Norristown's Trolley Network

1893 - 1933 Schuylkill Valley Transit Company Streetcar service connecting Norristown to Chestnut Hill, Conshohocken, Swedeland, Collegeville, Pottstown and Boyertown.	1912 - 1951 Lehigh Valley Transit Company High-Speed trolley service to Lansdale and Allentown, with local trolley service to intermediate stops, such as Washington Square, Center Square, Normandy Farms, and West Point	1912 - present Philadelphia & Western [SEPTA Route 100] High-Speed transit cars to Upper Darby. Riders transfer at 69th Street to Market St. Elevated for service to center city Philadelphia

Click on the trolley photos above for articles about each trolley system.

Click here to access a map showing the network of trolley lines that once ran in Montgomery County.

Norristown Trolley Map

This map shows Norristown's once-extensive trolley network. The blue lines of the RT&L / Schuylkill Valley Traction Company were abandoned in 1933. The red line -- the Lehigh Valley Transit Company's Liberty Bell Route -- last ran in 1951. The green line continues to serve Norristown as the SEPTA Norristown High Speed Line. You may click on the map to view a larger, more legible version.

This is Chestnut Street in Norristown, at Dekalb Street. Rails were laid here in 1894 by the Chestnut Hill & Norristown Passenger Railway Company. This trolley line operated on a loop in Norristown, and on Sandy Hill Road and Germantown Pike to Chestnut Hill. Trolleys last ran between Norristown and Chestnut Hill in 1931, but the local loop trackage in Norristown was abandoned about then years before that. The rails and cross ties reveal themselves through the blacktop paving, photographed here in 2008.

Norristown Today

Today Norristown is home to the extensive Montgomery County Public Library, Timothy Hawkesworth's Norristown Arts Building, the Historical Society of Montgomery County (owners of Civil War-significant Montgomery Cemetery), and one friendly and intelligent coffee house known as Coffee Talk. Visit Coffee Talk at 507 West Marshall Street, or drop in to their web site/chat room at Coffee Talk Online.

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