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.