by RDG484
Well, today marks the 55th Anniversary of the abandonment of the Liberty Bell Route that once ran from 69th St. Terminal to Allentown. So I marked the occasion by driving to Allentown and tracing the route from there. For 55 years, an amazing amount of ROW is still visible; most of it marked by an electric company pole line. A few places it had been obliterated, like around the PA Rt. 309/I-78 interchange, a few blocks in Telford, where there is a new housing development built on the ROW, and ditto for Normandy Farm, which is about mid-way between Norristown and Lansdale. In addition, a recent intersection relocation at West Point makes it impossible to trace the ROW there. The stations in Quakertown, Perkasie, Sellersville, and Hatfield all still stand, along with a former substation at Washington Square, just above Norristown. Of particular interest is the tunnel under the Reading Bethlehem Branch in Perkasie, which my 4-year old and I walked through today. The fill that occupies from there to the 9th St. undergrade bridge still has ballast on it, and the upgrade speedway from there to 3 Mile Run is recognizable, but overgrown with mostly thorny Black Locust trees and like shrubs. We walked at the western edge of the neighboring cemetary. The ROW is visible for almost the entire way from there to Quakertown, where it ran at the east shoulder of Old Bethlehem Pike for the entire distance. The Trolley Stop Deli in Hatfield was the old LVT station. Inside there are a lot of photos of LVT cars doing station work at the location. At Sellersville and Hatfield, the ROW was made into a short trail at both locations. Needless to say, we walked both trails. In Quakertown, we spotted a mural of a 1000-series car painted on the north side of the old station building which is now a hair salon. All in all, a great day was had by both my son and I.
Long live the LVT!!!
Long live the LVT!!!