The Trolleys of Brandywine Springs -- The Peoples Trolley

Doing its job advertising the park

Of the three trolley lines that once made their way into Mill Creek Hundred, two of them were created primarily to shuttle passengers and park-goers to and from the Brandywine Springs Amusement Park. It would be hard to talk about the two lines independently, and pointless to discuss them with out also including the park. We've discussed the park before -- how it started as a resort hotel in the late 1820's, then operated mid-century as a smaller hotel. In 1886, Richard W. Crook took over the hotel and slowly changed the property from a hotel to an amusement park. In the waning years of the 19th Century, he realized what his park needed to thrive into the 20th -- a trolley line that would make it easier for the city-dwelling folk to visit his park out in the country. This would turn Brandywine Springs into what amounted to a trolley park in reverse.

Trolley parks were ubiquitous in the late 1800's and early 1900's, with well over a thousand dotting the national landscape in the early part of the last century. They were built by the local trolley companies, out at the end of their lines usually on some sort of water (a lake, river, or creek), to serve a couple of purposes. First, in an age when the trolley was many people's primary transportation to and from work and school, the parks helped to boost ridership on the weekends. The second purpose had to do with that great advancement of the age, electricity.

While many started out horse-drawn, by the 1880's trolleys were electrically-powered. The trolley companies either paid a flat rate for their electricity, or more commonly, generated it themselves. The power cost them money either way, so they might as well have the trolleys running as much as possible. Plus, in the days when electrification was still an ongoing concern, the trolley parks would be lit-up as much as possible, dazzling their guests with the modern miracle of electricity. For example, the Brandywine Springs' entrance archway was covered in lights, and lit at night was probably the most lights that most guests had ever seen in one place before. So whereas in a traditional trolley park the line existed first and then the park was built, at Brandywine Springs the opposite was true.

Although Crook's solution seemed simple, build a trolley line to the park, implementing it was anything but. The whole process took more than eight years, beginning with the chartering of the Wilmington & Brandywine Springs Railway in 1893. The barriers to building the line were regulatory, corporate, and financial. Since trolley lines were regulated like utilities, they had to get government approval to lay their tracks. Delaware politics worked no more smoothly then than it does now, and nothing worked quickly. Fierce and litigious opposition also came from the Wilmington City Railway, which already ran trolleys in the city and was not interested in having any competition, either for its trolley service or for its own trolley park, Shellpot Park.

Crook's first obstacle, however, was financial. Although he had his charter and the rights to build a trolley line, he didn't have the money to do it until 1897. By the time he found backers for his line, time was almost up. The trolley charters at the time were granted with a deadline -- if at least one car did not traverse the line by a given date, the charter would expire. With a deadline looming of January 1, 1898 and several problems (including the fact that the line was not completed) facing them, the Wilmington & Brandywine Springs Railway started a car from the park towards Wilmington at 1:30 in the afternoon, on December 31. It had to be horse-drawn for the rural part and human-pushed for part, and in sections ran on temporary wooden stringers where the tracks had not yet been laid. A last-minute court injunction allowed passage previously blocked by the Elsmere and Wilmington Railway, which had begun service only that November. It took five hours, but the trip was completed and the charter saved!

In May 1898, Crook eliminated one obstacle by purchasing the Elsmere & Wilmington. Over the next two years, Crook fought the City Railway and the various legislatures, with building rights being granted and revoked on both sides. If you're interested in a more indepth look at what transpired, I suggest finding a copy of Howard E. Cox's 1991 book Diamond State Trolleys, from which much of the information for this post came. Suffice it to say that one of the major sticking points was the right to lay tracks along 6th Street, which by the spring of 1900 had gone to the City Railway. Since the Wilmington & Brandywine Springs Railway now lacked the vital rights he needed, Crook did the most logical thing -- he chartered a new company that did! In April 1900 the Peoples Railway Company was born, and construction began on the lines in the Fall.

One of the Peoples Railway's open air, bench-seating cars

I won't go into detail about the exact routes in the city, as they're confusing and were constantly changing over the years. The bottom line is that the Peoples Railway, or the Peoples Trolley as it was often known, had multiple routes throughout downtown Wilmington, as well as a line out to Rising Sun Lane to service the Dupont workers at Hagley. By 1909, the line reached all the way to the foot of 4th Street to meet up with the Wilson Line dock there. Passengers could take the Wilson Line steamers from Philadelphia or Chester, then board the trolley directly to Brandywine Springs Amusement Park. The company's home office, as well as the trolley barn and generators, were located at 6th and Hawley Streets. Part of the complex is still there today.

