24-04-14 VIDEOS: Over 9000!

Friends of Philadelphia Trolleys have been organizing multiple charters on SEPTA's extensive streetcar network per year for the last few decades and until April of 2024 I had ridden exactly zero of of them until when a trip featuring the newly heritage painted #9000 was offered. TLDR I can see why people were always enthusiastic about these events and I managed to come away with enough content for two complete posts. The first will cover the video I recorded from the back of LRV #9000 and the second will cover the still photos and shorter video clips.

We start off with #9000 pulling out of Elmwood depot and using a short stretch of diversion track to pass under the NEC and reach the Route 11 on Baltimore where the #9000 charter made a left and proceeded to the Darby Transportation Centre.



After completing a photo stop at Darby, the character proceeded to the 40th St trolley portal with a brief intermediate stop at the CSX Philly Sub grade crossing.



At the 40th St portal, #9000 took a 360o spin on the circle track with charter organizer Bill Monaghan Jr performing some work with the the switch iron due to the automatic switching mechanisms being not quite functional.



Next up was an express run through the Subway-Surface Trolley Tunnel with an intermediate photo stop at 13th St, ultimately emerging at the 36th St Route 10 portal.



After a pair of photo stops on the Route 10, the charter returns to the 36th St portal after a short turn at the 54th St loop with an intermediate stop at the 40th St diversion junction.



At this point it was time for another run through the trolley tunnel. One of the party pieces of these trips is to turn off the lights while inside the tunnel, which makes for a very cool effect.



After a photo stop at 30th St station, the character proceeded down the Route 34 to the Angora Loop.



Skipping ahead a bit, the character departs a photo stop opposite the 49th St R3 station, to then use the 49th St diversion trackage to loop around the Woodlawn heavy repair depot and return to the Route 13 on Woodland Ave before short turning at the infrequently used Mt. Moriah loop.



The final leg of the journey involved running from the Mt. Moriah loop to Elmwood depot via the 49th St diversion track, Woodlawn depot, the Route 11 and finally the Island Ave connector track.



I hope you all enjoyed this special video content. I'll be back next time with all the fantastic stills.

24-04-08 PHOTOS: Northeast Kingdom

In 2017 I ventured to eastern Tennessee to witness the total solar eclipse whose track spanned the full width of the continental United States. I enjoyed the trip so much that I immediately made plans for the 2024 eclipse that would run from the Canadian border above New Englande to Texas. At the time my expectation was to stay with friends in the Cleveland area as there was only a 30% chance of clear skies in upstate New York, where my travel partner had family we could stay with. Of course a lot can change in 7 years and a week out it became clear that Cleveland was going to have varying levels of overcast, while Upstate Vermont, where we had since acquired a new friend in St. Johnsbeary, was forecast to have clear skies. Therefore I found myself returning to the Connecticut River valley where I had already engaged in a substantial railfan activity just two weeks prior. The good news was that the repeat trip allowed me to document ( mirror ) more former Boston and Maine signaling between Bellows Falls and Windsor as well as the remains of the old B&M Passumpsic Division that connected to railroads in Quebec.

An interesting note about the drive was that while the viewing location for the 2017 eclipse of Monroeville, TN was only two states away, the 2024 journey to Vermont's Northeast Kingdom crossed 6 state borders, but was actually a shorter distance. While on the way up I caught Metro North M8 #9718 straddling the Merritt Parkway on the New Canaan Branch.

The Connecticut River rail corridor has an interesting history involving both the Boston & Maine and Central Vermont Railroads. The CV had been an American based business unit of Canadian National running between Montreal (New France) and the port of New London (New Englande). Early in its history the component of this route running between Windsor, VT and Brattleboro, VT was taken over by the Boston and Maine, requiring trains from both companies to use trackage rights to run on the segments owned by the other. Although currently united under the guise of the New Englande Central RR and their G&W corporate overloord, evidence of the old arrangement was all over. Here at the south end of the Claremont siding we find a pair of mileposts. One, S99, indicates the mileage to Springfield, MA via the Boston and Maine route, while the other, 160, indicates the Central Vermont mileage to New London.

