23-11-22 PHOTOS: Croydington

Amtrak's Thanksgiving Programme ain't what it used to be. Despite ridership recovering to pre-COVID highs, Amtrak is no longer in the business of adding trains and renting extra equipment. To some extent Amtrak has already added capacity to its regular schedule with more and longer Regional trains, thus leaving little ability to "surge" for the holiday, however the lack of rented commuter trainsets does question if they are truly doing all they can. I was told the manager who made the Thanksgiving push possible retired and nobody else stepped up to make it happen, but Amtrak's lean in to dynamic pricing can provide another part of the explanation in that its far more profitable to raise prices than jump through hoops surging capacity. Regardless I am not about to break a multi-decade long tradition of going out on Thanksgiving Wednesday to take photos along the NEC between Trenton and Philadelphia. Like some previous years my preferred target was Croydon SEPTA station, due to an adjacent lunch location, however I also includes stops to photograph the signals at CROY interlocking and my first ever visit to the seldom used Eddington SEPTA station. You can find the full set of 2023 Thanksgiving Wednesday photos here ( mirror ).

CROY interlocking is directly adjacent to US Route 13, although its location on the far track #1 made some of the photos a bit challenging. CROY allows local freight trains to access an industrial park without having to obtain a Form D to move against the current of traffic west of GRUNDY interlocking in Bristol. The first train to pass was a westbound Keystone service train with ACS-86 #643 pulling ahead of a 9600 series Metroliner cab car and #636 on the rear. The push-pull configuration wasn't because the 5 car train needed 17200hp, but because of some of equipment failure on the increasingly unreliable Metroliner cab.

Next up was a 4-car Silverliner V Trenton-bound SEPTA R7.

Next to appear was a westbound Acela with ultimate power car #2039 seen here passing in front of the eastbound track #1 mast signal at CROY.

At the Croydon Station, a couple of Eagles dressed railfans were out with a tripod and ready to catch an eastbound Keystone train with ACS-603 and functioning Metroliner Cab Car #9649.

The previous Keystone met an inbound R7 local with Silverliner V #845 leading, which in turn met an outbound R7 led by Silverliner IV #168.

This was followed by a pair of Acelas, the first was a southbound with power car #2011 leading and the second a northbound with power cars #2038 leading and #2016 trailing. The southbound also passed an outbound SEPTA R7 local with Silverliner IVs #138, #137, #370 and #369 that happened to be stopped at the station.

The final action was a meet between two Amtrak Regional trains just east of Croydon station. The northbound Regional is being hauled by ACS-86 #651 and the southbound #620. The speed of the northbound Regional is evident from the track #2 694 automatic signal progressing from Stop and Proceed, to Approach to Clear all within a minute after passing.



Currently designated as a flag stop, Eddington has some of the lowest ridership on the entire Regional Rail Division and is perennially targeted for closure.

As my third Keystone of the day passed by in the westbound direction with ACS-86 #652 and Metroliner cab car #9641, I noticed that CSX GP40-2 #4450 was approaching on the Eddington Industrial Track running lite.

From what I could find this industrial track is served by Conrail local freight FJ-2 running out of Frankford Jct yard. The Oaks Model RR Guy would frequently video at Eddington so seeing the Conrail crew enter the NEC at the hand-throw switch and then trundle back to Frankford Jct brought back some pre-YouTube nostalgia.

Before it could re-enter NEC track #1, it had to wait for the hourly R7 local to pass by. The outbound R7 had Silverliners IV #160 and #425 on the ends. While running time on the hand throw switch, the inbound train also passed by on the far track with the #138, #137, #370 and #369 Silverliner IV train that I had previously seen getting passed by Acela power car #2011 at Croydon.

In this video we see #4450 drift through the station before waiting at the hand throw switch while passed by both R7 Trenton Locals in addition to a southbound Amtrak Regional powered by ACS-86 #628

After waiting the required 8 or so minutes for the SL-25 switch locks to release, the crew re-entered main track #1 and proceeded in the reverse direction back to HOLMES interlocking and/or Frankford Jct yard.

All in all I can see the appeal of railfanning the NEC at Eddington, especially if one can predict the schedule of FJ-2. Tune in next time as I head back to the NEN on Black Sunday.