24-12-25 PHOTOS: Hammonton

It's getting harder and harder to find interesting railroad signals these days. On Christmas Day 2024 I followed the NJT Atlantic City Line all the way into Atlantic County to check out ( mirror ) three locations around Hammonton, NJ, the self styled Blueberry Capitol of the World.

The first location was the Milepost 28.5 intermediate signal just south of the Old Forks Road crossing. I arrived in time to catch a northbound ACL train with NJT GP40PH-2B #4216 pass by.

This location is just south of the more popular railfan spot of WINSLOW JCT, with the old tower and Ocean City Branch flyover visible in the distance. The arrow straight southern end of the Atlantic City Line provides numerous locations where the next signal location is visible from the previous one.

Hammonton, NJ is one of the larger towns in the area with good regional connectivity. Getting its start in what I have to assume was the pork industry, it later became a center of blueberry production with "high bush" cultivars having been developed by notable Pine Barrens naturalist Elizabeth White. The extra wide right of way through downtown Hammonton, NJ once saw a parade of trains taking vacationers from the Philly metro area to the consumption free air of the Atlantic City Boardwalk. As indicated by the milepost Hammonton is 30 miles from the line's junction with Amtrak's Northeast Corridor, which makes it about the halfway point of the service.

While the ACRL might seem straight and level from a rider's perspective, it actually undulates quite a bit. Here is the Hammonton Station as seen looking northbound from the milepost 31.9 signal location.

The new NJT Hammonton Station was built on what used to be a layover yard for local commuter services to and from Philadelphia. Up through the 1950's one could catch photos of 3 Reading G3 or PRR K4 Pacifics side-by-side. The new high level platform and parking lot replaced the PRSL era downtown station when the line was reactivated in 1989.

24-12-30 PHOTOS: SEPTA Mid-Winter Trip XXIV

Due to the way Christmas fell, 2024 SEPTA Mid-Winter Trip was one of the latest we've had taking place on December 30th. The flagship feature of the trip was and end-to-end ride of the newly re-opened Route 15 Trolley from 63rd St to the Westmorland loop. This was followed by a mix of Market Frankford and Broad Street Lines, some NEC fanning at North Philadelphia and then a Regional Rail loop through Chestnut Hill. The trip suffered from late running on the Routes 15 and 75, resulting in some last second re-routes. You can view the entire set of photos here ( mirror ).

After my ride downtown via PATCO the trip participants assembled at the east end of the Market East Station and proceeded to the 13th St Subway-Surface trolley terminal. We began to wonder if the trip was a Friends of Philadelphia Streetcars event when heritage car #9000 pulled in displaying LRV's Forever. Even though we were waiting for a Route 10, we naturally got on #9000 with a planned transfer at 30th St.

Our outbound Route 10 K-car to Girard Jct was #9101. The Route 15 was still only partially running PCC III's so while waiting for our westbound, #2324 passed by eastbound along with #9014 on the Route 10.

When our PCC finally arrived it was delayed slightly by the operator first having to manually line the switch for the Route 15 and then by Route 10 K-Car #9088.

At 63rd St we took the first of several group photos. Since the following run was bustituted we continued our trek to Richmond on #2337.

If you have an hour you can watch this rear-facing video of the entire trip. If you think that's painfully slow for a trip across the city consider that I cut out about 20 minutes of long stops to handle ADA riders.

24-12-22 PHOTOS: Winter Showcase

In December 2024 I seemed to have a lot going on in the way of local travel with trips to both Washington, DC and Philly via the NEC and holiday related excursions to the MARC stations at Savage and Brunswick for the purposes of drinking. I have assembled all this miscellany into a single set of photos ( mirror ).

My day trip to DC kicked off before sunrise at the Halethorpe MARC station, later passing through Washington Union Station en-route to the DC Metro.

Returning home I actually got a better deal on an Amtrak train, which was departing Washington Union Station adjacent to the Acela platform where a Classic set was standing with power cars #2017 and #2036.

Arriving at BWI I was in time to catch a southbound MARC train with MP36PH-3C #29

My car was still at Hapethorpe I had a friend shuttle me over. Between the two stations I shot a few quick videos which include:

Northbound Acela Express with power cars #2028 and #2007.
Southbound bi-level MARC Penn Line train with cab car #7853 and MP36PH-3C #29.
Amtrak Veterans ACS-86 #642 heading northbound with a Regional at Halethorpe.
Southbound MARC bi-level Penn Line train passing express through the Halethorpe station.



