The Lehigh Valley Transit Company (LVT) was a regional transport company that was headquartered in Allentown, Pennsylvania. The company began operations in 1901, as an urban trolley and interurban rail transport company. It operated successfully into the 1930s, but struggled financially during the Great Depression, and was saved from abandonment by a dramatic ridership increase during and following World War II.
In 1951, LVT once again financially struggled, and ended its interurban rail service from Allentown to Philadelphia. In 1952, it ended its Allentown-area local trolley service. It operated local bus service in the Allentown, Bethlehem, and Easton areas in the Lehigh Valley region of eastern Pennsylvania until ultimately going out of business in 1972.
History 19th century
Public transport in Allentown, Pennsylvania, began on May 21, 1868, when a horse-car line was placed in operation between the Black Bear Hotel at 9th and Hamilton Streets in Center City Allentown and the Lehigh Valley Railroad Depot at 3rd and Hamilton Streets. The transition from horsepower to electric power began in 1891, when the Allentown-Bethlehem Rapid Transit Company erected a powerhouse at Front and Linden Streets in the First Ward near the Lehigh River.Hellerich, Mahlon H, and Pennsylvania, Lehigh County Historical Society Allentown. Allentown, 1762-1987 : a 225-year history. Allentown, Pennsylvania: Lehigh County Historical Society, 1987
In 1893, the Allentown and Lehigh Valley Traction Company was created by investor Albert Johnson through the combination of a group of local streetcar lines. In 1898, Quakertown Traction Company operated electric trolleys from Richlandtown in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, through Quakertown to Perkasie. By 1900, the Inland Traction Company ran south from Perkasie to Lansdale, and the Montgomery Traction Company ran from there to Norristown. In 1901, a newly-formed Philadelphia and Lehigh Valley Traction Company under Johnson merged these lines and others in the Lehigh and Delaware valleys with the plan of creating a trolley system to reach north to New York City. But Johnson died later that year, and the company fell into receivership in 1903. A 35-mile Allentown to the Chestnut Hill trolley service started the same year. Connection with the Philadelphia Rapid Transit Company street cars at Chestnut Hill allowed riders to continue to downtown Philadelphia.
20th century In 1905, the assets of the new Philadelphia and Lehigh Valley Traction Company were acquired by Lehigh Valley Transit Company. The company's owners started an extensive rebuilding of the Allentown to Philadelphia route. Much side of road track, which was all single track, was replaced by track running in open country. However, considerable older side-of-road trackage remained, particularly south of Quakertown. Heavy wood arch-windowed interurban coaches were purchased for high-speed operation. This upgrading program culminated a high-capacity interurban line running from Allentown to Norristown.
Beginning December 1912, car trains operated from Allentown to Philadelphia's 69th Street Terminal using the Philadelphia and Western Railroad south of Norristown. Service on the former Inland Traction route runs from North Wales to the Chestnut Hill section of Philadelphia continued until 1926, and the route between central Quakertown and Richlandtown ran until 1929, both replaced by bus. The LVT and P&W both reorganized during the next twenty years (LVT twice), but trolleys continued to operate and compete with the nearly paralleling Reading Railroad's Bethlehem to Philadelphia line due to lower cost to riders, particularly during the Great Depression, and then again vitally during the gasoline rationing of World War II.
Philadelphia Division Lehigh Valley Transit Company (LVT) formed in 1905. It acquired the existing Lehigh Valley Traction Company, and the new owners started rebuilding of the existing trolley lines and acquisition of interurban cars. In 1912–13, and again in 1925, LVT upgraded track and rerouted lines by building private right of way between some towns, including Quakertown to Souderton, where track was at the side of rural roads and had made frequent 90-degree turns at road intersections causing slow operation. At Wales Junction on the original Chestnut Hill line, a totally new route was constructed northward to Lansdale and southward to Norristown, beyond which trolleys would run on the third rail Philadelphia and Western to the Philadelphia subway terminal at 69th Street Terminal in Upper Darby Township. This allowed LVT passengers to change to the Philadelphia transportation system. This Allentown-to-Norristown route was named the Liberty Bell Line.
LVT's Allentown to Philadelphia division operating to 1951 is considered the last of the eastern U.S. single track, town street to side of road rural countryside hill and dale interurban trolleys in the United States along with the Hagerstown and Frederick and the West Penn Railways of Western Pennsylvania, although the Springfield-to-Media end of the present day 100-year-old Upper Darby Township-to-Media former Red Arrow trolley line, which is now SEPTA's Media–Sharon Hill Line, has some of these same characteristics.
Liberty Bell Route The Philadelphia Division Liberty Bell Route, which provided service from Allentown to Philadelphia, was an overhead wire-powered single-track high-speed trolley operation with frequent passing sidings to provide opposing car operation. Each siding defined a block with semaphore signaling at those sidings. Each larger town had a depot with a waiting room and a ticket agent plus facilities to handle trolley freight. South from its downtown Allentown terminal, the LVT's Philadelphia Division served Coopersburg, Zionhill, Brick Tavern, Quakertown, Perkasie, Sellersville, Telford, Souderton, Hatfield, Lansdale, and Norristown.
