The Red Arrow’s West Chester Pike Trolley in Broomall: 1895–1954
By Sam Pickard
While steam railroads had spurred the development of suburban towns throughout much of the 19th century, by the time the Newtown Square Branch of the Pennsylvania Railroad was opened through Marple Township in 1895, it was already challenged by a faster and cheaper mode of transportation to Philadelphia—the interurban electric trolley along West Chester Pike. The trolley, which served Marple township for more than half a century, was much more impactful on the township’s early suburban development than the railroad. Because of this, it has endured as a memory in Broomall’s collective consciousness more than half a century after it was replaced by the Route 104 bus.
The Trolley Comes to Town, 1894–1898
The West Chester trolley line was the brainchild of John N. M. Shimer, a Philadelphia scrap dealer who had grown up at Castle Rock on the border between Newtown and Edgemont townships.[1] In 1859, the Delaware County Passenger Rail Road had established a horsecar line from 38th and Market streets in West Philadelphia out to Newtown Square. The line was a financial failure and was acquired by the Philadelphia & West Chester Turnpike Road Company, a private company which operated what is now West Chester Pike as a toll road. The failed horsecar was torn up in the late 1860s.[2] Shimer had a dream of resurrecting the horsecar line from his childhood as a modern electric trolley connecting West Philadelphia with Newtown Square.[3]
Shimer and several associates quietly began purchasing stock in the struggling turnpike company during the late 1880s, obtained favorable court rulings allowing them to construct a trolley line, and convinced the influential Sellers family, who held a large amount of turnpike stock, to back his plan.[4] In 1894, Shimer laid track west of 63rd Street and at Llanerch, hoping to preempt the mighty Pennsylvania Railroad, which was beginning the construction of what would become its Cardington and Newtown Square branches. The railroad attempted to block this construction, and the tense standoff between Shimer’s men and the railroaders became known as the “Battle of Llanerch Junction” in the press and is immortalized in a mural at the intersection of West Chester Pike and Darby Road.[5]
The line was eventually built, and the Philadelphia & West Chester Traction Company was incorporated in 1895 to electrify and operate the trolley line.[6] William Wharton Jr. & Co. were contracted to construct a trolley line from 63rd Street to Castle Rock and a carbarn (to house the trolleys) and a powerhouse to generate electricity were built at Llanerch.[7] In August 1895, while waiting on permission from the state to hang catenary wire to power electric trolleys, steam-powered trolleys began running on the route.[8] Transit historian Ronald DeGraw described the steam engines as “noisy and awkward and clumsy and hot,” noting that “they frightened horses and had trouble climbing the hills.”[9] The trip took an hour and 15 minutes—that is when they were functioning properly. Few people rode them and the line was incurring massive financial losses waiting for permission for electric trolleys.[10] Finally, on May 6, 1896, electric trolleys began running between 63rd Street and Newtown Square, making the trip in less than 40 minutes.[11] In 1898, the trolley was extended from Newtown Square to West Chester, with the first trolleys reaching that borough on December 17, 1898.[12]
The Pennsylvania Railroad, which operated steam-powered trains to Newtown Square, had been right to fear the trolley. In just 12 years, the electric trolleys, which ran more frequently and had a cheaper fare, rendered passenger service on the railroad’s Newtown Square Branch unprofitable, and it was permanently ended.[13]
Broomall Grove and Castle Rock Park, 1896–1905
Almost all interurban trolley lines soon boasted attractions far out along their routes, and often these attractions were most easily reached by the trolley. Usually constructed by the trolley companies themselves, these parks were intended as built-in traffic feeders, giving passengers a reason to ride the trolleys out into the undeveloped countryside. Many notable amusement parks got their start in this way, including Cedar Point in Ohio, Clementon Park in New Jersey, and Willow Grove Park north of Philadelphia.[14] The Philadelphia & Western Railway (now SEPTA’s Norristown High Speed Line) even opened the short-lived Beechwood Amusement Park in Haverford Township.[15]
The Philadelphia & West Chester Traction Company was not to be left out in operating an “amusement park.” Indeed, Shimer had purchased 38 acres of land at Castle Rock in April 1895—years before the trolley line would reach that area.[16] In the interim, the trolley company rented a tract of land called Broomall Grove, located on the south side of West Chester Pike in Marple Township as a temporary amusement ground or “picnic woods.”[17] Little has been written about Broomall Grove, though the “beautiful piece of woodland and meadow,”[18] had “ancient trees,”[19] which the trolley company augmented with “a dancing pavilion [and] refreshment stands.”[20] Broomall Grove appears to have opened in May 1896 and by August there was music provided by an orchestra and dances held every evening except Sunday and Monday.[21] By 1897 multiple dances were being held a day and bicycle races were organized, with special trolleys ferrying participants and observers to Broomall Grove.[22]
