This was supposed to be a Men's Stuff post, about the working cars on the Lehigh Valley Transit Company. Doing research for the previous post on that company, I became fascinated that they operated a freight operation with the trolley cars. I started acquiring documentation and photographs about the working cars necessary for such an operation. They built power substations throughout the valley that generated electric, then converted the AC to DC for their use. The rolling stock required coal trolleys, wire stringing trolleys, snowplow trolleys, and etc. I will present these black and white photo treasures in future posts, because I got side tracked by a shenanigan; you know me. Lehigh Valley Transit operated out of the Fairview Carbarn, which Lanta still uses off of Lehigh Street. Despite a trolley fleet that covered the entire City, plus the remainder of the Valley (Bethlehem and Easton), all the Men's Stuff working cars, and trolley service to Philadelphia, Lanta now needs Bicentennial BallPark because they acquired five (5) new hybrid buses? Supposedly these five new buses require a special garage. Although the Fairview facility now handles 78 regular buses, the ballfield has to go because of the five new hybrids.
men only: enlarge freight trolley by clicking on image
above reprinted from May of 2010
UPDATE July 4, 2019: Attempting to save the ballpark, I organized a meeting at a center city church. Attending the meeting were two city council members and families involved with Bicentennial Park. Pawlowski and Lanta finally backed off, and the ballpark remains. Some people who attended that meeting became interested in Allentown politics, and attend council meetings to this day. Pawlowski's shenanigans have since caught up with him.
MM A number of the freight trolleys were converted 800 series heavy interurban trolleys that ran the Liberty Bell Route. It was one of these heavy interurban freight trolleys that destroyed the Liberty Bell 1003 trolley in 1942 due to the 1003 operators error. The primary freight station was along Front St. Until the building was demolished during the construction of America on Wheels one could still see the painted service on the brick wall.
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