11-04-02 PHOTOS: Philly Sights

Spring is usually quiet for me rail photography wise due to the rain and mud so here is the first of a pair of "short subject" sets that were taken in March and April of 2011. Here I was taking a quick trip to Philly with a friend from Arizona to show her around and along the way I managed to get in a few rail and semi-rail related photographs.

I began at 30th St Station where I caught a Regional Rail train downtown into Suburban so show my friend around the City Hall area. 

Just like Silverliner II #269, evidence of the old Pennsylvania Railroad is still littered about such as this example at the 16th St entrance to Suburban Station.

And of course the main entrance to Suburban Station.

Across the street the new Kabletown Comcast USB Stick rises from the PRR overbuild. 

And the newly sand-blasted City Hall clock tower rises in the opposite direction. For those of you who don't know this is the second tallest stone masonry building in the world.

While for decades a gentleman's agreement kept City Hall as the tallest structure in the city, #2 on that last is the now Nationally Registered Historic Place PSFS Building, which was one of the first modern style skyscrapers built in the United States, opening in 1932, with such innovations as air conditioning. Because the building is now a hotel that means one can simply walk in and take an elevator to the former PSFS board room, which is now used for event hosting. Here we can see a more even view of the city skyline including Liberty Place 1 and 2 as well as the Comcast USB stick.

Here we can see the statue of Billy Penn and the Concast Stick in the background. Hopefully the rise of the Comcast tower won't result in another 25 year sports curse.

Another unique feature of City Hall is that it is covered in hundreds of sculptures by Alexander Milne Calder (no, the other Calder). There are so many pieces of art that some consider the entire building to be one large public sculpture.

Moving on to Penn's Landing we find the oldest steel warship still afloat, USS Olympia (C-6), moored next to WW2 era, GUPPY converted submarine USS Becuna (SS-319). The museum that owns and operates the two ships is currently having major funding problems and cannot afford to conduct repairs on the Olympia and has been saying that the ship may need to be scrapped or sunk if such funds cannot be sourced.

Driving along the trolley line on Delaware Ave was an Magnette ZB.

I was back on rail transportation with a quick ride on the MFL out and back to Frankford Jct to kill some time. Here my return train pulls out of and crosses over at Frankford Terminal.



Here is a picture of M-4 car #1136 at Berks.

And another railfan window ride from Spring Garden to 2nd Ave. This is the part that runs down the middle of I-95 before diving into the Market Street tunnel.



Well that's it for this little set. Stay tuned for another set covering various random photos taken in the spring.