In summer 1898, Broomall Grove did not open until the end of June, however, and dances were only held three days a week.[23] Marple resident William Lewis filed an application for a hotel license that year so he could sell liquor at Broomall Grove, but withdrew his application in December 1898.[24] It’s possible that Lewis had received word that the lease would not be renewed: Castle Rock Park was to open on Memorial Day 1899. This larger park featured the dances and refreshment pavilions of Broomall Grove, but also a steam-powered merry-go-round, shooting range, and swings.[25] Unfortunately, Castle Rock was too small, too undeveloped, and too remote to compete with more substantial amusement parks in the long term and closed after the 1905 season.[26]
Suburban Development and Freight Service
The West Chester Pike trolley is perhaps most significant for spurring suburban development in northern Delaware County, particularly along the sections of West Chester Pike east of Darby Creek. In Marple, the first subdivisions of note did not appear until spring 1906, when lots in Broomall Park—on the north side of West Chester Pike west of Sproul Road—became available for purchase.[27] Other subdivisions, such as Marple Heights/Larchmont and Broomall Grove, eventually followed in the 1910s, but real estate atlases indicate that most of these tracts did not see the large-scale, dense residential development that characterized Upper Darby and Haverford during this era.[28]
In addition to transporting passengers, the Philadelphia & West Chester Traction Company ran trolleys carrying mail and freight. As early as January 1897, a milk trolley would run from near West Chester into 63rd and Market streets in West Philadelphia six days of the week, carrying milk cans from farmers along the route. At 63rd Street, these milk cans would be loaded onto the wagons or trucks of dairy companies. Wooden platforms were built by farmers along the trolley tracks and at Newtown Square and Castle Rock, there were enough farmers that the traction company constructed sidings for the trolleys to specially load the milk without interrupting regular traffic. In 1911, the company began running other freight trolleys, with Broomall among the freight stops. Freight traffic hit a high point in 1917, but the introduction of trucking quickly killed both milk and general freight along the trolley lines, with the service ending in early 1925.[29]
The Red Arrow and the End of the Line, 1930s–1954
The increase of automobiles and trucks not only threatened the trolley’s freight business, but the entirety of the trolley system itself. The interurban trolley boom of the early 1900s peaked in 1916. While there are many reasons for the collapse of interurbans, most could be summarized as there were too many trolley lines (many with not enough traffic to support themselves), and each cost too much to operate. With the continued improvements of highways, the rapid increase in private car and truck ownership, and the rise of buses, most interurban trolley companies could not compete. A notable decline occurred during the boom times of the 1920s, which was followed by a complete collapse during the economic crisis of the Great Depression during the 1930s. There were 15,470 miles of interurban trolley rotes in the United States in 1918. Twenty years later, there were only 4,613 route miles.[30]
The Philadelphia & West Chester Traction Company was in many ways, an exception to the rule. Cars and buses stole riders in the 1920s, and like other trolley companies, the Great Depression hit hard. Smart management, luck, and revenues from the traction company’s bus subsidiary, Aronimink Transportation Company, helped keep them afloat, however. In 1936, a merger of several companies under Philadelphia & West Chester Traction Company’s control led to the formation of the new Philadelphia Suburban Transportation Company. The following year, the well-known “Red Arrow Lines,” branding was introduced.[31]
In the 1950s, Red Arrow sought to take advantage of the post-World War II development boom in Delaware County, but on their West Chester line, they had aging trolleys, too few employees, and only a single-track trolley line past Westgate Hills in Havertown. Highway department plans to widen West Chester Pike forced Red Arrow’s hand, and instead of rebuilding the line with double tracks, they agreed to end trolley service west of Westgate Hills and substitute busses.[32]
The last regularly schedule trolley to service Marple Township completed its run on Thursday, June 3, 1954. The following day, busses replaced the trolleys. On Sunday, June 6, two special excursions were run from Upper Darby to West Chester, giving railfans and nostalgic commuters one last glimpse at a trolley speeding alongside West Chester Pike through Broomall.[33]
For a more complete history of the Red Arrow Lines and the West Chester Pike trolley, I recommend Ronald DeGraw’s books The Red Arrow and Red Arrow: The First Hundred Years 1848-1948.
