Rockhill Trolley Museum plans birthday party for old York County trolley

When York County’s trolleys stopped rolling in 1939, many motormen climbed behind the wheel of gasoline-powered buses, successor to those clanging electric streetcars.

Some of the retired trolleys gained a second life as well. Four were merged to form a house near Red Lion. One reportedly ended up as an outbuilding on property in the East Berlin area. And another rested in a shed attached to a store on Bull Road in Dover Township. That car, No. 123, would be restored and stands as an exhibit at the Agricultural and Industrial Museum in York.

Five became cottages on the banks of the Conewago Creek near Strinestown, but about three decades later Tropical Storm Agnes inundated that village of streetcars with mud.

“The water was over the roof,” owner Rose Shirey told the York Daily Record in 1989. Her husband, Roy, had fixed up No. 163, building bedrooms, a bath and porch onto the retired streetcar that held memories for Rose Shirey. She not only lived in the trolley but rode it for many years to and from her home at 231 E. King St. in York.

But the challenge to restore the old car and bungalow, acquired by the Shirey family in 1947, was simply too great. Enter Railways to Yesterday Inc., a trolley museum in southern Huntingdon County’s Rockhill Furnace and a fixer-upper of trolleys.

Actually, the museum accepted another Strinestown-area donation: York’s Sandy Allison, owner of a nearby streetcar cottage, donated No. 326.  It was used for spare parts for No. 163.

Restoration of No. 163 took 17 years, but Railways to Yesterday Inc., today’s Rockhill Trolley Museum, restored the car in time for the 50th anniversary in 1989 of the end of the line for York County’s trolley system.

The organization invited families of former trolley and bus operators to the dedication. York Area Transportation Authority, today’s Rabbittransit, carried these trolley families via bus service to the  museum, about two hours west of York County in the Raystown Lake region.

Today, another anniversary awaits, the 100th anniversary of No. 163’s construction, and Rockhill Trolley Museum is again inviting relatives or descendants of people who worked for the York Railways Co. to visit the museum for this event — and throughout the year.

Unusual trolley design

In those days of Agnes, the museum sought out No. 163, in part, because it’s a rare car.

J.G. Brill built No. 163 and four other cars with a curveside design. When the trolley car maker was challenged for patent infringement, production of that design slammed to a stop.

Today, Rockhill Museum’s Joel Salomon said it’s the only trolley from York County in operating condition anywhere.

“It has been in Pennsylvania from manufacture through operation, retirement, service as a cottage, restoration and preservation,” he said.

The restoration of No. 163 — from a stripped shell to an operating trolley with its last appearance as seen on the streets of York — was a massive project for the volunteer organization.

For example, the museum acquired the trucks — wheels and motors — from Japan.

“They were built in Philadelphia, shipped to Japan and brought back to Pennsylvania for the restoration of the car to actually be able to operate,” Salomon said. Seats, control equipment and the many parts needed for the restoration were acquired from various sources and the propulsion and braking systems had to be reengineered.

Dangerous trolley times

In the 1930s, the trolleys were edged toward salvage or reuse as bungalows by increasing York County automobile traffic, making the streets built for horse-powered carriage all the more congested.

In fact, reports of trolley collisions with one another, animals and automobiles were common in newspapers of the day.

In 1905, one of the largest nonmilitary mass casualty events in York County’s past involved trolleys on the Dallastown, Red Lion and Windsor line from York.

A trolley rounded a curve to find a freight car rolling its way. The motorman and two others jumped, perhaps saving their lives.

The freight car threw the passenger car into the air, injuring 40 to 50 people. The critically injured were transported to the hospital. Four passengers died that day.

And on one snowy Christmas Eve in 1911, an automobile and trolley collided head on in York. Prominent industrialist C. Elmer Smith and four members of his family, on their way home from Christmas Eve services on South George Street, threw Smith and his four children to the street. Stephen Morgan Smith, 14, died and his brother, Beauchamp, 10, was seriously injured and later recovered.

Trolleys not forgotten

Today, interest in York’s trolley system remains high around York County — the day of the trolley is back and in the news on at least two lines.

The York County History Center is opening its new museum this summer in the former Edison Electric plant, supplier of the electricity that fueled the 85-mile county streetcar system. And the Hanover Trolley Trail is using parts of the old interurban trolley line’s right of way in building its rail trail between Hanover and York.

Indeed, remnants of trolley service in southwestern York County can be seen today: a small concrete bridge on the right of way along the Old Hanover Road outside Spring Grove near H&H Excavating and the Gitts Run substation outside Hanover between Jacobs Mill and Gitts Run roads.

Similarly, a former trolley bridge pier can be seen near Green Valley Pool in the Shiloh area, an arched bridge near South George Street and Powder Mill Road, the landmark trolley kiosk in York’s Continental Square and a former trolley-owned park, Brookside, near Dover.

But one doesn’t have to squint to imagine trolley service in York County.

You can ride No. 163 a day trip away in Huntingdon County. Salomon said the Rockhill Trolley Museum is “freshening” the old car in preparation for the Aug. 3 century anniversary celebration.

Or streetcar fans can ride on No. 163 any time, the car being one of the most regularly operating trolleys on the museum trackage of about 3 miles.

And if you ever wanted to operate a streetcar, the museum will sign you up as part of a “Run A trolley” program, which allows visitors, after brief instruction with supervision, to operate a trolley along the museum’s scenic route.

“In fact, anyone who would like to become a volunteer trolley operator should contact us,” Salomon said, “and he (or she!) will likely be trained on 163.”

Sources: June Burk Lloyd’s Universal York blog, YDR files

No. 163 birthday party

The museum will celebrate the 100th birthday of the construction of York trolley 163 at a special ceremony at 10 a.m. Aug. 3.

Rockhill Trolley Museum is seeking relatives or descendants of family and friends employed by the York Railways Co. to visit the museum, especially during the Aug. 3 event. Details: rockhilltrolley.org. If you’re able to visit, contact Don Hamilton at 570-985-8345 or info@rockhilltrolley.org.

Jim McClure is a retired editor of the York Daily Record and has authored or co-authored nine books on York County history. Reach him at jimmcclure21@outlook.com.