I came across this tonight, while browsing youtube. As I remarked in the comments section there, the experiments done by the railroads always amaze me.
I grew up in the Media/Sharon Hill area and I do remember reading or hearing something about that, but being a teenager in high school I had other interests then the PTC/Read Arrow lines…
Even recognized a few of the spots in the video.
Wasn’t too long after that when SEPTA was formed and took over most of the commuter lines in the area.
I grew up in North East Philly. Never travelled too much to that part of our area except for yearly trips to Holy Cross cemetery to visit my grandmother’s grave. My mother would dress my brother and I up, get on the “B” bus on the Boulevard which would take us to the Frankford El. Then it was all the way out to 69th street, if memory serves me. From there we would get on a trolley or bus, again memory is fading, to within walking distance of the cemetery. But before going to the grave, my mother would stop at the hot house for flowers. Finally to the grave site. She would say a few prayers, then it was back to the North East. This involved an entire day. Not sure how many would have the patience and stamina to do that sort of thing now days.
" Then it was all the way out to 69th street, if memory serves me. "
More than likely. 69th Street was a hub for a lot of commuter lines, and if anyone mentioned 69th street you knew they meant Upper Darby. The lines radiated out of there in all directions, to West Chester, Media, and Sharon Hill via trolley lines, the Market Street subway and elevated line terminated there, plus the numerous bus routes to other locations. Red Arrow had a huge bus maintenance barn near me that I passed every day on my paper Route. I can picture what lines you had to travel to get to Holy Cross Cemetery.
I am puzzled as to why it was a “trial”
Road-Railers were running in the UK and France in the 1930’s , the principle is well proven .
So what were they “trialling?” .
Nowadays , the Road/Rail vehicles are quite common , but are usually track maintenance or Fire Fighting vehicles .
The pictures above are very interesting , but in places there seem to be wheel guides (or vertical planks at the correct gauge to nudge the wheel back in line) as used on the Paris Metro where they use horizontal tyres for the same purpose , mounted in such a way as to guide the train along the track on its rubber main wheels . They run against vertical plates set just outside the normal gauge . Very quiet , too .
Mike Brit
I would assume it’s because a bus, being a one man operation and being so big, as opposed to road/rail equipment, where’s there 2 or more men and/or a smaller vehicle, wouldn’t have someone to guide it over the rails. Those guide rails would save some time, since a bus is usually on a schedule.
Just my opinion…
Ken , that seems reasonable to me , though the number of “supervisory staff” at the trial show it not to be the case (tee hee) .
I would think that the guides to get the vehicle lined up so as to lower his undercarriage were intended to be metal in the final version , but as nobody seems to have seen it in service , they probably didn’t get that far in the project . Then there is the problem of making the guides in such a way as not to snag on normal rail gear .
I bet it was the “It’ll never replace steam” brigade who stopped it .
Mike Brit
Like I said, that was just a guess on my part. I started working for the phone company in’68 in Philly, and I don’t remember ever seeing anything like that in service. Saw plenty of Trolleys, trackless and tracked, buses, subway-surface cars, commuter trains, and the elevated, but I never saw any buses running on tracks like that one did…
I was hoping for a video. Maybe a bit more searching will turn one up.
In the St. Louis County area, there was a trolly track that went over the Missouri Pacific right of way. When the trolley line was replaced by a bus, the bridge was still used but had a high center that conformed to a bus undercarriage and wheel area, but did not have enough clearance for other vehicle traffic. I believe the bridge is now used for the light rail system, but haven’t seen it personally in operations in 35 years.