[1] Ronald DeGraw, The Red Arrow: A History of One of the Most Successful Suburban Transit Companies in the World (Haverford, Pennsylvania: Haverford Press, 1972), 23.
[2] DeGraw, The Red Arrow, 12–19.
[3] DeGraw, The Red Arrow, 23.
[4] DeGraw, The Red Arrow, 23–24.
[5] Ronald DeGraw, Red Arrow: The First Hundred Years 1848–1948 (Glendale, California: Interurban Press, 1985), 30–35.
[6] DeGraw, The First Hundred Years, 33.
[7] DeGraw, The First Hundred Years, 33–35.
[8] DeGraw, The First Hundred Years, 35.
[9] DeGraw, The First Hundred Years, 35–36.
[10] DeGraw, The First Hundred Years, 36.
[11] DeGraw, The First Hundred Years, 38.
[12] DeGraw, The First Hundred Years, 42.
[13] DeGraw, The First Hundred Years, 41.
[14] H. Roger Grant, Electric Interurbans and the American People (Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press 2016), 100–101; Danielle L. Burrows, Images of America: Clementon (Charleston, South Carolina: Arcadia Publishing, 2007), 23–27; Old York Road Historical Society, Images of America: Willow Grove Park (Charleston, South Carolina: Arcadia Publishing, 2005), 7–8.
[15] Ronald DeGraw, Pig & Whistle: The Story of the Philadelphia & Western Railway (Chicago, Illinois: Central Electric Railfans’ Association, 2007), 45–48.
[16] DeGraw, The First Hundred Years, 89.
[17] S. F. Hotchkin, Rural Pennsylvania: In the Vicinity of Philadelphia (Philadelphia: George W. Jacobs & Co., 1897), 365.
[18] “Cheap Car Fares,” Times (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania), 31 May 1896, 2.
[19] Hotchkin, Rural Pennsylvania, 365.
[20] DeGraw, The First Hundred Years, 89.
[21] DeGraw, The First Hundred Years, 89; “A Ride Through Delaware County,” Times, 9 August 1896, 7.
[22] “Beautiful Suburban Trolley Ride,” Philadelphia Inquirer (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania), 20 June 1897, 11; “West Chester Pike Road Race,” Times, 3 July 1897, 8; “Bicycle Road Race,” Philadelphia Inquirer, 4 July 1897, 8.
[23] “Broomall Grove Park,” advertisement, Philadelphia Inquirer, 28 June 1898, 7.
[24] “Withdrew the Application,” Chester Times (Chester, Pennsylvania), 6 December 1898, 3.
[25] DeGraw, The First Hundred Years, 89–90; “Now They Belong to History,” Red Arrow Lines News 2(6), September 1945:4.
[26] DeGraw, The First Hundred Years, 89–90, 94.
[27] “Modernizing a Quaint Town,” Philadelphia Inquirer, 29 April 1906, section 3, 1.
[28] Ellis Kiser and J. M. Lathrop, Atlas of Delaware County, East of Ridley Creek (Philadelphia: A. H. Mueller, 1909), 1–2, 30; Frank H. M. Klinge, Atlas of Delaware County, volume one (Lansdale, Pennsylvania: Frank H. M. Klinge, 1929), plates 1–2, 7–8, 34.
[29] DeGraw, The First Hundred Years, 125–129, 133, 136.
[30] Grant, Electric Interurbans, 127.
[31] DeGraw, The First Hundred Years, 139, 154, 156–158.
[32] DeGraw, The Red Arrow, 303, 306–307.
[33] “Last Trolley Run To West Chester,” Philadelphia Inquirer, 2 June 1954, 21; “Bus-to-Trolley Switch Encounters Minor Jams,” Philadelphia Inquirer, 5 June 1954, 13.
Comment Great thorough history, as always!
Thanks, Doug!