Reports indicate that many people refused to get off the cars at the end of the line, having enjoyed it so much they went for multiple rides. Apparently the electric cars were used one last time to give prospective bidders a tour of the line, just days before the end of the half-century long franchise agreement. I purchased one of the “ broadsides” used for the 1946 auction, and this fortunately had a nice map in it. Some of those dark spots that you see in the sky in some of the pictures are actually birds flying around in the park.Įven finding a decent map of the line was not easy. Most of the images you see here are taken from the original medium-format negatives.
There are some books about this line that do not have as many pictures as we have in this post. Pictures in color are even scarcer, as few people were using color film as early as 1946. Photos of the Fairmount Park trolley are scarce, so it took quite some time to find this many. There are today, of course, other scenic trolleys with open cars in service, but these are latter-day recreations such as in Lowell, Massachusetts. Hopefully, it will give you some of the flavor of what it must have been like to ride that long-gone scenic trolley. Today’s post is my “dossier” for your enjoyment.
Over the last three years or so, I have been collecting information about the Fairmount Park trolley operation in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Eventually, some of these dossiers were used to help write books about those same properties. Many years ago, old-time railfans would compile “ dossiers” or scrapbooks about their favorite lines. The Fairmount Park trolley, just prior to abandonment in 1946.
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