Manheim Trolley
The newly-organized Conestoga Transportation Company’s Car No. 36, one of the two regularly assigned trolleys, just left Manheim on time despite the powdery snows that fell during the night.
Pressing down on the brake valve handle, the motorman is holding his breast as he applies sand for the hill through Kauffman’s Park. Normally the 30-cent ride to Lancaster took fifty minutes, but this morning the passengers are bundled up tightly for the drafty trip to town, which more than likely will be longer than usual.
The Manheim trolley during the week left Lancaster at 4:45 A.M. and during the peak hours operated every hour on the half-hour. The car took the Lititz Line, which was built in 1895 to Delp Road, where it then branched off onto its own right-of-way for most of the way to Manheim. The trolley service only went into the southern tip of town since it could not cross the Reading Railroad.
The Manheim Line, completed by the Conestoga Traction Company on December 14, 1901, operated the last trolley on April 9, 1932, just a little more than 30 years of service.
Learn More
You can read more about the Conestoga Traction Company by clicking here.
Drawing by JA Ruof. See other drawings by JA Ruof here.