We're at rooftop level in Norristown, Pa. on the platform of the Swede Street terminus of the old Philadelphia & Western Railroad.

When the P&W built into Norristown in 1912, it had to elevate its line in order to bridge the Schuylkill River. The crossing from Bridgeport is visible in the far background.

P&W trains terminated at Norristown, but the line continued north all the way to Allentown as Lehigh Valley Transit. LVT interurbans ran all the way from the Lehigh Valley to P&W's 69th Street terminal in the Philadelphia suburb of Upper Darby.

The inbound train is a 160-series "Strafford" car, one of three types of rolling stock on the Norristown Line at the time.

The route, operated by Red Arrow Lines and later SEPTA, also hosted the famous 200-series Brill "Bullet" cars and the former North Shore Line "Electroliners", operating as "Libertyliners" Valley Forge and Independence Hall.

SEPTA subsequently cut the line back one block to the new Norristown Transit Center, built on the site of the former PRR Norristown train station. The intermodal center combines Route 100 interurbans, Norristown Line regional trains, and local bus routes.

Photographed by Thomas McCann, 1976.
Added to the photo archive by Thomas McCann, June 15, 2010.
Railroad: SEPTA.

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