The line left the city near there, turning off of 4th Street at what's now Cleveland Avenue, but was a private right of way at the time. It headed toward Dupont Road, then more or less met up with what's now Kirkwood Highway to travel through Elsmere. At Price's Corner, it veered northwesterly along Greenbank Road to run behind (actually, in front of) the New Castle County Workhouse, then under construction. When the workhouse opened the following year, the Peoples Trolley would provide a special car to ferry prisoners to and from the county courthouse in what's now Rodney Square.

Peoples Trolley freight car at the Kiamensi Springs Company

After leaving the workhouse, the trolley line headed north, staying on the high ground behind what's now Albertson Park and Faulkland Heights. When the Kiamensi Spring Water Company opened along the line in 1907, a siding was layed and a special car (the same one used for workhouse prisoners) ferried full bottles into, and empty bottles out of, Wilmington. The line then made its way along today's Spice Mill Lane and then turned west, crossing high above Red Clay Creek and the Wilmington & Western tracks on a trestle. The concrete abutment can still be seen on the hillside on the east side of the creek. Originally, the trolleys dropped riders off at the entrance to the park, but later a trolley terminus was constructed inside the park.

A Peoples Trolley car on the trestle bridge entering Brandywine Springs

The last suburban extension was installed in 1909, when a spur was built from the park to Marshallton. It used an existing track (more about this in the next post) along Washington Avenue in the Cedars, then overland down to Greenbank Road in front of what was then the fibre mill, then another 100 yards or so to the intersection of Duncan Road. In the summer, riders would change cars at the park to continue to Wilmington, but in the winter direct service was offered. This offered passage both for city-dwellers who worked in Marshallton, and for Marshallton residents employed in Wilmington.

More than a decade after its abandonment, the Marshallton trolley line can be
seen toward the left, cutting down across the fields to Greenbank Road

Peoples Trolley car at the end of the Marshallton line,
in front of the Newport Road bridge along Greenbank Road

The Peoples Trolley had its highs and lows over the years. One of the lows came very early on, soon after midnight on Decoration Day, May 30, 1901. The day had been a great success, with over 13,000 passengers taking the 30 minute, seven mile ride out to the Springs. But on one of the last return trips on this first day of regular passenger service, disaster struck. On the steep hill traveling down 6th Street, between Franklin and Harrison Streets, the air brakes on one of the large cars failed. It began hurtling downhill, first smashing into the car in front of it. The two became entangled, and sped down to Jefferson Street where they collided head-on with a third car coming the opposite direction. Two passengers were killed and forty more injured. Even this, though, could not slow Richard Crook.

One of the highs, and possibly the high water mark for the line, came on July 4, 1911. The park, as you'd imagine, had many festivities that day, including a fireworks show. According to the paper the next day, the Peoples Railway carried about 25,000 passengers to Brandywine Springs, and another 10,000 on the other lines. For most of the day and evening, cars arrived at the park every two minutes, all without incident.

Car decorated, possibly for the Fourth of July, with
the trolley terminus visible behind

Although the company was a popular success, it was, surprisingly, never much of a money-maker. This was mostly due to rider drop-off during non-park months, which was most of the year (the amusement park was generally open from Memorial Day through Labor Day). It did its job in promoting the park, and with Crooks enthusiasm and his backers' money it continued to run. Constantly through the years did the City Railway try to buy out Crook and acquire the line, always to no avail. However, in the same year as its greatest success -- 1911 -- came the seeds of its downfall. That year saw the death of John Dobson, owner of one of the largest textile mills in Philadelphia and financial backer of the Peoples Railway.

The line continued to operate the next few years, but service definitely declined. In 1915 Richard Crook bowed to the inevitable, retiring from business and selling both the Peoples Railway and Brandywine Springs Amusement Park to the Wilmington & Philadelphia Traction Company (W&PT), the then iteration of what had been the Wilmington City Railway. The ultimate decline and termination of the W&PT's Brandywine Springs line will be addressed in the next post. There, we will also take a look at the other trolley line that serviced the park, this one bringing passengers from the north.