The fourth annual SEPTA Mid-Winter Trip took place in 2004 and was built around the mid-day Cynwyd round trip, departing Suburban Station. At the time SEPTA was actively trying to kill the Cynwyd branch service, but despite all of its efforts people kept riding the line and in the following years ridership would actually increase so much that it started to require a single married pair to serve them (as opposed to a single Silverliner unit).
To fill the morning the trip ventured out onto the Market Street Elevated, which was being targeted for reconstruction, and the R8 Fox Chase Line. After Cynwyd the trip embarked on a CHE to CHW transfer, continuing up at North Philadelphia and finishing with a BSS Fern Rock express turn. All in all it was a fantastic trip with a lot of Silverliner II and III action. I got a lot of photos of "things that aren't there any more" and if you'd like to check out the entire set you can find it
here.
First stop in the morning was the Market Frankford Line 62nd St station where a new headhouse was under construction.
Returning to Center City, the group transfered to an R8 Fox Chase. Here we are getting a Medium Clear signal indication at NEWTOWN JCT. You can see the removed connections to the Reading Wayne Jct freight bypass that had since been re-designated the Conrail (CSX) Trenton Line. CSX was in the process of untangling itself from the control of SEPTA dispatching both here on the R8 and northern R3 West Trenton.
The flat junction with a movable point diamond would soon be reconfigured into a more typical configuration leading to a single track line.
SEPTA Lawndale Station. Today the outbound platform is closed because SEPTA and CSX couldn't learn to share.
At CP-CHELTENHAM JCT the former Reading Newtown Branch diverges from the New York Short Line. The branch was electrified to the City border in Fox Chase in the 1960's. SEPTA ultimately replaced double track segment with a single passing siding between Cheltenham and Lawndale.
Budd Silverliner II #257 at Fox Chase.
At one point the Fox Chase siding was bounded by interlockings on each end. Here NORTH CHASE interlocking stands abandoned, although its signals and overhead lines remain intact. Beyond this point diesel RDC shuttle service operated until the early 1980's. Attempts to reduce costs by converting the line into a transit operation also failed. Service has been "temporarily" suspended since then with SEPTA leading parts of the RoW as trails to pretty much prevent a full restoration of service.
Our R8 train was composed of 3 Budd Silverliners with #217 on the reverse end, seen here laying over at Fox Chase.
Diesel power at 30th St station was in transition. New P42DC's had taken over from F40PHs and HHP-8's had displaced the E-60's, but AEM-7's and high hood GP-8/10 rebuilds were still on the active roster.
Here a fairly new P42DC #145 sits next to GP-10 #770 painted in MoW orange.
Amtrak N-11 Caboose was of PRR or Conrail vintage. These utilitarian boxes were built to replace the earlier classically designed N-5 series of cabin cars in PRR service.
NJT GP40PH-2B #4205 arrives into the lower level of 30th St station with an Atlantic City Line train. 15 years later the GP40PH-2B's would still be holding down this assignment.
Heading out to Cynwyd the single SL-IV car departs Suburban and joints PRR Main Line on the same route of such famous trains as the Broadway Limited, which arrived from New York via the NY-Pittsburgh Subway to the left.
Previously Main Track #4, the "Valley Jct" ramp and Flyover were built to send passenger trains over the adjacent Belmont freight yards. This was because freight trains kept to the middle tracks while most passenger trains stayed on the outer tracks. Valley Junction gets it name from the Schuylkill Valley Branch that departed the Main Line at this point. Here we can see the old 52nd St station that had its platform elevated on the ramp to serve outbound trains on track 4.
In 1994 a new track 4 was constructed so that SEPTA's new Overbrook Maintenance Facility could be built on the old track 4 alignment. Westbound trains would cross over at the new STILES interlocking just west of ZOO. This move was intended to remove the burden of maintaining the increasingly dilapidated Valley flyover bridge. SEPTA, assuming the Cynwyd service would eventually be terminated, put no work into the bridge, eventually seeing train speeds reduced to 5mph. It was only around 2015 that work was started on a new flat connection between the Main Line and the Cynwyd branch that would allow the bridge to be retired. Here we can see the old Valley truss and the VALLEY interlocking 68L signal, remotely controlled from OVERBROOK tower.