Claremont is the least used Amtrak station in the state of New Hampshire, but like other stations on the Vermonter route it benefits from strong community support. While the old B&M station building is now a restaurant, a small purpose built shelter is stocked with books and children's activities while a volunteer host is on hand to help passengers.

Following the Vermonter route by road, one will encounter the famous Cornish-Windsor covered bridge, which arguably has the congest clear channel span of any vehicular covered bridge in the world.

 

24-04-02 PHOTOS: Geeps of Erie

NJT has been on a roll with heritage and other special paint schemes, so when they painted up one of the GP40PH-2B's in Erie colors where better to send it than the Atlantic City Line due to its historic connection to the Erie-Lackawanna Seashore Lines. The fun part was while I was aware of the Erie Geep being out an about, the two times I encountered it were entirely be accident and the one time I did try to catch it, I came up empty handed. Anyway, the spring of 2024 also involved a good bit of NEC travel so I wrapped that into the same photo bundle ( mirror ).

The first part of this photo set actually begins as an extension of the last one as I had broken up my return to Baltimore with a stop off in Philly. Here we have rebuilt PATCO car #1080 at Haddonfield station as I traveled to Philly to catch Amtrak Regional train #121.

Upon boarding I discovered that Train #121 was one of the "quick turn" sets running with a Metroliner cab car (#9646) at one end. These were implemented to add NEC Regional trips without needing additional equipment by turning some NY to DC Regionals in the station instead of looping or wyeing them in the yard. Upon departing Philly we actually encountered a northbound push-pull Regional with a pair of ACS-86 locomotives including Veterans unit #642.

Normally I would be thrilled at getting a front facing window on the NEC, however the quality of the forward facing view was marginal at best. I did grab two reasonable videos of the BELL flyover and the line south of Baltimore's B&P Tunnels.





Needless to say #9646 looked a lot better from the outside on a lovely spring morning, like here at the BWI Airport rail station.

A few days later I was back in South Jersey for Easter and during some free time I popped down to Atco to grab photos of the NJT Atlantic City Line milepost 17 intermediate signal just north of the station there. This was my first surprise encounter with Erie heritage GP40PH-2B #2010, which was running with Comet V cab car #6011.

During Easter dinner I actually popped out to try and catch #4210 again, but all I got for my effort was this photo of Comet V cab car #6057.

24-03-23 PHOTOS: East Deerfield

In part two of my trip to Greenfield, Mass I check out the Boston and Maine's former East Deerfield yard, which has become a significant railfan hotspot in the Guilford era and beyond. I then work my way up the Connecticut River valley to catch some New Englande Central action at the town of Putney, VT before catching Amtrak back to Philadelphia. You can catch part 1 of this two part trip here and see the full set of photos for part 2 of the trip here ( mirror ).

After a morning spent getting photos of searchlight signals, but no trains at CPR-33, I made the short hop to East Deerfield yard, which was a major hub on the old Boston and Maine with extensive shop facilities and connections to both the Connecticut Valley and east-west main line between Boston and Mechanicville, NY. After parking I saw crews warming up a familiar face, Ottawa Valley Railway GP40-2LW #3029 and ex-CN GP40-2 #6409 that I had caught the previous day in downtown Greenfield. They were sitting next to former CSX C40-8W #7875, which was part of a bevy of power purchased by Guilford from CSX in the 2010's that then found itself back in CSX ownership when Guilford decided to sell out in 2022.

With the western end of the Guilford system spun off into a G&W owned regional railroad, most of the Guilford's bargin bin fleet seemed to be sitting idle while G&W brought in units from across its empire to handle the remaining tasks. OVR #3029 and CN #6409 seemed to be on local freight duty for customers on the Boston and Maine's Connecticut Valley Main Line and I got photos of the pair rolling past WX tower and then under the railfan bridge to begin the day's flat switching. While taking these photos I got a notification that my reservation on the following day's southbound Vermonter was being cancelled due to a freak snow storm that was about to drop a foot of snow across Vermont, but little to the south. Fortunately I was able to book a seat on an earlier Valley Flier out of Greenfield, which was actually the more expensive option when I had first planned the trip.

