23-06-29 PHOTOS: South Hills Jct

During some recent trips through Pittsburgh I have had the opportunity to revisit the Port Authority Transit light rail that runs southward from the downtown triangle. In 2022 I made my first trip out to South Hills Village, with intermediate stops at Washington and Overbrook Junctions. For this year, while the 47L out to Library seemed tempting, the hour long trip time in each direction would exceed my time budget so I looked for something a bit closer to downtown. The obvious answer was to spend some time at South Hills Junction, located on the other side of the Mt Washington Transit Tunnel. So while I didn't go very far in distance I was able to explore one of the most interesting and iconic parts of the system. You can find the full gallery here ( mirror ).

As my visit involved an overnight stay I got this night photo of Pittsburgh Penn Station shrouded in the haze of wildfire spoke that had blown down from Canada. This haze would continue to impact my photos on the following morning's trip.

Heading out to South Hills Jct I pass Siemens SD-400 #4247 at the First Ave station. First Ave was built as an infill station to serve the south side of downtown which had seen increased development since the downtown light rail tunnel was opened in the mid 1980's. Part of this development was on the former site of the B&O Railroad station. First Ave also marks the boundary of the fare free downtown transit zone.

CAF LRV #4313 pulls out of South Hills Jct on a 42S Beechview Line run to South Hills Village. It is at this point where trains bound for the Overbrook line take the right hand diverging route onto the flyover.

PAT operates two batches of equipment, 55 SD-400 LRV's that entered service in 1985 and another 38 CAF SD-400 copies that came on board in 2003 for the restoration of the Overbrook Line. Apart from the numbers, the easiest way to tell the two classes apart is the design and placement of the center mounted headlamp. Below we see CAF LRV #4309 and SD-400 LRV's #4204 and #4230 departing South Hills Junction station towards Pittsburgh.

A week before my visit, Pittsburgh had hosted the American Public Transport Association (APTA) conference and had wrapped SD-400 #4202 for the occasion.

The Junction in "South Hills Junction" comes in the form of a double scissors crossover that connects on one side the Overbrook and Beechview Lines with the Allentown Line and Mt. Washington Tunnel on the other.

When built the service patterns made full use of the junction, but today it is essentially straight railed between the Mt Washington tunnel and the high level Beechview Line platforms as seen here with CAF LRV #4326.

Although a tower-like building is present, it is not clear if it is, or ever was, staffed for the purpose of routing trains through the junction. This is because the light rail system is equipped with automatic route setting transponders as seen under #4207. After LRV's berth at the platform, the route is lined and a Restricting signal displayed on the attendant dwarf signal.

The seemingly abandoned low level platforms at South Hills Jct are a remnant of the original Route 47 Overbrook line that bypassed the extensive street running on the 42 Beechview Line with a dedicated right of way that ran direct to Overbrook Junction. Modernization of the Overbrook line was deferred due to the cost of replacing large segments of single track and several rickety wooden trestles that could only support the weight of PCC cars. Routes 47 service was abruptly suspended in 1993 when the condition of the trestles became a safety hazard with rebuilt efforts beginning in 1999 and finishing in 2004. The "modern" LRV quality line would split/join with the Beechview via a brand new flying junction south of rebuilt high level platforms. The low level platforms would continue to see use as the terminal of the 52 Allentown, until that service was indefinitely suspended in 2011 due to recession era austerity cuts.

23-06-22 PHOTOS: Southern Solstice

Although my visits to Georgia have decreased from twice a year to once a year, the timing of the visits have changes from spring and fall to summer, allowing for more light into the evenings. This matters as my travel itinerary involving Train 79, 19 and 20 will benefit from the increased daylight hours. Although a rear facing window has been unavailable on any part of my route since 2015, I was still able to put together enough content ( mirror ) to create a worthwhile post.

Because Train 79 does not stop at the BWI Airport Rail Station, I now need to first grab a MARC train to DC. So here are a bunch of photos of MARC cab cars at both ends of the journey.

I arrived in plenty of time to catch the southbound Carolinian Train 79 and its associated power change where ACS-86 electric #664 was exchanged for the last P42DC delivered to Amtrak, #207.

The new track 22 platform at Washington Union Station was coming along with new concrete ties and rail being laid.

Amtrak P42DC #207 at the Richmond, Virginia RF&P station while a train of empty 1 TEU municipal waste cubes return empty to New York City.

Passing through Rocky Mount I spotted C40-10W #5355, ES44AH #3203 and SRS Doodlebug #144.

Train 79's baggage car #61068 at Raleigh.

Upon arrival at Greensboro I was able to get off the train, pass through the station and run the better part of half a mile to the Elm St crossing before #207 and Train 79 departed for Charlotte.

23-06-19a PHOTOS: Hoboken Terminal and Tonnelle Ave

Here is part 2 of my June 2023 combined NJT M&E / light rail trip. In part 1 I covered a round trip on the Newark City Subway, continuation to Newark Broad St and then stops at Denville and Summit before ultimately arriving at Hoboken Terminal. In part 2 I'll cover Hoboken Terminal before heading out to Tonnelle Ave on the HLBR. The full set of photos can be found here ( mirror ), just scroll down to see those photos covered in this section.

