It was more than a hunk of steel rumbling down the street, they said yesterday on the old Route 6 trolley line.
A Route 6 trolley was a sliver of history, a slice of tradition, a rolling social hall that turned strangers into passing acquaintances.
Not to mention that it got you from point A (Broad and Olney) to point B (Cheltenham and Ogontz) for more than half a century. Sometimes on time.
The Route 6 line folded and died last night, leaving its tracks and overhead wires as its tombstone. Today, buses replace the trolleys.
"It won't be the same," said Earl E. Lawson, a SEPTA driving instructor who used to drive on Route 6 and has ridden it for 23 years.
"I live on the line in West Oak Lane, and you could tell time by the ding- dong of that trolley. Now you'll hear vroooommmm. Not the same."
The federal government still wants an explanation for the conversion, and several local groups are trying to bring Route 6 back from the dead. On Friday, some of them notified the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation of their intention to sue.
But the wake was held anyway. In attendance were 150 mournful, camera- toting members of a trolley association - some of whom came hundreds of miles for a final ride - and a representative of one of three groups that want to buy Route 6 for private operation.
SEPTA officials have said the trolleys are too difficult to maintain and to operate efficiently. Buses are just as comfortable and do not restrict automobile traffic the way trolleys do, they added.
That may be partly right, trolley operator Jeff Davis said yesterday as he piloted a trolley along Route 6. But he does not favor the decision.
"I think the trolleys seat more people, there's more of a tradition, and there's less pollution than buses," he said while hauling a standing-room- only crowd north on Ogontz.
"This is like history, and they're destroying it," said Gloria Lewis, who was traveling with 4-year-old nephew Lemar.
In recent years, operator Davis said, the line has been used primarily by people who want to shop at Cheltenham Mall at Cheltenham and Ogontz Avenues or by those who want to connect with subways and buses at Broad Street and Olney Avenue.
"I take the bus to Cheltenham and Ogontz, Route 6 to Broad and Olney, and the subway to work," said John Fennell of Mount Airy. He was with his 5-year- old daughter, Melissa, yesterday, riding Route 6 as part of a complicated route to grandma's house in Chester.
