After the Covid induced SEPTA Mid-Winter Trip XX walking tour of downtown Philly rail sights, SEPTA Mid-Winter Trip XXI would represent a return to normal, albeit one still impacted by the ongoing cuts to weekday SEPTA service levels. The headline trip of MWT XXI was taking the R3 all the way to Elwyn in its final year of it being the terminus of the Media / West Chester Line as the new Wawa station neared completion. The rest of the trip included a slow meander back to Center City via the Routes 101, 100, R5 and 10. Attendance was robust and you can view the entire gallery of photos here ( mirror ).
For me the day started at the Woodcrest PATCO station with rebuilt car #1002. With PATCO express service showing no signs of making a comeback there is no longer any need to travel out to Lindenwold to secure a frontish seat window.
Although technically the MWT starts at Market East, it doesn't have to begin with an outbound Regional Rail ride, although that's often how it works out in practice as it tends to make the itinerary a bit easier to schedule. Here is Silverliner IV #362 on the 8:50 R1 Airport run ahead of our outbound R3 Elwyn.
After wrong railing in from Media for reasons unknown, the trip reached Elwyn with SEPTA Silverliner IV #300 leading.
In 1986 SEPTA R3 service was cut back from West Chester due to declining ridership on the slow, single track line past Elwyn. Elwyn has no other importance except for being the place where the switch was that allowed trains to turn back. The Mid-Winter Trip had never bothered to visit Elwyn because of the convenient Route 101 connection in Media.
The layover in Elwyn was only about 20 minutes so we were soon back at the Media station, ready to walk the 3 or so blocks to the SEPTA Route 101 trolley terminus.
Our suburban trolley into 69th Street that day would be K-car #126.
Meeting K-car #109 on the passing siding just east of the Media street running. The spring switches have been recently interlocked as part of an ongoing re-signaling project.
This post is a companion to the previous photo post covering the use of R32 cars on the 2021 NYCTA Holiday Train. This will contain all of the associated video content I recorded on this trip.
We begin with the Holiday Train pulling into the 2nd Ave station express tracks with #3360 leading, visually modified to resemble its 1964 appearance.
Because of the crowding in the lead car, I decided to settle for the reverse view. I also had to use an extension wand to place my camera against the railfan window due to a Covid safety theatre rope that kept people away from the cab area. Because the run was pretty much all express, I was able to get it in one 25 minute take starting at Broadway-Lafayette and continuing to the terminus of the run at 145th St. The train was running as a 'D' train via a 6 Avenue express routing.
Here is the return video in the #3894 car starting at 125th St and continuing on to the 2nd Ave terminus of the run.
After most of another complete round trip, I decided to bail out at W 4th St and get back to Penn Station. Here is the rear view from 34th St on the 6th Ave to W 4th.
I'll wrap things up with one more video I caught at Hamilton after returning from NYC. I managed to catch part of a three way meet between my train with NJT ALP-46 #4635, Amtrak ACS-86 #605 on southbound Silver Star Train 91 and a northbound Acela Express. The commuter train unfortunately blocked out most of the Acela, but managed to move just before Train 91 passed by.
Well that's it for the videos, I'll have even more for the R32 retirement run however before that will be SEPTA Mid-Winter Trip XXI.
As the concept of the NYC Transit Museum sponsored holiday trains enters their second decade they have had to do some innovation as running a set of R1/9's between 2nd Ave and Queens Plaza started getting a bit repetitive. The first set of changes involved different routes such as going up Central Park West to 135th or 145th Streets, but as the ultimate retirement of the R32 cars approached, the powers that be decided to give the "obviously vintage" R1/9 cars a year off and substitute in the R32's for holiday duty running on the 2nd Ave to 145th St CPW routing. Of course a change to the itinerary meant I felt required to make the trek up from South Jersey to ride them and you can find the full set of photos here ( mirror ).
My day started early at Hamilton where I passed on an NJT Corridor Line local pushed by ALP-46 #4635 in favor of an express led by split level cab car #7013.
PATH's long headways now makes it quicker to just go directly to Penn Station wher I caught an R46 A train to West 4th Street.
While waiting for an F to 2nd Ave I noted that W 4TH ST tower has closed since my last visit in December 2019.
I also caught the R32 holiday train heading north on the lower level, likely having traveled from Coney Island and needing to make a reverse move to get to 2nd Ave.
An R160 F Train soon arrived on the local track and transported me to 2nd Ave where the r32 holiday train soon arrived with southward leading car #3360 modified by the transit museum to resemble its as-delivered 1964 condition.
