I have been intrigued with the trolley freight, although I have no personal memory of the service. This photo from March of 1952 shows the end of that era, with a freight trolley being loaded on a flatbed rail car, for a short run to Bethlehem Steel to be scrapped. Within a year there would be no more trolley service of any kind in Allentown. Within two decades many of the businesses serviced by the trolley freight would be gone. In another decade most of the railroad tracks would also have vanished.
reprinted from December of 2013
Mike, edify us further. What type of business would have been served by the trolly freight. Was this the Amazon truck of its day?
ReplyDeleteThat quality of life vanished over time too.
ReplyDeleteanon@8:06: They operated a freight depot/warehouse along the river, just north of A&B. I'm not familiar with who their clients were. The Kutztown/Reading Trolley operated going west of Allentown. Their depot became Daddona's property by Union Terrace.
ReplyDeleteLVT had freight service throughout their system and also to Philadelphia over the Liberty Bell route. The Philadelphia service originally traveled the original route to Chestnut Hill, where they had a transfer agreement with the Philadelphia city trolley system. After the 1912 the freight was hauled to Upper Darby, where the transfer was made at the 72nd freight depot with local trolleys and trucks. The freight service was less than carload and parcels, similar to today's UPS and FEDEX. Adams Freight Co. handled the distribution with trucks after the freight was unloaded from the trolleys at the LVT freight depot on Front St.
ReplyDeleteanon@9:51:Thank you, info appreciated.
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