Upon arrival at Hoboken I encountered Arrow III MU #1314. Despite the M&E being largely electrified, MU's are only used on a few services such as the stop intensive Gladstone Branch locals.

Other equipment hanging out near the buffers included Comet V cab car #6063, #6035 and #6055, along with and split level cab car #7062 and Metro North Comet V cab car #6712 next to NJT Comet V cab car #6040.

Class leading NJT Comet V cab car #6000 could be found adjacent to the new track #5 end buffer that replaced a 1907 vintage buffer that was run through by a slow moving NJT train in 2016. The placement of the new stop mechanism cost about half a carlength of capacity.

The station interior was as gorgeous as ever.

The area outside the official main entrance has been named the George Warrington plaza.

NJT also installed this digital chart to cover all of the strange service patterns.

On the southern expansion platforms I found split level cab cars #7053 and #7037 along with a Metro North Comet V cab on storage track #19.

23-06-19 PHOTOS: Summit and Denville

One of my bigger blind spots has been NJT's non-NEC operations in North Jersey. In fact I can count the number of trips I've taken on this part of NJT over the last 20 years on one hand. In the summer of 2023 a surprise mid-week day off from work granted me the opportunity to plan a trip that would not only visit the notable junction stations at Summit and Denville, but also ride the Newark City Subway and HBLR. This set of photos will cover NCS, Denville and Summit parts of the trip with Hoboken Terminal and HBLR to follow. You can see the full set of photos here ( mirror ).

The trip's itinerary actually involved going first to Washington to meet up with a railfan friend to use an Amtrak BOGO coupon to go to Philly. After laying over a night we would continue to North Jersey before returning back south that afternoon. The first leg of my journey was an Amtrak Regional hauled by ACS-86 #638.

After that it was a transfer to and Acela trainset with power car #2029.

We had booked cheap tickets on an early AM Keystone which required an even earlier AM PATCO connection, dutifully provided by PATCO rebuild car #1005.

Departing Philly and passing the stored Acela II sets in the Penn Coach Yard before making all the local commuter stops on the NEC.

Our Keystone train continuing on to NYC while being pushed by ACS-86 #617.

Kinky LRV #114 would be our ride out to the intermediate terminal at Branch Brooke Park.

Branch Brooke Park had been the terminus of the City Subway when it had been serviced by PCC cars before their retirement in 2001, the old PCC loop being replaced by a pocket track.

Short turning at Branch Brooke Park instead of riding to the end of the line at Grove Street afforded some additional photo opportunities such as LRV #120 departing for Penn Station and #107 arriving for the headway after that.

Quick front facing video of the inbound ride from Branch Brook to NJIT. The NCS runs along the former Morris Canal right of way.



Making a quick transfer to LRV #119, I would take my first ever NCS trip to Newark Broad Street Station.

This was also my first time visiting Newark Broad St, which has remained an impressive facility despite the City's ups and downs.

23-06-10 PHOTOS: IRON 2 - Electrified Boogalo

Back in 2002 I paid a visit to Amtrak's IRON interlocking that literally site on the Mason-Dixon line between Maryland and Delaware. Well, IRON is actually just one of a surprisingly large number of signaling locations between DAVIS interlocking in Newark and the former PRR Elkton, MD station so a in the following year I returned to visit two more of the 5 total locations with the full set of photos available here ( mirror ).

The milepost 40.6 intermediate signal location is right off Delaware Route 276 behind an industrial estate with ample parking. It is northbound only due to the short signal distances between Elkton and Newark. The track A signal on the right is also equipped with a lower head / position to support an Approach Slow indication for a Slow Approach at the outer signal at DAVIS when the inner signal is at Stop. Here we see Amtrak ACS-86 #649 passing under the 406 signal bridge with a southbound Regional train.

The signal location is located immediately behind what used to be the Delaware Refrigeration Company, that even had a pretty substantial freight siding off NEC track #3. In addition to ample parking there are picnic tables if one finds themselves waiting around for some special move.

Just before I departed I happened to catch northbound Amtrak Silver Star Train 92 being hauled by ACS-86 #653.



The preceding northbound signals for track 2 and 3 are only a mile to the south at Milepost 41.6 and is co-located with IRON interlocking's northbound signal on track #1. Here ACS-86 #620 leads a southbound Regional under the signal bridge.

About the same time was a northbound Acela Express with power cars #2038 and #2016.

I unfortunately flubbed the photo of class leading Acela power car #2000 at the head of a southbound run. It was paired with #2002.

The southbound Milepost 41.1 tracks 2 and 3 automatic signals are co-mounted on IRON's southbound signal bridge, which is where I got my photos in 2022.

Moving on to some non-signaling photos, here is Acela power car #2036 early one morning at the BWI Airport Rail Station.