10/24/2026
111 Years Ago Today: The Main Line Gets Its Half-Hourly Electric Trains
On Sunday, October 24, 1915, the Pennsylvania Railroad began running electric trains between Paoli and Broad Street Station every half hour, from 7:15 in the morning until 9:45 at night. For Main Line commuters, it was the moment the new electric railroad truly arrived.
The first electric train had run six weeks earlier. At 5:55 a.m. on Saturday, September 11, it pulled quietly out of Paoli Station. It reached Broad Street at 6:45. At first, that single train made four round trips a day, and steam trains handled the rest of the schedule.
The project had been a long time coming. By the early 1900s, more than 60 trains a day ran on the Main Line, and Broad Street Station was badly congested. In 1913, the railroad announced plans to electrify the 20 miles to Paoli, at a cost of about $4 million.
In the summer of 1913, the railroad tested different electrical systems on a stretch of track between St. Davids and Wayne. It settled on alternating current carried by overhead wires, ruling out a third rail as too dangerous for freight crews. Stringing those wires was perilous work. Crews of linemen climbed through the cables while express trains roared beneath them, and the Philadelphia Record compared them to a swarm of “human spiders” spinning a web of metal. Residents along the line had something to look forward to: relief from the smoke and cinders of steam engines.
The first steel cars arrived from the Pennsy’s Altoona shops in January 1915. Service was promised by June, but on a trial run several hundred of the wires supporting the overhead lines snapped. Replacing them took all summer, and the delay reportedly cost the railroad nearly $1,000 a day.
On that first run in September, the man at the controls was W. J. McClintock of Harrisburg, a veteran steam engineer retrained for electric operation. Riding with him was his old fireman, Charles Hogentogler of Paoli, who had no coal to shovel and nothing to do. Albert L. Greenwood, a Paoli printer, was the first passenger aboard, and Miss Estella Parker, also of Paoli, was the first woman to ride. The new trains picked up speed so quickly that they sometimes had to wait at a station to avoid running ahead of schedule. The Evening Public Ledger promised that the faster trip would give commuters “a little more time at breakfast.”
The October timetable added more local trains in both directions and a new evening express stopping at Devon, Berwyn, Daylesford and Paoli.
More than a century later, trains on this route still run under overhead wires today as SEPTA’s Paoli/Thorndale Line.
Sources:
Robert M. Goshorn and Robert E. Geasey, “The Electrification of the Paoli Local,” Tredyffrin Easttown History Quarterly 34, no. 4 (October 1996): 127–140
“P. R. R. Gets First Cars for Main Line Electric System,” Evening Public Ledger (Philadelphia), January 30, 1915, p. 2
“Tentative Schedule for Electric Trains,” Harrisburg Telegraph, March 16, 1915, p. 2
“Modern Electrified Railroad Line Is Built by the Pennsy,” Altoona Tribune, June 7, 1915, p. 7
“Pennsy Electric Service Delayed,” Altoona Tribune, July 24, 1915, p. 6
“Electric Trains Replacing Steam,” Altoona Tribune, September 11, 1915, p. 3
“P. R. R. Electric Trains to Paoli,” Pottsville Republican, September 11, 1915, p. 1
“P. R. R. to Begin Electric Service,” The Philadelphia Inquirer, September 11, 1915, p. 2
“First Electric Train Rushes In from Paoli” and “Main Line Sees Electric Train Service Started,” Evening Public Ledger, September 11, 1915, p. 3
“Will Open Electric Zone,” The New York Times, September 11, 1915, p. 15
“Electric Service Begins on P. R. R.,” The Philadelphia Inquirer, September 12, 1915, p. 4
“Electric Trains Run on Pennsy Main Line,” Altoona Tribune, September 13, 1915, p. 5
“Harrisburg Man Runs First Electric Train from Paoli on Pennsy,” The Patriot-News (Harrisburg), September 13, 1915, p. 2
“Extension of Electric Plan,” Delaware County Daily Times (Chester), October 21, 1915, p. 1
“Many Trains on Electric Branch,” Harrisburg Telegraph, October 21, 1915, p. 9
Images:
“P. R. R. Gets First Cars for Main Line Electric System,” Evening Public Ledger (Philadelphia), January 30, 1915, p. 2
“First Electric Train Rushes In from Paoli” and “Main Line Sees Electric Train Service Started,” Evening Public Ledger, September 11, 1915, p. 3
