10-12-28 PHOTOS: SEPTA Mid-Winter Trip X

See, I'm making progress. Last year I was able to use the Mid-Winter Trip IX report as a promotion for Mid-Winter Trip X. This time around I haven't even gotten around to announcing the date, which just happens to be December 27th this year so mark your calenders. Anyway last year the originally planned MWT was postponed a day on account of blizzard conditions so with a change in date and piles of snow still disrupting travel turnout for the milestone 10th anniversary trip was a little lighter than I had been expecting, but still a good time was had by all.

After a very Regional Rail intensive trip in 2009, MWT X was going to fall back to the city trolley division with an R1-Rt 36-Rt 10-Rt 15 connection in the morning followed up by a novel Rt 66-R7-BSS connection after lunch. The weather was superb with bright sun in the sky and a thick coating of white snow on the ground. For those who choose to show up they were in for a real treat.

Now as I tend to get caught up in these trip with both running the trip and talking to people my photo output can actually end up pretty light and MWT X was an example of this. Part of the reason was due to the very productive Snow Day trip the day before and part was that I didn't have a lot of railroad signals and such to document on this more trolley heavy routing.

So, if you want to see the entire set of 90 some odd photos I did take please click here either before or after you continue on to see a more selective sample.

We begin with Silverliner IV #280 depositing us off at the Eastwick Regional Rail station before our half mile or so walk over to the Eastwick Rt 36 trolley loop.

Hanging out at the loop were K-Car trolleys #9009 and 9041.

9009 would be our ride back into 30th St and after traveling up the Island Ave Right of Way and turning onto Elmwood we saw #9016 fall in behind us before pulling into the Elmwood Depot. 

As we approached the 40th St portal I saw a bit of a trolley traffic jam behind us at 43rd St.

At 30th St we transferred to a Rt 10 trolley with K-Car 9079 here shown at Girard shortly after dropping us off.

While waiting for an eastbound Rt 15 we were presented with two Callowhill Depot pull in moves using the Rt 15 tracks on Girard. The first was K-Car #9103.

The second was K-Car #9043, although some random holeless guy kinda ruined my shot.

If two pull-in wasn't enough, behind them came an orange SEPTA work vehicle carrying a bed full of trolley axles. I wasn't sure if they were for K-cars or PCC IIs.

We then saw an inbound Rt 10 with K-Car #9025.

Finally a salt encrusted PCC II #2332 arrived to take us back downtown for lunch. Given the amount of corrosion these things must be suffering I'm not sure how many more decades they'll be around :-(

After lunch it was out on the MFL to the Frankford Terminal to catch a Rt 66 Trackless Trolley. Here is M-4 car #1151 at said terminal.

We took one of the new Trackless Trolleys *#818) out to Grant Ave in Northeast Philly which was only about a half mile from the Torresdale R7 stop.

Here it was time for the trip photo with all those who attended. Thanks so much for coming and shame on all those bums who are scared of a little snow.

 At Torresdale we caught a northbound Amtrak Keystone train with AEM-7 #901 pushing.

In MWT IX I had scheduled all sorts of RR trains and time taking photos of RR trains hoping to catch some IIs and IIIs and we barely got a single one. In this trip with hardly any Regional Rail trips we were lucky enough to catch a 4 car set of 3 IIs and 1 III northbound on the R7, with Reading car #9012 in the lead.

Behind 9012 was PRR car #252.

And bringing up the rear was another PRR car #262.

Well the Silverliner II/III parts had to end when S-IV #317 pulled in with an inbound R7 that was actually labeled as such.

Getting off at the always classy North Philadelphia station we were surprised to catch a "class train" on the opposing platform. This one train had an example of each of SEPTA's active MU fleet (the V's not officially being in service yet). This consisted of a married pair Silverliner IV, a Silverliner III and a Silverliner II.

Of course what MWT would be complete without a ride around the BSS Fern Rock yard and its not yet scrapped historic fleet.

We caught a ridge train at Fern Rock and rode it down all the way to Fairmount where we re-transfered to the standard BSS. While at that "other" Fairmount station I took a picture of the platform...

...and the tunnel. In the trackbed you can see an Identra loop for BRS trains to automatically set their route at the junction with the main line.

I'll end this report with a photo of the Divine Loraine Hotel situated right next to the Fairmount Station. This is one of those epic urban exploration targets just waiting some sort of renovation like the Michigan Central Station or Buffalo Union Terminal.

Next time tune in for an exciting ride up and down the NYCS Flushing Line.