The Philadelphia and Western Railroad was an interurban streetcar company west of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. One of its lines is now SEPTA's Norristown High Speed Line; the other has been abandoned. Part of the abandoned line is now the P&W Trail, a multi-use path.

Lines

The current line runs from 69th Street Terminal just west of the Philadelphia city line, west and north to Norristown, where the Lehigh Valley Transit Company 's Liberty Bell High Speed Line continued to Allentown. The Norristown line splits from the original main line at Villanova ; the main line went west to a terminus just east of Sugartown Road in Wayne, with a later extension to Strafford . The extension provided a transfer to the PRR Strafford station and a transfer track for freight trains.

The P&W Trail uses the Strafford Branch from Radnor-Chester Road to Old Sugartown Road.

Interstate Commerce Commission valuation reports indicate that the railroad had interchange connections to the Pennsylvania Railroad at Millbourne Mills , Strafford and Swedeland .

History

The Philadelphia and Western Railway was incorporated in 1902, and was originally planned as the eastern link of a transcontinental extension of the Wabash Railroad.[1] The first train ran from 69th Street to Strafford on May 22, 1907. A planned extension to Parkesburg was officially abandoned on March 22, 1912; an alternate extension to the PRR main line in Strafford opened on October 11, 1911.

The company was reorganized as the Philadelphia and Western Railroad in 1946. It was sold to the Philadelphia Suburban Transportation Company in 1951 or 1954; the PSTC was later renamed to Red Arrow Lines , and was eventually merged into SEPTA.

The last train ran on the Strafford Branch on March 23, 1956. Trains still run on the Norristown Branch. Ground was broken for the P&W Trail on June 10, 2004, and it opened in January 2005.

External links

• The P&W in Wayne

References

• Philadelphia and West Chester Turnpike Road Company stock certificate