End of the line

By Diane Villano-Prokop
Times Staff Writer

Lifelong Philadelphia resident Richard Mansley, 77, has spent about two-thirds of his life chasing down and charting the Newtown Railroad.
In The Newtown Railroad Reel: A Chronicle of the Philadelphia, Newtown, and New York Railroads, the retired draftsman has put together 14 volumes containing historical narrative and 238 meticulous drawings of railroad maps, stations, station houses, baggage buildings, lighting fixtures and even a weather vane — all things that have long since disappeared from view.
The railroad operated between Second Street and Lehigh Avenue in Philadelphia and Lincoln Avenue in Newtown, Bucks County.
The Bustleton resident, who has been interested in the railroad most of his life, had lost his enthusiasm with the demise of the steam locomotive. In the late 1950s, however, the Reading Railroad started running Iron Horse Rambles, excursion trains led by T-1 steam locomotives. Soon after, Mansley’s old interest became his newfound passion.
In 1960, Don Rose, a columnist for the old Philadelphia Evening Bulletin, had written a humorous article on the Newtown Railroad in his Stuff and Nonsense column, and Mansley went out to investigate.
In the course of his investigation, he realized that many of the things that he’d ordinarily see while traveling by rail were being destroyed or eliminated.
"If I put my tape measure to it, it was doomed. They were cannibalizing the system just to stay alive," he said of the rail line. "They got rid of anything that was a maintenance or tax problem."
While examining the structures along what is referred to as the Newtown Railroad, he became fascinated with its history. Originally chartered in April 1869 as the Philadelphia and Montgomery County Railroad Co., it broke ground in June 1872 and became known as the Philadelphia-Newtown Railroad. The name changed again in January 1873 — the Philadelphia Newtown and New York Railroad — and the trains chugged along until 1945, when the rail line merged with the Reading Co. It became known as the Newtown Branch after the merger and operated from Olney to Newtown until January 1983, when it finally reached the end of the line.
Today, SEPTA operates its R8 trains on the line up to Fox Chase, with Northeast Philadelphia stations at Olney, Lawndale, Cheltenham and Ryers.
"I got very involved with the history because it was so interesting," Mansley said.
He embarked on a journey of historical research, including research on structures that were being destroyed.
The expert draftsman starts with the map of the development of the railroad from 1876 to 1906, as well as a map of a stretch that remained in service in 2003.
In 1964, the last year that the Newtown Station was open to the public, Mansley measured as much of the structure as possible. After moving a wall of lockers in the station, he discovered a beautiful ornamental brick fireplace, which he recreated in his historical volumes.
Mansley traveled far and wide by rail, car and foot to learn all he could about the railroads.
"My friend and I hiked all over the Reading Lines, across to New Jersey and up to Easton from Bristol. We would go through underbrush to follow the tracks to find structures the same as or similar to the Newtown Station," Mansley said.
He has measured and photographed countless stretches of track and stations, something Mansley was quick to point out no longer could be done with today’s post-9/11 restrictions.
On a "rail-fan" trip (an excursion for train enthusiasts) to Cape May, Mansley spied a small shelter in the marsh that turned out to be a Victorian-style watch box, which Mansley painstakingly detailed in his collection. Before the days of automatic crossing signals, a crossing watchman would wait in a watch box for a train to come through. He’d then tote his lantern and stop sign to the roadway to halt traffic until the train went by.
"It’s always a ‘wow’ situation when you’d find something," Mansley said of his treasure hunts.
Many of the station buildings, such as those at the Fox Chase Station, were gone before Mansley could document them. Luckily for him, and for history’s sake, Mansley went searching for sources and sources came searching for him.
Mansley had advertised for information about the Newtown Railroad in Railfan magazine. A man who had a collection of survey transit books from 1907 contacted him. "It was a tremendous help. Prior to 1907, there were no real detailed records of railroads measurements," he said.
Mansley also had become acquainted with a gentleman who worked in the engineering department of the Reading Railroad and had access to blueprints. The man helped the rail historian get information on many of the stations.
The Fox Chase Station was torn down on May 8, 1963, but the design plans of renowned Philadelphia architect Theophilus P. Chandler Jr., dated Feb. 21, 1889, were still on record.
"The Fox Chase Station was completely gone. I was fortunate to get those plans," Mansley said.
When Conrail took over the Reading lines, company workers cleaned out an engineering vault at the downtown annex building next to the terminal. An artist named Ted Xaras fortunately took everything he could get his hands on, Mansley explained, managing to salvage a map and original architectural drawings for the Southampton Station.
On a rail trip from York to Delta, Pa., near the Maryland border, Mansley spent a whole day in Delta while measuring and photographing a steam locomotive turntable, a rotating platform that turns the locomotive around. This same turntable stood at Fox Chase, and Newtown, with another similar to it at the Bryn Athyn Station. It now can be seen at the National Museum of Transport in St. Louis.
"These were all thrilling occurrences. It was all the incidences, one after the other, that kept the project moving along. It was bits and pieces but it kept developing," Mansley said.
As part of his research, he made many trips to the Bucks County Historical Society in Doylestown to study archived copies of the Newtown Enterprise.
"The papers were so fragile," he said.
After retiring, he approached the society and the Newtown Historical Society with an offer to help pay the cost of microfilming the periodicals. They agreed.
According to Mansley, the Bucks County Historical Society brought bound volumes to the Newtown Historical Society in lots, which he transferred to microfilm. He’s been a volunteer for the Newtown Historical Society ever since.
"It’s been a win-win situation," Mansley said.
With the help of that research, his chronology covers the evolution of transportation, from traveling by animal to relying on the power of the internal combustion engine. It really took place from 1830 to 1930 — from riding horses to steam-powered trains, then diesel trains, and the arrival of automobiles.
Mansley’s railroad research has taken him to 1933. He’s hopeful that his volumes, once the transportation project is finished, will span 1783 to 1983.
"Nothing like that had been accomplished in the human race during that short a time period," Mansley said of the changing modes of transportation. "It’s quite impressive, the way we travel around on the Earth." ••
Reporter Diane Villano-Prokop can be reached at 215-354-3036 or dvillano@phillynews.com