York (Pa.) Railways in final days
Trolley car No. 163 runs in York, Pa., close to the end of service in 1939. Today, it's operating at the Rockhill Trolley Museum in Huntingdon County in southcentral Pennsylvania (see photo below.) A Pennsylvania trolley enthusiast is searching for the whereabouts of car No. 328, believed to the in the East Berlin area, on border of York and Adams counties. Also of interest: Trolley ran both ways between Manchester and Mount Wolf and 'Teapot Dome' back in York's Continental Square: 'It's the historical significance of it' and Trolleys helped make York's Avenues sought-after locale.
Let's get some numbers right.
Trolley numbers, that is.
Old York Railways Trolley No. 163 has been converted from a mud-caked cottage near Strinestown into a fully operational excursion car at Rockhill Trolley Museum, not far from Raystown Lake.
Trolley No. 123 has been partially restored and on display at the Agricultural and Industrial Museum in York for a decade. That trolley sat at Brookside Park in Dover Township after it was purchased by the township several years before from former Supervisor Merle Bolton... .
A Rockhill Trolley Museum volunteer prepares to change directions at the end of the line in at the Huntingdon County railway. York No 163 looks good here. Compare that with the image found in this post.
Bolton got the trolley when he purchased a country store on Bull Road in the township, according to the York Daily Record (11/4/93).
Now comes a Rockhill volunteer, Allentown's Joel Salomon, looking for York Railways trolley No. 328:
He e-maileda query, which appears here in edited form:
Years ago one of our long time members that had lived in York, took me to see a former York Railways trolley car body, I believe, in the area of East Berlin. This car body was former York Railways trolley 328. Our restored York trolley is numbered 163. Trolley 328 was similar to our trolley in many ways, built by the same builder (Brill in Philadelphia) and was known as a curvedside trolley. I saw this trolley 328 in 1988 and have often wondered if the car body still exists.
I would be very interested to know if this car is still surviving. The car was in use as a house in 1988, as many trolleys were made in to when their actual trolley days were over. Our trolley 163 was used as a summer home near Strinestown and is now a fully restored electric trolley.I'd also be interested in knowing of any other York Railway trolley cars that still exist that readers in York may know about hidden away on back country roads. Please contact the museum through our website at www.rockhilltrolley.org.
If anyone is aware of the whereabouts of trolley No. 328, please let Joel know and comment below, too.
Also of interest:
- All York Town Square posts from the start.
- All trolley-related posts from the start.
Top photo courtesy Rockhill Trolley Museum; bottom photo, York Daily Record/Sunday News.
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