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Conestoga Traction was an interurban trolley system that operated seven country routes radiating spoke-like from Lancaster, Pennsylvania, to numerous villages and towns. It ran side-of-road trolleys through Amish farm country to Coatesville, Strasburg/Quarryville, Pequea, Columbia/Marietta, Elizabethtown, Manheim/Lititz, and Ephratta/Adamstown/Terre Hill. It began operations in 1899. By its connections to adjacent interurban trolley companies such as Philadelphia and West Chester (later Red Arrow and now today's SEPTA Route 101), West Chester Street Railway, Schuylkill Valley Traction, Reading Transit, Hershey Transit, and Harrisburg Railways, one could ride trolleys from Philadelphia to Harrisburg, although slowly. This could be accomplished by two circuitous routes. The southern route went via West Chester-Coatesville-Lancaster-Hershey and the northern route via Norristown-Pottstown-Reading-Ephratta-Lebanon-Hershey. In the early part of the 1900s, Conestoga Traction was a relatively fast and reliable way between towns in the days of horse drawn wagons and buggies using dirt roads which became torturous in winter. It updated equipment with a purchase of all steel interurbans from Cincinnati Car Company in 1924 when business was still good. CT also transported products such as milk and produce from farm to town. Through its connection with Hershey Transit, it provided milk to the Hershey company for chocolate production. Most interurbans like CT did not survive paved highways, better and more automobiles, and the Great Depression. For example, Conestoga Traction abandoned most of its lines in 1932, although a Lancaster city operation continued until 1947. Hershey Transit survived until 1946.
[edit] References
- Trolley Car Treasury, Frank Rowsome, Jr., Bonanza, New York, 1956.
- Interurban Era, Wm. Middleton, Kalmbach Publishing, Milwaukee, 1961.
