Thomas Hall Railroad Passes

Thomas Hall was my great-grandfather (his son was Chester Roberts of West Chester, and the next generation was Edward H. Roberts… my dad). Thomas was a railroad man for most of his career, treasurer of the first railroad to West Chester from the intersection of the Pennsylvania RR at what is now Malvern. He then became treasurer of the West Chester & Philly RR during its 11-year life, before it became part of Pennsylvania Railroad.

One of the traditions back then was “courtesy passes,” allowing workers on different railroads free passage on others. This small group of seven from the estate of Thomas were in a drawer in my father’s room when he died in 2005, and when I realized they were collectible I eBayed them. Two went home to railroad museums…

I’m parking this little collage here for the benefit of future rail historians, though I regret that I scanned them with ancient technology and the images are low-resolution. The group photo below is clickable for a readable version…