Mount Moriah Loop

[jackintosh11]

Why is mount moriah loop used on the route 13? It seems like it would make more sense for the trolleys to go a little further to Yeadon and provide more service.

[sammy2009]

The 13 has select trips that terminate at Mount Moriah Loop. I don't think its that many. But for the most part alot of the 13's riders pretty much are already off the trolley once they get around 60th St / Kingsessing Ave. And ofcourse you still have the regular trips scheduled to Yeadon.

[malagabill]

When I was a kid in the 60’ the old folks in the neighborhood use to tell tales of the days when PRT provided a funeral car serviceso the remains could be transported to their final rest by a special trolley car. I have never seen any proof of this but was wondering if this could be the reason why the loop was permitted at the corner of the cemetery

[CarterB]

The Mount Moriah Loop was established circa 1918 as transfer point from Yeadon Rt. 62 to PRT Rt. 13

"In Philadelphia, the Philadelphia Rapid Transit Company (P. R. T.)
offered a charter car "Hillside" in conjunction with the cemetery of
the same name at Roslyn in Abington Township, north of the city,
which carried the "defunct and the funeral party" to the corner of
Tyson Road and Bradfield Road. The private home at the SW corner of
those streets appears to have been originally a shelter for the
funeral parties. For those whose plots were at the southern end of
the sprawling Hillside complex (Ardsley Burial Ground), the "drop
off" point may have been Jenkintown Road and Edge Hill Road. The
"Hillside" trolley car was build by Brill of Philadelphia in 1912. A
picture of the car is on p.98 of _Trolleys of Montgomery County_ by
Harry Foesig and Harold E. Cox (Forty Fort PA, 1968)."

http://books.google.com/books?id=iY5MAA ... ar&f=false" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://www2.hsp.org/collections/manuscr ... s/4867.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://books.google.com/books?id=eqKKrM ... ar&f=false" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[malagabill]

Its hard to believe that the city wants $3,494.45 in re taxes for this property and has a TOTAL ASSESSMENT value of $273,300 on the property

[TomNelligan]

Customized funeral cars that could transport both the deceased and mourners to the cemetery were not uncommon during the heyday of trolleys in the early 20th century. Many big city systems had one or two that were available for charter.

[SCB2525]

The real answer to the base question is that it's a turn-back loop. While it may have origins as a funerary stop, in modern times it provides a point at which Route 13 can be cut short in case of trouble. As far as I know, no regular service terminates there. This is an important fallback to have; a trolley must have a rail turn-back to be able to cut short.

I feel a better question about turn-backs in W Philly is why was the Route 13 track at Darby taken out of service so that only 13 trips with trolleys originating or terminating at Elmwood can service between Darby and Yeadon? A trolley used to be able to turn left off Main St South into Darby Transportation center, continue behind some houses then turn east onto 9th inbound toward Philadelphia. The turnouts off Main and 9th are still there. I realize extending every trip there would be a bit much, but its certainly a decline in service in Darby Borough from a dedicated route between Darby and Yeadon (Route 62) then service via every other Route 13 trip as was the case until this track was taken out of service in the 90s. In instances where the 11 is down or being bused (as has been the case for a huge chunk of this year due to track work and utilities projects, not to mention CSX headaches), this track would also allow the 13 to pick up the slack by temporarily extending all service to Darby Transportation Center.

[jackintosh11]

The real answer to the base question is that it's a turn-back loop. While it may have origins as a funerary stop, in modern times it provides a point at which Route 13 can be cut short in case of trouble. As far as I know, no regular service terminates there. This is an important fallback to have; a trolley must have a rail turn-back to be able to cut short.

I feel a better question about turn-backs in W Philly is why was the Route 13 track at Darby taken out of service so that only 13 trips with trolleys originating or terminating at Elmwood can service between Darby and Yeadon? A trolley used to be able to turn left off Main St South into Darby Transportation center, continue behind some houses then turn east onto 9th inbound toward Philadelphia. The turnouts off Main and 9th are still there. I realize extending every trip there would be a bit much, but its certainly a decline in service in Darby Borough from a dedicated route between Darby and Yeadon (Route 62) then service via every other Route 13 trip as was the case until this track was taken out of service in the 90s. In instances where the 11 is down or being bused (as has been the case for a huge chunk of this year due to track work and utilities projects, not to mention CSX headaches), this track would also allow the 13 to pick up the slack by temporarily extending all service to Darby Transportation Center.

It is used in revenue service, some rush hour trips start/end there.

[CarterB]

The real answer to the base question is that it's a turn-back loop. While it may have origins as a funerary stop

The Mount Moriah Loop was established circa 1918 as transfer point from Yeadon Rt. 62 to PRT Rt. 13

[SCB2525]

The real answer to the base question is what it's a turn-back loop. While it may have origins as a funerary stop

The Mount Moriah Loop was established circa 1918 as transfer point from Yeadon Rt. 62 to PRT Rt. 13

I was not aware of this. All the older maps I had seen shown the 62 running between Yeadon and Darby. I never suspected otherwise as I've never seen any historical track map showing the loop with turnouts allowing turnback from the west. A look at a 1923 map on Philadelphia Trolley Tracks does show the 62 going all the way to Mt. Moriah, with the 13 also terminating there. On the 1932 map, the transfer was at Yeadon.

In its description of Route 62 it says that the 62 cars had to display a certificate showing that PRT had paid Yeadon Borough a fee to operate them there, which I would think was the reason the 62 was established as a separate dinky line in the first place; you only would have had to pay a fee on a couple of dedicated cars instead of all cars that may service the 13 (all Woodland cars) had it simply extended all the way to Darby. That being said, its an oddity it lasted as a separate route until 1971!

It is used in revenue service, some rush hour trips start/end there.

Fair enough.

[ExCon90]

SCB, thanks for that post. I thought I remembered reading that there was some administrative hangup that necessitated confining dedicated cars to Route 62 instead of through running from Philadelphia, and couldn't remember what it was.

[the sarge]

I talked to the regional expert on streetcars and his take on the 13/62 is:

The Route 13 was extended to a western terminus to Darby on June 7, 1907. At this time, the Moriah loop was installed as a turn-back and to service the nearby cemetary. After a few years, the line was too long to maintain any type of reliable schedule. Sometime around 1917-1918, the turn-back at Mt Moriah was then established as the new western terminus for the Route 13 and the 62 was instituted as a shuttle. The track layout at Mt Moriah was the same back then as it is today. As already noted, the track layout at Mt Moriah was not too conducive for turning a streetcar to head back west. See: http://www.phillytrolley.org/PRTspecial ... ork25.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; (Note: A RH layout was used) To accomodate this layout, a double ended car for the RT 62 was used. This setup lasted until the Yeadon loop was built and put into service on June 6, 1927.

Today, 12 trips originate at Mt Moriah M-F. Six during each rush hour.