An illustrated presentation by Harry Garforth

Wednesday, April 10, 2024, 6 pm

The presentation will be on the “History of Rail Transportation in Frankford” including the Frankford Elevated. The Elevated celebrated its 100th Anniversary in November 2022. The program will concentrate on the start of rail service in 1833 and cover its evolution through service provided by railroads, street railways, and elevated railways. It will also cover the opening day festivities, and lightly touch on the important dates in the 100-year history of the Elevated.

Copies of the speaker’s book, “Frankford’s Elevated Railway and Its Predecessors”, will be available for purchase.

Mr. Garforth was raised in the Roxborough section of Philadelphia, in a transit dependent family. He quickly became familiar with public transit. This familiarization led to an interest in transit operations. After graduating college in 1975, he secured a position with SEPTA initially as a bus operator, but quickly advanced through management to the position of Operations Planning Manager. After a 37-year career at SEPTA, Harry moved over to Amtrak as a Principal Officer Service Planning. In seven years at Amtrak, he advanced to the position of Director of Rail Service & Planning. After working in the industry for 45 years, he retired at age 68. In retirement, Harry has resumed his writing career and has recently published a railroad history book and several articles. His first book published in 1998, “Rails through Manayunk”, continues to be a reference source for many railroad historians.

Free and open to Everyone

The presentation will be live-streamed. Here is the link to register for the talk.
https://bit.ly/FLPGarforth

After the presentation the talk will be available to view on the Library’s FaceBook page.
https://www.facebook.com/HistoryFLP/videos/1561227377943516

The meeting room will open at 5:30, talk will begin at 6:00

Location: Parkway Central Free Library, 1901 Vine Street
Enter the Heim Center classroom at the back of the library on Wood Street.

There is metered parking around the library building and a paid parking lot behind the library with an entrance off Callowhill Street.