Schuylkill Valley Transit



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Norristown's service was provided by two systems: the Schuylkill Valley Transit Company, which ended trolley service in 1933, and the Lehigh Valley Transit Company, whose Liberty Bell Route served the borough from 1912 through 1951.

The Schuylkill Valley Transit Company's system was built in the 1890's, and provided frequent streetcar service on several lines in the borough. Suburban trolley service also ran from Norristown to several surrounding communities including Bridgeport, Collegeville, Plymouth Meeting, and Conshohocken. In towns, the rails ran in the middle of the streets, with the density of service on Main Street in Norristown requiring two sets of rails. Between towns the trolleys ran on single track, on the shoulder of the road. When the land adjacent to the tracks was developed, a small, parallel road was built to access the new properties. These access roads are still visible around Norristown:


The center of operations for the Schuylkill Valley trolley system was Riverside car barn, located on West Main Street at Montgomery Avenue, in West Norriton Township. After the trolley system was abandoned in 1933, this large car barn, with its brick walls and wood-truss roof, was used as a pretzel factory. It was destroyed in a spectacular blaze on July 9, 1944. The foundations of the car barn and a stone wall along the car yard are still visible along Montgomery Avenue. Currently, a taxi garage occupies the front part of the property.

The trolleys used on this system were typical city/suburban cars. Because the Schuylkill Valley system and the Reading Transit Company were owned by the same utility company, the trolleys were often swapped between Norristown and Reading. The trolley used in the title graphic was built by Brill in 1902; others were purchased in 1912 through 1918. The massive express trolleys that ran from Chestnut Hill to Boyertown were large enough to be railroad passenger cars. Until 1926, special freight trolleys operated along Main Street, through to Reading. Also in the 1920's, small, second-hand Birney cars were acquired.

When the cash-starved SVT sold off its newer Birney cars in 1930, the older trolleys came back into regular use. Some of the old streetcars were given a bright new paint job, consisting of light grey with a large red diamond on the ends and sides. New paint could not stem the tide of riders leaving the system, though. The last day for service was on September 9, 1933, the trolleys falling victim to the newly paved concrete state highways, and the Depression.


A sunny Saturday morning in the spring of 1932 finds Schuylkill Valley no. 119 headed eastbound on Ridge Pike in Trooper, PA, returning from Collegeville. The 1902 Brill suburban car is signed for Main & Ford Streets, Norristown. When this photo was made, suburban sprawl hadn't yet reached Lower Providence Township. Ridge Pike was a two-lane highway through mostly undeveloped countryside. Today this location is congested with traffic, and lined with fast-food restaurants and used car lots.
SVT no. 119 at Trooper on May 14, 1932


This Birney car, located along Route 73 in Skippack, is painted for the Reading Transit Company. This was the company that controlled the Schuylkill Valley Transit system, and this trolley may have operated in Norristown. The small Birneys were popular with marginal systems, as they were easily operated by one man (without a conductor) and because their light weight saved power. As an aside, there was a trolley through Skippack, but this car was not part of that independent transit line. Called the Montgomery County Rapid Transit Company, its "wogglebugs" connected Harleysville and Trooper until 1925.
October 1996 photo by Mike Szilagyi


William H. Watts II snapped this photo of SVT no. 117 at Riverside car barn on West Main Street on December 12, 1931. That was the last day for trolley service between Norristown and Chestnut Hill. The trolleys would continue to run to Collegeville for two more years. (The houses across the street still stand, between a 7-11 and a dry cleaner on Main Street.)


The last day for local trolley service in Norristown was September 9, 1933. Here is the last car, at Riverside car barn on West Main Street. Many of the SVT trolleys found their way to Reading, where some would continue to run until after World War 2. (Lehigh Valley Transit Company trolleys continued running on Airy and Markley Streets in the borough until 1951.)


Although it hasn't seen trolley service in many years, the trolley right-of-way along Sandy Hill Road in Plymouth Township is still visible. When the state rebuilt the road with concrete in 1929, the road was designed around the trolley tracks. This was a very common arrangement for local trolley lines, with trolleys travelling both directions on a single track, on the same side of the road. This photo looks west, toward Norristown, at Plymouth Boulevard.
October 1996 photo by Mike Szilagyi


The descendent of SVT, the Schuylkill Valley Lines, operated buses in and around Norristown until bought out by the regional transit authority, SEPTA, in the mid-1970's. SEPTA inherited a small fleet of short "old look" GM buses from the Schuylkill Valley Lines, and continued to operate them into the early 80's, alongside ex-Red Arrow Lines buses. The rollsign in this photo shows that the new 90-series routes are in use, and a SEPTA Frontier decal has been slapped on the side of the coach, above the front wheel.
Ex-Schuylkill Valley 784 on Swede Street in front of the Montgomery County Court House on June 16, 1977. Mike Szilagyi photo.


Just as the Schuylkill Valley Transit Company did half a century earlier, SEPTA applied a bold paint scheme to old equipment in an effort to increase visibility and ridership. Here an old-look GM coach wears the new paint scheme of Frontier Division. No other coaches were so painted. Actually this coach is not as old as it looked; GM built coaches based on this 1940 design through the 1960's. An all-time roster of these short "last of the old-looks" is available at The Ohio Museum of Transportation.
This particular coach was built in 1964 for Burlington (Vermont) Rapid Transit Co., and was acquired by the Schuylkill Valley Lines in 1966.
Ex-BRTCo. ex-Schuylkill Valley 1964 GM TDH3501 at Frontier Division depot on Trooper Road, W. Norriton, on May 27, 1977. Mike Szilagyi photo.


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