{"id":2834,"date":"2023-06-12T01:30:54","date_gmt":"2023-06-12T01:30:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/redesign\/phillys-red-artow\/"},"modified":"2023-06-12T01:30:54","modified_gmt":"2023-06-12T01:30:54","slug":"phillys-red-artow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/redesign\/phillys-red-artow\/","title":{"rendered":"Philly’s Red Artow"},"content":{"rendered":"

Did You Spot It?<\/span><\/p>\n

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Either the trolleys are rather small or the track guage is much bigger than “standard. It is, if course, the latter. The trolley rails are 5 feet 2 1\/4 inches<\/span> apart. In the Republic of Ireland the indigenous gauge is 5 feet 3 inches and traditional tracks in Spain are 5 feet 5 and 21\/32 inches. Standard gauge world-wide is 4 feet 8 1\/2 inches.<\/div>\n
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Weirdly, the line to feature in today’s blog has a gauge of 5 feet 2 1\/2 inches<\/span>, 1\/4 inch wider than the green trolleys of which above was an example!\n
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It all kicks off at the 69th Street Transportation Center<\/span>, which the UK might call an interchange<\/span>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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There is.lots of it.<\/div>\n
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This is NOT in the city centre. The location is shown on this Google Earth view …\n
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… marker pin top left above. The city centre lies between the two rivers to the east.<\/p>\n

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This is roughly where Mr Penn developed his embryo city in 1682. It has changed a bit since then!<\/p>\n

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We will return to the 69th Street Transportation Center in due course, but, for the moment we will concentrate on one little bit.<\/p>\n

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This is the turning loop for trolley lines 101 and 102.<\/p>\n

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There used to be a 103 and 104.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p><\/div>\n

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The 104 ran mainly on central reservation along the West Chester “pike<\/span>” (turnpike historically) …\n
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It looks very old-fashioned because it was.<\/p>\n

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The “sweeper” car (used to clear snow from the rails) …<\/p>\n

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… was built in 1922.\u00a0<\/p><\/div>\n

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When the main road was widened the trolleys got the push and bus route 104 replaced them.<\/div>\n
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In places, the Ardmore Line 103 looked almost rural.\n
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After closure, part of the line became the Ardmore Busway …<\/p>\n

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… still providing reserved track between two estate riads for part of replacement route 103. Just beyond the bridges (below) is Ardmore Junction former trolley station.<\/p>\n

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It never was a junction, in the sense that tracks did not diverge or merge.<\/p><\/div>\n

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But the upper level carried another line which will appear later in this series of blogs.<\/p>\n

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Passengers could junct even if the tracks didn’t!<\/div>\n
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The 103 and 104 expired in the mid 1960s, but 101 and 102 remain, departing from the Transportation Center …<\/p>\n

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… as do buses 103 and 104, seen on the right.<\/p>\n

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101 and 103 trolleys are shown BROWN<\/span>, 103 and 104 buses are RED<\/span>.<\/p><\/div>\n

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Until 1981 the two remaining lines remained almost as a working museum with stock dating from immediately pre WW2 to the mid 1940s.\n
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The whole ambience if the line is of a country tram service round which the town expanded.\u00a0<\/p><\/div>\n

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This is the minimalist Media terminus of line 101.\n
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There is a shelter on the kerbside!<\/p><\/div>\n

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At Sharon Hill, the 102 terminus, the line calls at Mc Dade Boulevard …\n
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… then there is a short stretch of reserved track – single line, note …<\/p>\n

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… to the terminus, end on to a busy road.<\/p>\n

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There is a bus stop adjacent; but both lines 101 and 102 are similarly quaint.<\/p><\/div>\n

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But in 1981 new rolling stock arrived.\n
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But it is still VERY quaint. The Red Arrow name …<\/p>\n

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… was consigned to history although one of the 1981 new stock appeared ceremonially in red.<\/p>\n

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Yep, all very quaint; this one was from 1917 …<\/p>\n

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… and these were called Queen Marys!<\/p><\/div>\n

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Hmm, Southdown’s had a nicer livery!\n
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And today there is definitely a quaint frequency.<\/p>\n

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A modest half hourly headway is operated Monday to Saturday …<\/p>\n

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…and hourly on Sundays. 102 is similar.<\/p><\/div>\n

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Much more like the rural line it used to be and certainly not what we might expect from a modern big-city tram service.<\/div>\n
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Tomorrow we change from the 101 and 102 to a train at 69th Street Transportation Centre. We will explore the Philadelphia El!<\/div>\n
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Marquee Canvas Replaced<\/span>\n
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The cafe owner must have been a railway fan.\u00a0 His choice design of fencing is classic Midland Railway!<\/p>\n

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Distinctively diagonal!<\/p><\/div>\n

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\u00a0Next Philadelphia Transportation blog : Tues 13th June\u00a0<\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Did You Spot It? Either the trolleys are rather small or the track guage is much bigger than “standard. It is, if course, the latter. The trolley rails are 5 feet 2 1\/4 inches apart. In the Republic of Ireland the indigenous gauge is 5 feet 3 inches and traditional tracks in Spain are 5 feet 5 and 21\/32 inches.…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":2835,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[60],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2834","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-camcab"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/redesign\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2834","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/redesign\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/redesign\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/redesign\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2834"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/redesign\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2834\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/redesign\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2835"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/redesign\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2834"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/redesign\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2834"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/redesign\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2834"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}