That morning the East Deerfield engine terminal help a mix of former Guilford equipment (nee Maine Central, Boston and Main and Springfield Terminal), former CSX -8 units and Bay Line Geeps brought in by G&W. Those with a sharp eye might also notice some old B&M MoW snow ploughs.

WX tower at East Deerfield was closed as an interlocking station many years ago and now sits adjacent to the present day CPF-384.

Bay Line units included GP40-2's #3018 and #3019, which might be a commentary on the condition of the former Guilford power.

Former CSX C40-8W #7875. #7655 and #7898 were still in a hastily overpainted YN scheme while #7797 was in Dark Future. Note Guilford #350 is a former B&M GP39-2.

24-03-22 PHOTOS: Greenfield

For years I was aware that my cousin lived in "western Mass", but I always assumed it was somewhere inaccessible and didn't press further. It was only in 2024 that I discovered it lived only 8 minutes from downtown Greenfield, home to a Vermonter stop and terminus of Amtrak's new Valley Flyer service, which extends some Springfield Line trains. With three round trips per day I quickly arranged a visit as his location would also allow access to a cache of vintage Boston and Maine signaling that I had confirmed on a COVID era Vermonter trip to White River Jct. In this set of photos ( mirror ) I will travel up to Greenfield with a short layover at New Haven and then catch some freight action at the Crossroads of the B&M.

During my wait for the 7am northbound Acela at the BWI airport rail station, I happened to catch northbound MARC Penn Line train with SC44 #80 and split level cab car #8055 and a late running 5-car Amtrak Train 67 en-route to Newport News with ASC-86 #663.

BWI has pretty poor Acela options with 7am and 3pm as the two daily northbound departures, which usually has me going to DC as the first leg of my trip, but this time the 7am met my schedule needs and price point and dutifully arrived with power car #2013 leading.

Not much to say about the trip up except I got this photo of HAROLD tower in Sunnyside, NY that somehow managed to avoid getting demolished in the whole East Side Access debacle.

Here we see power car #2012 on the end of my train after I got off at New Haven. This Acela trainset is one of only a few that have sequentially numbered power cars.

Metro North M8 #9222 hanging out on the New Haven station through track.

Despite the advertisements, I was going to have to leave riding the CTRail Hartford Line for another day. Instead I walked over to Church Street for some view of Amtrak's motor storage yard while waiting for the northbound Vermonter. In the yard were a trio of MP15DC cab end switchers, including #539 and #537, used for Springfield Line MoW service along with several P42DC's including #123.

Hiding back under the Church St bridge was Amtrak 40th anniversary Phase 2 heritage unit #130.

My northbound Vermonter train 56 arrived with ACS-86 #651 on point. 

On board the Vermonter I caught a Hartford Line train laying over north of Hartford with Mafersa cab car #1705.

Reactivation of the downtown Windsor Locks station was ongoing with a new high level platform under construction. This will replace the AmShelter that has been in service since 1981.

In other Springfield Line news, the single main track over the Connecticut River bridge has been switched from the south to the north side of the bridge. Future plans are call for full double tracking all the way to Springfield.

24-03-14 PHOTOS: Carrollton

For the better part of a decade I have been enjoying the privilege of a yearly trip to the Dallas-Fort Worth metro area for arts event with friends and during that time I have been checking off parts of the DART/TRE/TexRail system that serves the region. By 2024 I had traveled all of the routes except one, the Green Line to Carrollton, TX and, by extension, the A-Train extension to Denton. Anyway, it seemed like an easy enough task to ride from downtown to Denton and back in a morning, but things didn't quite work out that way. You can find all the photos from this adventure here ( mirror ).

We begin at the Love Field station with LRV #130 heading outbound on an Orange routing. 

Arriving downtown after dark I encountered McKinney Ave Trolley car #754 at Olive and San Jacinto. The McKinney Ave Transportation Authority is a heritage streetcar operation that connects DART with the McKinney Ave arts district.

