Philadelphia Trolley Tracks: Good Used Cars

Philadelphia Trolley Tracks:

Good Used Cars

2254 June 15, 1977

While today, Philadelphia's streetcars are being sold to transit operations all over the country, there was a time when Philadelphia bought PCCs from other cities. In the 1950's, PTC bought forty ex-Kansas City Missouri PCCs, and another fleet from St. Louis, MO. The ex-St. Louis cars didn't last long, but the Kansas City cars were to remain in service here into the 1980's. For the U.S. Bicentennial, SEPTA repainted the surviving twenty-seven Kansas City cars red white and blue, and lettered them for the original colonies. They were the mainstays of route 50, which ran past Independence Hall.

1946 ex-KC 2254, the Pennsylvania on Wyoming Avenue in Feltonville on June 15, 1977. photo © Mike Szilagyi

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Between 1955 and 1983, used PCC cars from St. Louis, Kansas City, Birmingham and Toronto have seen use in Philadelphia.

photos by Mike Szilagyi

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	While today, Philadelphia's streetcars are being sold to transit operations all over the country, there was a time when Philadelphia bought PCCs from other cities. In the 1950's, PTC bought forty ex-Kansas City Missouri PCCs, and another fleet from St. Louis, MO. The ex-St. Louis cars didn't last long, but the Kansas City cars were to remain in service here into the 1980's. For the U.S. Bicentennial, SEPTA repainted the surviving twenty-seven Kansas City cars red white and blue, and lettered them for the original colonies. They were the mainstays of route 50, which ran past Independence Hall. 1946 ex-KC 2254, the Pennsylvania on Wyoming Avenue in Feltonville on June 15, 1977. photo © Mike Szilagyi