streets in and around Lancaster.  Now, we are only a month difference in age with me being his junior, but I still can't believe I don't remember something as momentous as riding the trolley as a young boy.  We lived a block away from each other while growing up, but never really knew each other until we entered first grade together in 1950.  My story today will give you a look at trolley service in Lancaster County.

It was an ordinary day.  Reading about the stagecoach route that took visitors between the county seat of Lancaster to nearby Millersville.  Up until 1874, the 4.5 miles between the two locations was accomplished by riding the horse drawn stagecoach from downtown Lancaster to Millersville Normal School.  It was the only way for students at Millersville to get back to the city of Lancaster.  Then in 1874 a horse-drawn streetcar, or trolley, service began between these two terminals.  In fact, special arrangements were made at the beginning and end of the school year by adding a baggage car so students could transport their luggage.  

Conductors wait for passengers at South George and
West Frederick in Millersville. Circa 1908. Electirfied line.

The trolley would leave from the Brunswick Hotel in downtown Lancaster and stop at the corner of South George and West Frederick Streets in Millersville.  The trolley cars were stored, serviced and painted a few blocks away on Frederick Street at the trolley car barn.  That building still stands today.  The ride took about 30 minutes.  

Trolleys were stored in this building in Millersville.

In 1891 the line was finally electrified.  Then in 1899 the Conestoga Traction Company, or CTC, began operating throughout the county.  At the peak of its service in 1913, forty trolleys ran through the city of Lancaster while serving 12 million passengers yearly.  Four years later there were 38 different trolley companies that served southeastern Pennsylvania.  The CTC used downtown Lancaster as the hub of seven main routes that traveled throughout the county.  The trolleys were by this time the size of a city bus that traveled to surrounding towns and farm villages using a hub and spoke approach.  More lines were added by building them or buying existing lines from competitors.  By 1908 locations such as Columbia, Strasburg, Adamstown, Blue Ball, Leaman Place and Elizabethtown were all accessible by trolley.  

The trolley routes in Lancaster County.

Eventually the trolley ran through Amish farm country to Coatesville, Quarryville, Pequea, Manheim, Lititz, Ephrara and Terre Hill.  The trolley ran on tracks located along the side of the road where automo- biles ran.  The CTC transported human traffic as well as freight, milk and produce on its many routes.  Special trolley cars, known as "combines" were built to carry passengers and freight together.  One of the most popular trolley lines was the Rocky Springs Park line that carried patrons to the amusement park to the south of the city of Lancaster.  

The trolley station at Rocky Springs Park.

The Rawlinsville line ran only ten days a year to transport people to the annual Christian themed Rawlinsville camp meetings.  There was a junction in Martic Forge, where my future wife lived, where the trolley line split off and climbed 552 feet over 1.25 miles as it left the gorges of the Pequea Creek on its way to Rawlinsville.  

The stone abutment outside of the Martic Forge.

A stone abutment outside of Martic Forge is one of the few remnants of the original trolley line.  The trolley tracks from years ago were much different than the railroad tracks of today.  The tracks were laid in a more "casual" nature which at times caused "seasickness" when the cars swayed back and forth.  The hilly areas of Lancaster County were famous for this effect.  The last car to run from Pequea to Millersville was on October 15, 1930.  

This is the trestle bridge at Martic Forge.  The road to
the left takes you to the house where my wife lived.

As buses began to replace trollies in Lancaster, the Conestoga Traction Company reorganized into the Conestoga Transpor- tation Company. Trolley lines all over the county began to stop service in the 1930s.  By the late 1940s the CTC had only one trolley line running; the line to Rocky Springs Park.  Then on September 21, 1947 that line closed also.  Most trolley cars were burned, but a few still exist in museums with one car that runs a short one-block route every Sunday in the summer in the town of Manheim.  I was 3 years old when the trolley was discontinued, thus my reason for not remembering ever riding on a trolley.  Now, for Jere, his memory is much better than mine...or he's just saying he remembers to get one up on me.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy

Cattle graze near the trolley tracks in Martic Forge in 1905.

The trolley traveling along the Pequea Creek.

Northbound trolley car loaded with summer passengers in 1907.

Trolley tracks are removed along King Street in downtown Lancaster
on July 14, 1947.  I was approaching my  third birthday at the time.

The trolley cars were pushed off the rails and burned.

This is a 1926 trolley car that is still in use in Manheim, Pennsylvania.
It runs a short one-block route every Sunday from June to September.
The station is located at 210 S. Charlotte Street in Manheim, PA.

This is one more view of the Square in Downtown Lancaster.  This shows buses,
and a trolley car right center.  Notice the traffic tower that is circled next to the
monument in the center of the Square.  It was there from 1929-1943 to help with traffic.