Philadelphia Transportation Company vehicle assignments as of December 31, 1955:

PCC Cars
Air-electrics: Routes 6, 10, 11, 13, 34, 36, 42, 53 (routes 12, 26, 40 on weekends and holidays; route 21on Sundays and holidays)
All-electrics: Routes 15, 23, 41, 43, 47
Ex-St. Louis cars: Route 56
Ex-Kansas City cars: Route 50

Conventional Trolleys
Remodeled 8000's: Routes 12, 17, 20, 21, 26, 32, 40, 62
Plain 8000's: Routes 2, 3, 8, 9, 39, 64
Remodeled 5200's: Route 52
Plain 5200's: Routes 31, 46, 60, 79
5000's: Ten of these still used on route 60 when needed

Tracklesses
Prewar ACF-Brills: Route 61
Postwar ACF-Brills: Routes 29, 75, 80
Marmon-Herrington TC-46's: Route 59
Marmon-Herrington TC-49's: Route 66

Buses
Big GMC's: Routes 5, 7, 33, 38, 54, 70, A, C, D, H, XH
Short GMC's: Route 30 (More from some place south as Davy Crockett buses delivered in 1956)
Postwar Macks: Routes 30, 57, 63, 81, 88, 89, 90, G, J, K, L, S, U, W (also used as trippers on routes A, D, H, XH)
Postwar Brills: Routes B, R
Postwar Twins: Routes 14, 85, E, F, V, XB (XB also uses postwar Macks)
Prewar Macks: Routes 22, 55, 59b, 73, 74, N, Q, T, Wa, Y, Cs (Broad and Snyder-Naval Hospital)
Prewar Brills: Routes 25, 37s, 71, 76, 77, 78, 82, 84, 86, 87, H-1, M, O, P, X, XA, XO, Z

Philadelphia Transportation Company depot assignments as of December 31, 1955:

ALLEGHENY: Routes 9, 48, A, H, XH, 33. Trolley routes 3, 8, and 39 and trackless route 61 at Ridge Depot were tied to this division.
CALLOWHILL: Routes 10, 15, 31, 41, 42, 43, 46, D, 38, 70
COMLY: Routes B, J, K, N, P, T, W, Wa, Y, 59b, 73, 84, 86, 87, 88
CUMBERLAND: Routes C, Z, 7, 25, 54
FOLSOM: Routes 37s, 71, 76, 77, 78, 82
FRANKFORD: Trackless routes 59, 66, 75, and bus route 5
GERMANTOWN: Routes 23, 52, H-1, L, S, X
HAVERFORD: Routes E, F, V, XB, 14, 30, 85, 90
JACKSON: Routes Cs, G, M, Q, U, 63, 81
LUZERNE: Routes 6, 20, 21, 26, 47, 50, 53, 56, 60, O, R, XA, XO, 57, 89
SOUTHERN: Routes 17, 20, 32, 64, 79, 29, 80
WILLOW GROVE: Routes 22, 55, 74
WOODLAND: Routes 11, 12, 13, 34, 36, 40, 62

Thanks to Dennis Linsky for this information!

Michael T. Greene adds these insights:

Ex-Kansas City PCC's on Route 50: These cars would have been in a temporary limbo at this time. Their previous assignment was the 5, which had just been converted to 5106's(don't know how many were in service at this point...the lack of an assignment list that had individual vehicle fleets has hampered me from putting together a chronological listing of PTC events of the 1954-58 period...any help available?), and they would not come to the 50 until the 9 was abandoned.

Plain 8000's: The 48 was still a rail line, so it would have used the 8000's.

Short GMC's: The next batch, except for the first two, came from the Cleveland area. You can see the breakdown of them at http://www.angelfire.com/pa4/septabus/rosters/list_a.html.

Postwar Macks/Twins: I don't think that any Macks ever ran from Callowhill (I can establish the fact that no Macks ran from Callowhill from the Summer of 1957...I'm looking at a copy of assignment lists from 1957 to 1967, and none of those have Macks at Callowhill), which is where the D ran from May 29, 1955 on. It's possible that there were still Macks at Allegheny after it got its first group of 5106's, though, as I noted, not having a copy of the assignment lists makes it just a guess. I also think that Twins were probably the primary buses on the 90 at this point, though Macks could have put in appearances from time to time.

Allegheny Depot: Routes 9 and 48 would have been at Ridge Depot since that facility had the remaining former Allegheny rail lines, along with Route 3, which came from Frankford Depot.

Callowhill Depot: Though the 38, in its current incarnation, runs from Callowhill, it didn't at this point...it ran from Haverford Depot. The buses that were used to convert the 38, TDH5106's 689-719, had been transferred from Callowhill Depot.

Return to Philadelphia Trolley Tracks main page