P&W 4 car Bullet train Part 3

The Philadelphia & Western RR was a completely grade-separated high-speed third rail-operated electric interurban railroad which originally was to be part of a transcontinental Class I railroad linking the east and west coasts. It only managed 11 miles from Philadelphia to Strafford, PA but a branch was later built from Villanova to Norristown. The Villanova-Strafford section was torn up in 1956 and is now a hiking/biking trail. The Philadelphia-Norristown line still runs today. In 1970, after losing its last freight customer, the last remaining interchange was severed off, therefore isolating the P&W from the rest of the world, and no longer needing FRA control it immediately became the Rt. 100 High-Speed Trolley. Within a very short time everybody was referring to the line and its equipment as trolleys. Even the CTA "L" cars, which were married-pairs, and the Budd Market-Frankford subway-elevated cars that later ran on the line were called trolleys by the newsmedia and the public, and remains so today with the N-5 cars.

[@nyshortline]

LOL That is 100% correct. But check this out: I remember seeing a TV news report during the time the CTA's were the mainstay of the line. The headline said "SEPTA trolley derailment snarls service." At the same time you were looking at the front of a CTA car with its front-most axle on the ground. My thought was, "Okay so I see the front of a subway-elevated car but where's the trolley you're talking about?"

[@Poisson4147]

Even though it's technically an interurban the locals refer to it as "the trolley" to distinguish it from the commuter train lines that intersect and/or parallel the route AND have stations with the same names. It's an inaccurate name but saves load of confusion; e.g. "Radnor train station" = commuter line; "Radnor trolley station" = P&W.