Much of the LVT route from Allentown to Perkasie was along today's now rural Old Bethlehem Pike, although portions of the route were in open countryside.See for many photographs of the LVT route and depots. See the Google interactive LVT route map noted in the Bibliography.
In Norristown, its third-rail-equipped cars continued on the high-speed Philadelphia and Western Railroad to the 69th Street Terminal, Upper Darby terminus, which was the western terminus of the Philadelphia city subway-elevated. Philadelphia and Western Railroad crews operated the LVT cars from Norristown's Markley Street south. Much of the LVT's route was paralleled by the Reading Railroad's steam powered Bethlehem Branch and had many of the same stops. In Lansdale, the two stations faced each other. The Reading Railroad operated passenger service directly to its busy downtown Reading Terminal in Philadelphia, but the LVT was less expensive for frugal riders and made many more village, local, and roadside stops. Some patrons would ride the Reading, for example, from downtown Philadelphia to Lansdale, then walk across the street to the LVT station to catch the interurban home., mentions Lansdale commutersVolkmer, Volume III. Color photographs of LVT at Lansdale Station and at night on Main Street with text.
As was customary for interurban trolleys, the LVT Philadelphia Division ran fast in open country, but once in a village or town it slowly progressed down streets, made frequent stops, and navigated sharp streetcar-like turns at intersections., 1949 photo of Allentown bound LVT car 1005 loading passengers at the Souderton depot. In particular, there was extensive center street operation with 90-degree turns at Perkasie-Sellersville, Souderton, and Lansdale.
Long stretches of 80-mile-per-hour operation existed north of Quakertown, and the operator could go to a shunted field motor setting for maximum speed. Open-country private right of way existed, particularly north of Quakertown. Another stretch existed between Souderton and Lansdale and included a steel bridge north of Hatfield known as Gehman Trestle. When LVT started improving the original route, they installed blade-style block signals at track sidings where opposing cars would pass, purchased the faster 800 class heavy, wood, arch-windowed interurban cars from Jewett Car Company, and set up railroad-style dispatching. With these changes, local service using the St. Louis cars and express service using the new Jewetts began between Allentown and Norristown/Philadelphia 69th Street Terminal.Kulp: throughout book, discussion of different car classes and construction by Jewett, Southern Car, and Cincinnati Car Co.
In 1939, LVT purchased thirteen used lightweight high-speed Cincinnati and Lake Erie Railroad Red Devil cars from the abandoned Cincinnati to Toledo, Ohio, interurban to augment its older, heavier, and slower 700 and 800 series interurban cars. The former Red Devils were reconditioned by the innovative LVT Allentown shops and were then operated from Allentown to Philadelphia as Liberty Bell Limiteds. The LVT advertised for and ran freight, but it was a small part of the business. Like most interurbans, its primary income was from passenger service. Box motor freight trolleys usually operated at night, but LVT sometimes ran scheduled passenger trips as a "mixed" train with a freight box motor coupled behind the older 800 or 700 series of passenger coaches. The former C&LE Liberty Bell Limiteds were not built with couplers.Rohrbeck: photo, freight motor behind 700 Class passenger coach in a "mixed" train. During World War II, LVT carried full loads including standees on its overworked equipment. When the war ended, ridership rapidly declined, and LVT again faced bankruptcy and abandonment as it had during the Great Depression.Springirth: p42, LVT car at Norristown on station bridge.Kulp, NRHS, Lehigh Valley Chapter: five LVT publications: History of the LVT; History of the Jewett wood 800 Class cars, the steel Southern Car 700 Class cars, the former Cincinnati Car Company Red Devil 1000 Class Liberty Bell Limiteds, and the original 1906 St. Louis Car Company built heavyweight trolleys. Perkasie's Three Mile Run collision in the dark.
The extensive Pennsylvania construction of paved highways and the public's increased ownership of automobiles like the Ford Model T in the 1920s caused the financial decline of most interurbans in the U.S. Many were abandoned prior to and definitely during the Great Depression. LVT struggled also during this time but survived, primarily due to the purchase of high-speed lightweight interurbans from the 1938 abandonment of the Cincinnati and Lake Erie interurban in Ohio. Ridership jumped due to gas rationing and increased industrial activity during World War II, but after the war the number of riders dropped again as they returned to their cars. Service quality declined during the 1950s as LVT lost rider revenue, which led to a further loss of riders. Through service on the P&W ended in 1949, and thereafter patrons had to change to P&W trains at Norristown.
Philadelphia Division equipment 1902: a fleet of fifty suburban cars built by St. Louis Car Company was placed into service 1912: steel and truss bar supported wood frame 800 series heavy interurban cars purchased from the Jewett Car Company 1916: all-steel 700 series cars purchased from Southern Car Company 1939: thirteen second-hand purchased from abandoned Cincinnati and Lake Erie Railroad interurban former "Red Devil" squared-rear end cars, built by Cincinnati Car Company, numbered as the 1000 series, plus rounded-rear end car 1030 from the former Indiana Railroad interurban built by American Car and Foundry, purchased to replace a fire destroyed Red Devil 1004 1939: second-hand lightweight suburban cars obtained from Steubenville, Ohio, numbered as the 430 serie.