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Street-railroads

 Subject
Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
Scope Note: Street railways; Street car lines; Streetcars; Tramways; Trolley cars; and Trolley buses.

Found in 12 Collections and/or Records:

Crossing site of the Wilmington and Northern Railroad and Peoples Railway photographs

 Collection
Accession: 1994-277
Abstract:

These photographs document the abandoned site where the Peoples Railway trolley car passed under the tracks of the Wilmington and Northern Railroad in Rockford Park near the Brandywine Creek. The Peoples Railway Company started in 1900 to bring visitors via electric trolley to the Brandywine Springs Amusement Park outside of Wlimington. The Wilmington and Northern Railroad Company was a branch of the Reading railroad system running in a north-south direction between Wilmington, Delware and Reading, Pennsylvania. Its object was to connect the various industrial plants located along Brandywine Creek with other railroads leading to the west and to the anthracite coal regions.

Dates: 1994

Daniel Cauffiel papers

 Collection
Accession: 1997
Abstract:

Daniel Cauffiel (1867-1930) was a merchant, real estate developer, and entrepreneur of Johnstown, Pennsylvania and Wilmington, Delaware. The Daniel Cauffiel papers depict his career as a small business entrepreneur and as an agent or employee of the du Pont family and in their various businesses.

Dates: 1867-1930

David H. Cope photographs

 Collection
Accession: 2001-242
Abstract:

David Harrison Cope (1913-2001) held a lifelong interest in railroads and, in particular, steam locomotives. He began collecting photographs at an early age. This collection primarily consists of black and white photographs and negatives of steam locomotives from a variety of railroads, but it includes some other rolling stock, station photos, related railroad items such as coaling stations and some street railroads, interurbans, and trolley images.

Dates: 1890-1988

Delaware Coach Company records

 Collection
Accession: 1685
Abstract:

The Delaware Coach Company was originally incorporated as the Wilmington & Philadelphia Traction Company on June 25, 1910, and operated an electric street railway line from Wilmington, Delaware, to Chester, Pennsylvania, and to Philadelphia. Throughout the early twentieth century, the company purchased stock in and leased numerous electric railway, transportation, and utilities companies in the Wilmington and Chester areas. In 1941, it changed its name to the Delaware Coach Company as trackless trolleys and buses replaced electric streetcars. Included are official documents and correspondence; personnel and financial records; public relations files; land deeds; legislation; labor agreements and contracts; equipment, fare, and route policies; ordinances; minute books, and other miscellaneous material created by Delaware Coach and its predecessor electric streetcar companies.

Dates: 1814-1973, bulk 1940-1966

General Manager's files, 1922-1973

 Series
Accession: 1685Identifier: 1685-I.
Scope and Content:

Consists of documents from the files of Charles W. Croft, who was made vice president and general manager of Delaware Coach Co. in 1963. The series is divided by company or organization into six subseries, and includes documents created by the American Transit Association (Subseries A), Delaware Bus Company (Subseries B), Delaware Coach Company (Subseries C), Delaware Electric Power Company (Subseries D), Greater Wilmington Transportation Authority (Subseries E), and the Southern Pennsylvania Bus Company (Subseries F). The records range from the 1920s to the early 1970s and focus on bus and trolley coach operations rather than streetcar operations. They include various official documentation and correspondence regarding equipment purchases, fare and route changes, schedules, bus services, advertising, labor agreements, employee newsletters and photographs, reports to regulatory commissions, transit reports and studies, statistical data, financial information, promotions, and corporate papers such as by-laws and charters.

Note that the companies in this series are largely interconnected. Delaware Electric Power Co. is included in this series because it began to fade out its streetcar operations in favor of trolley coaches and bus lines. As a result, many documents in Subseries D focus on the transition from streetcar to bus services. After Delaware Electric Power Co. severed its connection with public utilities and changed its name to Delaware Coach Co. in 1941, bus lines took precedence. Delaware Bus Co. and Southern Pennsylvania Bus Co. were operating subsidiaries of Delaware Electric Power Co./Delaware Coach Co., and operated bus lines in northern Delaware and Delaware County, Pennsylvania, respectively.

Dates: 1922-1973

John F. Tucker collection of Philadelphia transit photographs

 Collection
Accession: 1994-224
Abstract:

John Foster Tucker III (1950-2008) was a Philadelphia-born rail transit operating official and rail history enthusiast. This collection consists of photographs of trolleys, trains, rails lines, and rail stations in Philadelphia and the city's Pennsylvania suburbs, as well as offices, maintenance shops, and garages used by transit authorities. Most of the collection is devoted to SEPTA, but predecessor companies PTC (Philadelphia Transportation Company) and PSTC (Philadelphia Suburban Transportation Company) are also represented.

Dates: 1905-2004; bulk 1966-1990

Philadelphia railroad stations, Red Arrow Lines trolley track and bus photographs

 Collection
Accession: 1995-238
Abstract:

The Philadelphia Suburban Transportation Company operated bus and trolley lines, many of which originated in Upper Darby Township on the western border of Philadelphia and served Chester, Delaware, and Montgomery counties. Suburban Station and the Fidelity-Philadelphia Trust Company building are both located in Center City. The Red Arrow transportation lines are found in Philadelphia's western suburbs. This small collection consists of photographs of Suburban Station, railroad and trolley tracks, and bus shelters.

Dates: 1926-1965

Reading Company records

 Collection
Accession: 1520
Abstract:

Chartered in 1871, Reading Company was the holding company for the system of railroads, canals and coal mines assembled by the predecessor Philadelphia & Reading Railroad Company between 1833 and 1896. The collection consists of the corporate records of the Reading Company (1871-1976), the Philadelphia & Reading Railroad Company (1833-1896), the Philadelphia & Reading Railway Company (1896-1923), and 159 predecessors and subsidiaries.

Dates: 1795-1979

Red Arrow Lines photographs

 Collection
Accession: 1972-438
Abstract:

Red Arrow Lines, Inc. was a suburban transit company. This collection contains photographs of Red Arrow Lines transit vehicles and stations that were used in book R. DeGraw, Red Arrow Lines.

Dates: 1899-1970

Ron Degraw Transit Collection

 Collection
Accession: 2397
Abstract:

The collection consists of official documents produced or used by Ronald DeGraw during his career as a public transit official and transit consultant, materials from pre-SEPTA operators of the Philadelphia transit system that he preserved from loss or destruction, research materials that he amassed for writing his published and projected books, and photographs and ephemera collected out of his interest in the history of transit systems, particularly electric traction lines or what came to be called light rail transit.

Dates: 1859-2005; Majority of material found within 1920-1990

West Chester Street Railway Co. ledgers

 Collection
Accession: 2794
Abstract:

West Chester Street Railway Co. offered trolley service to Chester County, Pennsylvania, residents from 1890 to 1929. This collection consists of two account books and one stock record book. These volumes would be useful for researchers interested in the operating expenses of early twentieth-century light rail companies and railroad accounting practices.

Dates: 1917-1930

Wilmington, Delaware area historic images

 Collection
Accession: 1975-249
Abstract:

Wilmington is the largest city in Delaware located on the Christiana and Brandywine Rivers. This collection consists of three reproduction photographs of diverse subjects: an A5A steam locomotive #1167 of Reading Railroad crossing the road at Greenville, Delaware; a unoccupied trolley car in Wilmington, Delaware, originally built by the Peoples Railway Company in 1904; a postcard illustration of the Delaware Trust Building, Wilmington, Delaware.

Dates: 1930-1950