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Liberty Bell Route's Heavy Interurban Cars, The Spiral Bound history & Rosters
The Liberty Bell Routes Heavy Interurban Cars Spiral Bound history & Rosters
Copyright 1969
111 pages
Spiral bound
CONTENTS
Modern Liberty Bell Route Formed
Six 800 Series Cars Purchased
Six Additional 800 Series Cars Purchased
Two and Three-Car Trains Established
Private Interurban Car No 999 Built By LVT Shops
Twelve 700 Series Cars Purchased
Fires Damage 700 Series Cars
Private Car No 999 Converted into Passenger Car No 812
Chair Car Service Introduced
Operational and Trackage Adjustments
Chair Car Service Discontinued
The Deluxe Limited
Deluxe Service Discontinued
Fire Destroys Car No 703
Modernization Program 1938-1940
700 Series Cars Return to Regular Service
Liberty Bell Route Abandoned
Two Cars Service the Scrap Program
800 Series Roster
800 Series Technical Information
No 999/812 Roster
No 999/812 Technical Information
700 Series Roster
700 Series Technical Information
Magee Transportation Museum
Map Showing Territory Served by Lehigh Valley Transit Co in Eastern Penna and Warren County NJ
PREFACE
Heavy constructed wood. steel, and composite passenger interurban cars identified the electric railway industry's "golden are", or the two decades which generally extended from 1910 until 1930. It was a time when mechanical excellence, interior elegance and comfort, and structural strength identified the rolling stock which traversed the interurban right of ways which extended into every section of the country. Lehigh Valley Transit Company of Allentown. Pennsylvania. operated twenty-five heavy interurban cars between Allentown and Philadelphia during this epoch. These can, identified as 700 and 800 Series cars and No. 812, collectively operated over Liberty Bell Route from 1912 until 1952. The span of life reveals that they outlasted their era. From their introduction until retirement from service the cars successfully lured patronage away from competing steam railroad and autobus services and established en enviable safety record - no passengers suffered fatal injuries while being conveyed in their sturdy bodies.
Despite a difference in structure and most mechanical and electrical installations 700 and 800 Series can and No. 812 were compatible in multiple unit operation. Between 1916 and 1932 the 700 Series cars supplemented 800 Series car operations in main line service but 800 Series can never substituted for 700 Series cars on local schedules. Between 1932 and 1939 the 700 Series cars, after revisions, assumed operation of main line limited operations and 800 Series cars served as substitutes. Trains composed of a mixture of 700 and 800 Series can and No. 812 became a common sight along Liberty Ball Route on weekends and holidays and in charter service. Although patrons and crews regarded 800 Series cars as superior, the presence of 700 Series cars on the roster may have prevented the abandonment of Liberty Bell Route's railway operations as early as 1932.
The majestic pullman-style 800 Series cars served less than one generation in regular main line passenger service for which they had been specially constructed but their sturdy structure permitted the conversion of five to more rugged use - freight service. These five cars served a dozen years after the other seven had been removed from the passenger roster. One of them eventually served another system for fifteen years in utility service before being acquired by an electric railway museum.
Although Lehigh Valley Chapter. National Railway Historical Society, Incorporated, has already published individual histories of the twelve 700 Series and twelve 800 Series cars it now, es its tenth project, blends those booklets into one volume. Accordingly, THE LIBERTY BELL ROUTE'S 700 SERIES INTERURBANS, published in 1955, and THE LIBERTY BELL ROUTE'S 800 SERIES INTERURBANS, published in 1958, reappear with revisions, deletions, and supplements. In addition, the complete history of car No. 812, formerly private interurban car No. 999, has been woven with the other texts: thereby, producing a comprehensive history and roster of Liberty Bell Route's twenty-five heavy interurban passenger cars. Many different photographs have bean selected for this publication and line drawings have been included.
Readers should beer in mind that photographs of early operations are available only in limited quantity and quality. Also, approximate dates have been inserted whore actual dates have been unavailable. Data generally has been accumulated from feature articles which appeared in trade journals, newspaper accounts, and interviews with employees of Lehigh Valley Transit Company and electric railway historians. All contributors who aided the preparation of this booklet either with Photographs or information have been listed on the title page. Those who submitted photographs are credited once again with the photograph or photographs which they contributed. Without the co-operation of these folks this publication could not have achieved any semblance of completeness or authenticity.
Several sentences borrowed from the first history concerning 800 Series cars, which can fittingly be applied to the 700 Series deluxe-type cars, concludes this introduction. "We who were conveyed within the palatial interurbans' sturdy structure as they sped from the Lehigh Valley's Queen City to the City of Brotherly Love, fifty-five miles away, cannot properly express in words the prevailing atmosphere of confidence, relaxation and grandeur. Streamlining, stainless steel, aluminum, and successively smaller bodies, although packed with power, will not quite equal the glamour of these magnificent interurban cars. May their life story bring to you the pleasure which we. who knew them well, cherish in our memory:'
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