was upset,” Schmitt says, adding,
“When I think of it now, it was
an idyllic time to live. It would be
impossible to live like that in this
day and age.”
At age 12 he got his own
bike, a Sears J.C. Higgins three-
speed English racer. “To me, it was like
a Cadillac after riding my sister’s bike,”
Schmitt says. With his own wheels, he
continued to visit the trail regularly. He
says he was often the only cyclist—and
sometimes, the only person—on the
trail, since it was a dirt trail. “I was the
only idiot riding bikes back there,” he
laughs.
He rode the trail off and on in the
1960s and 1970s, taking a break to
serve in the Air Force. In the late
1970s and early 1980s, “I’d take
my children down the trail with
me on a bike seat,” he says.
Schmitt remembers the trail
being paved section by section,
until the paving was completed
in the 1980s. That, along with
local development and concerts
in a nearby park, brought more
and more people out to the trail.
His children grew up and
moved out of the area, but all
three of them bike today—with
Schmitt during family visits and
with their own children near
their homes.
Ask Schmitt how trails have
affected him over the years,
and he pauses before giving a
simple and poignant answer. “I proba-
bly wouldn’t be a bike rider if there were
no trails. Around here now, with the car
traffic, it’s almost impossible to ride on
the street. I think I would have given up
bike riding a long time ago.”
“I’m really glad that the Newtown
Branch is there. It’s a great trail,” he
says.
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COURTESY BIRMINGHAM CITY COUNCIL
A Life of Biking Comes Full Circle for Philly Railroad Retiree
By Amy Kapp
COURTESY WILL SCHMITT
W
hen Will Schmitt began riding
the Pennypack Trail Extension
last year, you might say things had
come full circle for the 69-year-old
native of Northeast Philadelphia. The
Pennypack Trail is a 12.4-mile in-
progress rail-trail that includes a por-
tion of corridor along the old Fox
Chase-Newtown Branch Line in
Montgomery, Philadelphia and Bucks
counties. And its extension project
hits particularly close to home for
Schmitt.
During his career, Schmitt spent
a lot of time with railroads, first
working for the Reading Railroad,
then for Conrail and eventually
for the Southeastern Pennsylvania
Transportation Authority (SEPTA).
By the time he was promoted to
deputy director of SEPTA’s commuter
rail Fox Chase Line, the Newtown
branch—which he would have over-
seen—had long ceased operating.
“The ground was just sitting there
going to waste, but I always thought
it would be a really neat bicycle trail,”
Schmitt says.
And, as they say, where there’s
a “Will,” there’s a way. The same
things that had played large roles in
Schmitt’s life—biking, trails and rail
lines—helped him find his way back
there after his retirement in 2006.
Schmitt started walking on the
Pennypack Trail when he was 4 years
old to reach the local creek, where he
and his family often swam. Schmitt
says he learned to ride a bike that
summer and that it was the trail itself
that inspired him to do so. A short
time later, he began to take his sister’s
bike down to the trail on his own,
much to the chagrin of his mother.
“When my mother found out I
was riding down there by myself, she
COURTESY WILL SCHMITT
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