The next day I tried to get up early to get out to Carrollton, and by extension Denton, before the arrival of the Texas Eagle. The first Green Line LRV that showed up, #216, was heading in the opposite direction to Buckner and although Carrollton-bound LRV #145 showed up ad wrapped windows I had no choice but to take it due to the 15 minute headways and my own time constraints.

Because of the window wraps I didn't get any outbound photos. Also, I forgot to mention that the Green Line doesn't make an A-Train connection at Carrollton, but the penultimate station, Trinity Mills. This creates another hole I'll need to fill in the DART network. Here we see the wrapped LRV #145 at Trinity Mills just before LRV #101 arrives from Carrollton.

Opened in 2011 , the Denton A-Train makes a cross-platform connection at Trinity Mills. The 21 mile line operates with 11 Stadler GTW 2/6 DMU's. Here GTW 2/6 #107 lays over at Trinity Mills.

Unfortunately with needing to meet a surprisingly on-time Texas Eagle and getting out of bed later than anticipated I did not have enough time to make the run to Denton as a round trip would take about 90 minutes including a prolonged layover at Denton. The deciding factor was ultimately bulkhead cabs providing minimal forward view and turning the ride into little more than a time sink.

Back in the 70's and 80's the powers that be in the Dallas area implemented a very forward looking policy of purchasing defunct or lightly used rail corridors for future transit conversion. Many of these were used by DART's light rail system, but others like A-Train and the new Silver Line are being used for FRA regulated services in conjunction with the local Denver, Garland and Northern short line freight operator. As such the Denton A-Train makes use of railroad type signals and signaling. Here we see #107 departing Trinity Mills just as the DART LRV train with #216 and the wrapped #145 return from Carrollton. #107 continues on past the DART Carrollton station, taking an Approach Diverging indication on the Milepost 107 intermediate signal there.

24-03-09 PHOTOS: Power Director Office Powered Up

In the spring of 2024 it had been over a year since I had been able to get out to the Harrisburg Power Director's office, which had been between 1939 and 2013 in service to manage to manage the PRR's western traction power network. In 2022 the office had been taken over by the Harrisburg Chapter NRHS as an adjunct to their operation at HARRIS tower, however due to staffing considerations it is open much less frequently. The first time I had been there, pretty much only the room lights were functioning with the Big Board and control consoles all dark and lifeless. However in the 18 months since that first visit, the team of volunteers had managed to reactivate a substantial portion of the equipment and today's photos ( mirror ) will cover both the trains passing by on the adjacent Harrisburg Lines and the condition of the power office, with a few surprises mixed in.

The occasion of this Power Office open house was the train show the Harrisburg Chapter organizes in March of each year. Although HARRIS tower has ample free weekend parking, the power office is located inside the current Amtrak station and does not. Therefore, despite the drizzle, I parked at HARRIS to walk over. This put me in the position to catch a westbound NS doublestack intermodal train lead by SD70ACC #1850 and AC44C6M #4012.

Due to the train show, the power office saw healthy crowds all day.

The biggest change since 2022 was that the status lamps on the Big Board were now all lit.

However the more surprising development was that some of the SCADA panels had also been activated.

By "activated" I don't mean that the lamps had been turned on, but that the elements that drive the lamps and respond to the switches had also been restored to functionality. The office contains banks of relays that store state from the field equipment and encode/decode messages to/from said equipment. While the real field equipment no longer exists, the chapter volunteers were able to replace it with virtual equipment run off an Arduino type setup.

As of the spring of 2024, only the Westinghouse supplied "Visicode" equipment had been reactivated as its pulse code communications protocol was both dead simple and easy to reverse engineer. What makes this restoration extra surprising is that most of the Westinghouse consoles had been deactivated around 1983 when Conrail threw in the towel on electrified operations, as opposed to 2013 when Amtrak replaced its portion.

I'll probably write up a much more detailed post about this equipment on my dedicated signaling blog, but for a quick summary, the consoles function by first pulling a knob to select a module. This is sort of like taking a phone off hook and results in the back end relays taking action to accept the command. One then moves the switch to the desired position, activating the "out of correspondence" light. Then one chooses "Master Trip" or "Master Close" depending on the action and the message is coded out to the field equipment. If that didn't make sense, hopefully this video can make things clearer.