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"Trolley No 22"

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TAKEN FROM HOTEL HERSHEY HIGH-LIGHTS DATED DECEMBER 28, 1946

TRANSIT COMPANY DISBANDS: TROLLEY REPLACED BY BUSES

 The trolleys of the Hershey Transit Company made their last runs on Saturday, December 21, on their lines between Hershey and Palmyra , Campbelltown, Hummelstown and Hotel Hershey.

At 6 a.m. Sunday, December 22, the Hershey Coach Company began operation with its buses traveling the routes formerly covered by the trolleys.

With Miles Levengood as manager of the new organization, the buses will carry passengers between the three towns and to Hotel Hershey.

Buses leaving Hershey for Hummelstown on the hour will go by way of Cocoa and Elm Avenues, follow Route 322 and return the same way, approximately the route covered by the Hershey Transit Company.  The will leave Hummelstown at 16 minutes after the hour for the return trip.

Those buses leaving the square in Hershey at thirty minutes after the hour will travel by way of Swatara Station and Route 422 and leave Hummelstown 46 minutes after the hour for the return trip.

            The route in Hummelstown has been extended to Union Street , just west of the railroad crossing, then to High street and to Main street on Walnut.

            In the run to Palmyra , the buses follow Route 422, continuing east two blocks beyond the square, then to Cherry Street to South Railroad and thence to Main for the return trip.

            The route of the buses traveling to Campbelltown is the same as that used by the trolleys, as is that to the Hotel Hershey.

            Trolleys began their service in the community in 1903, the year the town was founded by M. S. Hershey and they first traveled between Hummelstown and Palmyra .

            The first car barn was erected, where the windowless office building of the Hershey Chocolate Corporation now stands and it housed four trolleys.

            Lines were added to Campbelltown in 1907 and to Lebanon five years later. With the construction of more lines, a larger car barn was built on the site of what is now the East End apartment building.

            During 1914, a line reaching the vicinity of Hotel Hershey, then commonly known as Highland Park , was erected.  This was for the purpose of hauling materials to the Hershey Reservoir being constructed at the time.  After the reservoir’s  completion, the rails were no longer used and as a consequence became rusty.

            In 1930, however, plans were made to rebuild the neglected tracks as Hotel Hershey and the Hershey Industrial School were to be built on the hill overlooking the town.  By 1933 the railway was open for passengers to the Hotel and to the Industrial School .

            It was not until 1915 that the various lines were incorporated into the Hershey Transit Company, following the laying of tracks from Hershey through Deodate and on to Elizabethtown .

A.W. Flowers, who had been a conductor on the line until that time, was made dispatcher. After holding the post for eleven years, Mr. Flowers was named superintendent of the company and Harry Bistline was promoted to dispatcher.

            With the addition of the Hershey-Elizabethtown line came the need for a bigger car barn.  The 28 car garage located at the west end of Hershey was built in

1916 . At a considerably smaller one was built in Lebanon .

            Starting out with only three cars and six miles of railway in 1904, trolleys were added in proportion to the increased mileage until in 1940, the Hershey Transit Company boasted over 33 cars carrying freight and passengers over 35 miles of track