Edited by David Wartel
The Cardington Branch skirted the eastern boundry of Upper Darby and after traveling under Market Street it terminated at the 69th Street terminal, used by both the Red Arrow Transportation Co. (Suburban trolleys and buses) and the Philadelphia Transportation Company (City buses and the subway) MP 8.8.
The Cardington branch was a short branch line of the Pennsylvania Railroad as well as a relative late comer. The original plans for what was to become the Newtown Square Branch included a branch into the area of Millbourne Mills. Construction started in August of 1899 by the Philadelphia and Delaware County Railroad Company. The branch was to be about 2.3 miles in length branching from the Newtown Square Branch from a point below Marshall Road to the Millbourne Mills. The original customers of this industrial spur were to be the Millbourne Mills, a flour mill, and the Carding Woolen Mills (from which the branch received its name.) At Millbourne Mills, a yard was built that required the altering of the course of Cobbs Creek. This had the effect of slightly altering the border between Philadelphia and Upper Darby. The line was completed in August of 1900.
In the second half of the first decade of the 1900's the area around 69th street in Upper Darby was starting to become the transportation hub it become in the middle of the 20th century. This caused the branch to be extended from Millbourne Mills to the 69th Street terminal area.
Excerpt from 1900 CT1000
Excerpt from 1913 CT1000
Excerpt from 1923 CT1000
Excerpt from 1945 CT1000 E
Xaras, Theodore A. "The Cardington Branch" The High Line, Philadelphia: Philadelphia Chapter, Pennsylvania Railroad Technical & Historical Society, vol. 8 no. 1 (1987).
___ "The Pennsylvania Railroad C.T. 1000 July 1, 1900" Philadelphia: Pennsylvania Railroad, (1900)
___ "The Pennsylvania Railroad C.T. 1000 January 1, 1913" Philadelphia: Pennsylvania Railroad, (1913)
___ "The Pennsylvania Railroad C.T. 1000 November 1, 1923" Philadelphia: Pennsylvania Railroad, (1923)
___ "The Pennsylvania Railroad C.T. 1000 E. May 1, 1945" Philadelphia: Pennsylvania Railroad, (1945)
Copyright 1996 - 2008
Last modified: November 24 2007.
Keystone Crossings has served 4840704 pages since June 1, 1997.