Northward leading car #3894 was equipped with a wreath and signed as a "D" train for the day's service.
In 2021, although I had already been to Denver once, my friend had some expiring airline benefits and we decided to go again before the end of the year. This time we looked at a map and figured we could visit the western side of Rocky Mountain National Park, which, during the winter months, is not directly accessible from the eastern side that we had previously visited in 2020. Although both sides of the park are kinda blah in winter, a trip to the western side would take my party past the Moffat Tunnel route Amtrak stations of Granby and Fraser-Winter Park. In addition to those railfanning opportunities, I also had the occasion to ride the Denver RTD Light Rail "W" line that is often recommended for its great scenery. You can find the full set of photos here ( mirror ).
Starting out in Granby it was some time before either California Zephyr Trains 5 or 6 would pass, so I figured I would just grab some photos of the station and platform.
Suddenly from out of the blue, an eastbound Union Pacific manifest train appeared with AC4400 #6303, AC4400 #7225 and SD70ACe #3059 in the front and AC's4400 #7047 and #7206 pushing on the rear.
A new Granby station building had been recently built, but was not yet open for passengers.
Although the Winter Park ski resort has its own station for Ski Train use, regular Amtrak Trains 5 and 6 use the stop at Fraser, CO, about 4 miles to the south.
Although the detached station building is a bit hum drum, it has the coolest door art of any Amtrak station.
As train #6 approached, a pair of kids appeared with a cart selling $1 drinks and snacks. Apparently the concession is passed down from one family to another as the children age out.
The engineer on Amtrak P42DC #22 gave the kids some horn as Train 6 pulled into the station.
P42DC #22 was paired up with P42DC #152.
Fraser-Winter Park, like Grand Junction and Glenwood Springs is an extended "smoking" stop due to the amount of time it takes to cross western Colorado.
With a clear signal at EE FRASER Amtrak Train 6 departed, sounding the horn for Eisenhower Ave. At over 8500 feet, these engines are working hard on the ascending grade to the Moffat Tunnel summit located at over 9000 feet.
Jumping back to Denver, I caught a train of RTD SD100/160 LRVs on the towntown loop at the 16th and California station with #214 and United wrapped #218.
Union Station was seeing quite a bit more action with Silverliner V trains on the A, B, G and N routings now terminating there. When I walked through early on a Sunday morning, a single married pair with #4037 was sitting on track 8 I think waiting for a B Line departure to Westminster.
My plan was to catch an 'E' Line train to Auraria Station and then change to a 'W' Line train there. I arrived at the light rail part of Union Station just in time for an 'E' route train to leave as I stepped up.
Here is the 'E' line LRV that I eventually caught. #285 was leading two others.
RTD LRV's #333, #288, #310 and #219 at Auraria.
Some of the 'W' Line scenery crossing US Route 6 west of downtown.
RTD LRV #319 and #232 at the terminus of the 'W' Line at the Golden-Jefferson County station before departing back towards downtown Denver.
In addition to all of the rail vehicles there were lots and lots of Mule Deer.
Back at the airport I got another head end video from the Denver International Airport peoplemover.
And that wraps it up for my 2021 holiday season trip to Denver. I hope you all enjoyed the photos. Next week I'll be back with some content of R32 subbing in for the usual holiday train.
For the past 8 years I have been using my annual trip to Chicago to collect railfan window video footage from inbound peak period express runs on Metra, the local commuter rail system. 2021 would be no different and my target for the trip would be a run on the Milwaukee North Line between Deerfield and Union station with a single stop at Western Ave. After I was at Union Station I walked down to get some photos from the Roosevelt Ave overpass. You can view the foll gallery here ( mirror ).
The Mayfair Station is adjacent to the famous 2x3 diamond crossing with the Chicago Northwestern, currently the Metra CNW-Northwest Line. While waiting at the station an inbound Metra train led by gallery cab car #8548 arrived ontrack #1 just before my outbound local showed up with F40PH-3 #115 in the lead.
On the outbound trip my local passed additional inbound trains including one with Metra F59PHI #92 near Glenview and an Amtrak Hiawatha service train with SC44 #4608.
Getting off at Deerfield here is a photo of the outbound shelter with my Gallery type cab car #8510.
My inbound Gallery cab car would be #8531.
If you could like to watch the video of this entire inbound express run you can watch it here.
On my inbound run my train encountered outbound local with MP36PH-3C #421, the Mayfair diamond with MP36PH-3C #411 and the now closed TOWER A-5.
