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roads in summer or rutted deep mud roads in winter. In 1924, when business and profits were still good, Conestoga
Traction updated its aging wood trolleys with a purchase of all steel small interurban trolley cars from Cincinnati Car Company. Farm freight and dairy pickups would occur with stops at farm gates using trolleys called "combines" designed to carry passengers in one section and freight in another. With its connections with neighboring Hershey Transit, CT shipped fresh uncooled Amish farm milk to the Hershey Company for immediate use in chocolate production. Hershey Transit permitted trolleys from the neighboring connecting lines, including Conestoga Traction, onto its rails to carry summer crowds to the Hershey Park for the amusement rides and to picnic. Picnic specials ran into the 1930s.
20:
174:." It began in 1908 and ran to 1955 with the inscription "The Toonerville Trolley That Met All The Trains." Central to the strip was a very short and bouncy trolley (often shown running above the track) operated by a grizzled old conductor and his cheerful motorman. The strip was modeled after Conestoga Traction and similar hill-and-dale rural interurban trolley lines in Pennsylvania such as West Penn Railways, which operated a very extensive (130 mile) trolley system throughout western Pennsylvania centered around McKeesport-Greensburg-Connellsville and Uniontown until 1955.
162:. Conestoga Traction abandoned most of its lines in 1932. The Lancaster-Ephrata line was still running in 1946 having been ordered by the Federal Government to do so because of World War II transportation needs. Lancaster's Birney Car street car operation continued until 1947. Neighbor Hershey Transit survived until 1946.
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Conestoga
Traction, later Conestoga Transportation Company, was a classic country interurban that operated seven routes radiating spoke-like from Lancaster, Pennsylvania, to numerous neighboring towns and farm villages. It ran side-of-road trolleys through Amish farm country east to Coatesville and
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Conestoga
Traction began operations in 1899. CTs rural trolley system provided reliable and relatively fast transportation between many southeastern Pennsylvania farm towns in the days when people traveled in horse drawn buggies and freight traveled in horse-drawn wagons on narrow wandering dusty
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Strasburg/Quarryville, south to Pequea, west to
Columbia/Marietta and Elizabethtown, north to Manheim/Lititz, and northeast to Ephrata/Adamstown/Terre Hill. CT also transported farm freight, such as milk and produce, in its little cars.
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118:), West Chester Street Railway, West Chester and Coatesville Traction, Schuylkill Valley Traction, Reading Transit, Hershey Transit, and Harrisburg Railways, one could ride trolleys from
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Most interurbans like
Conestoga Traction did not survive improved highways with the related increased purchase and use of automobiles, or the negative business impact of the
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Conestoga
Traction's connections to adjacent interurban trolley companies such as Philadelphia and West Chester (later Red Arrow; now today's operating
126:, although the trip would have been long and slow and impractical. This could be accomplished by two circuitous routes. The southern route was via
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Middleton(2). Conestoga
Traction photo with commentary, countryside near Lancaster, p188.
41:, to numerous neighboring farm villages and towns. It ran side-of-road trolleys through
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295:) Volkner; Photos and captions of Conestoga Traction, including 1946 burning of cars.
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Pennsylvania
Trolleys in Color: The Anthracite and the Pennsylvania Dutch Regions
31:
30:, later Conestoga Transportation Company, was a classic American regional
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Middleton(1). Conestoga
Traction: photographs with captions, p111.
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that operated seven routes 1899 to 1946 radiating spoke-like from
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A popular and long running national newspaper cartoon strip was "
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250:, 436pp. Kalmbach Publishing, Milwaukee, WI. 1967,1975. (
150:-Hershey. From Hershey to Harrisburg was by connections.
265:, 32pp. Applied Arts Publishers, Lebanon, PA. 1987. (
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178pp, Morning Sun Books, Scotch Plains, NJ. 1997. (
324:Transportation in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania
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280:, 199pp. Bonanza Books, New York. 1956.
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309:1947 disestablishments in Pennsylvania
263:The Trolley: Triumph of Transportation
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208:Conestoga Traction system map, 1919.
16:American regional interurban trolley
319:Interurban railways in Pennsylvania
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110:A ride to Philadelphia by trolley
134:and the northern route was via
314:Defunct Pennsylvania railroads
1:
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166:Toonerville Trolley Comics
23:Conestoga Traction Network
248:The Time of the Trolley
154:Decline and abandonment
130:-Coatesville-Lancaster-
39:Lancaster, Pennsylvania
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278:Trolley Car Treasury
276:Rowsome, Frank Jr.,
244:Middleton(2), Wm. D.
232:, Milwaukee. 1961. (
222:Middleton(1), Wm. D.
230:Kalmbach Publishing
226:The Interurban Era
28:Conestoga Traction
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172:Toonerville Folks
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160:Great Depression
45:farm country to
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128:West Chester
120:Philadelphia
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261:Moedinger,
55:Quarryville
47:Coatesville
303:Categories
216:References
136:Norristown
124:Harrisburg
91:Terre Hill
32:interurban
228:, 438pp.
146:-Ephrata-
140:Pottstown
87:Adamstown
51:Strasburg
67:Marietta
63:Columbia
148:Lebanon
144:Reading
132:Hershey
97:History
83:Ephrata
75:Manheim
35:trolley
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81:, and
79:Lititz
59:Pequea
178:Notes
43:Amish
289:ISBN
267:ISBN
252:ISBN
234:ISBN
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