A few days later I was making a day trip up to Philly and back at BWI I caught Amtrak ACS-86's #634 heading south while class unit #600 was heading my northbound.

The trainset was flipped so I had access to the rear window, but the position of the sun combined with dirty windows made the view highly marginal. I only got this video as the train runs across the Susquehanna River between the Aberdeen, Maryland station and PRINCE interlockings near Perryville. The Susquehanna River bridge, constructed in 1906, is unfortunately slated for replacement in the upcoming years. In the video my train passes southbounds including Crescent Train 19 just past GRACE interlocking and another Regional at PRINCE.

24-12-05 PHOTOS: 21ST ST

Although much reduced in scope, 21ST ST crossing, also known as Alton Junction, was effectively the last interlocking station on the Pennsylvania Railroad's main line between Pittsburgh and Chicago and once trains navigates its complex trackwork, they would enter the ream of Chicago Union Station. That should have been a fairly simple 2x2 diamond crossing of the PRR and the Chicago and Alton was blown up by the four-tracks of the Chicago and Western Indiana, a terminal railroad owned equally between the Erie, Monon, Wabash, Grand Trunk Western and Chicago & Eastern Illinois to reach Chicago's Dearborn Station. This resulted in a staggering 26 diamonds along with a pair of double slip ladders, but with the closure of Dearborn in 1971 the C&WI tracks evaporated leaving empty fields in their place. The good news is that those fields were converted into Ping Tom park, allowing anyone to get an up close view of the passenger action that still flows through the interlocking. The bad news, at least for me, is that Chicago in December gets pretty dang cold. You on the other hand can sit back and enjoy the photos I took ( mirror ) from the comfort of your own house.

After getting up early I put on as many layers as practical because the temperature stood at 8 degrees. 21ST ST is accessible via the CTA Red Line's Cermak-Chinatown station and after a transfer from the Blue Line I was delivered by 5000-series car #5214.

Federal Junction north of the station allows Red Line trains access to the Orange Line and the Loop in case of service disruptions or equipment transfers.

Cermak-Chinatown is also adjacent to the METRA Rock Island District tracks where I caught MP36PH-3C #423 and F40PH-3 #111 coupled ahead of Veterans F40PH-3 #120.

One thing that hasn't changed about 21St St crossing is the South Branch Drawbridge that marks the spiritual end or beginning to several Amtrak long distance routes. In the summer this sees frequent raisings due to the low clearance and high volume of boat traffic on the Chicago River.

The southwest corner of the park provides an unobstructed view of the remaining diamond crossing as well as the connecting tracks for Lincoln Corridor trains and Illinois Central route trains. As a further bonus, the CTA Orange Line passes overhead on the elevated trackway.

Speaking of downstate Illinois, Amtrak Saluki Train 391 was departing on its outbound trip to Carbondale. Due to the lack of a direct connection to the former IC main line, all downstate trains have to make a reverse move out of Chicago Union Station. With the Saint Charles Air Line out of service for reconstruction, these trains were changing direction on the Norfolk Southern Chicago Line south of the station. Today's consist included P42DC #63 and no fewer than 3 deadhead Sightseer Lounge cars needed to make up axle count and car weight minimums on the route.

21St St is also used by METRA Southwest Service and Heritage Corridor trains, although the latter is an extremely limited peak period operation. Here a Southwest Service train with gallery cab car #8579, 1960's vintage Budd gallery coach #784 and F40PHM-3's #190 and #210.

This was followed by an outbound Southwest Service train with F40PH-3 #179 and cab car #8445.

24-12-01 PHOTOS: Severn

While I can typically do other things on Black Wednesday to overcome Amtrak's lack of a Thanksgiving program, Black Sunday is a little different as I only have limited time and space in which to act. In the past this was sufficient to catch the NJT Arrow III sets running in Maryland, but without them it takes a bit more effort to string together an interesting set of photos. In November of 2024 the best I could manage was a stop by the MARC Halethorpe station and the location of the old grade crossing and station in Severn, MD.

The first part of this set actually takes place on Saturday where we see a northbound weekend MARC Penn Line train, shown here taking the diverging route at WINANS interlocking with SC44 #83 in the head. Before Halethorpe was given high level platforms, Most MARC trains would platform across Track A using duckboards, but now they have to takes a time hit for a diverging movement.

Upon departure the outbound train met its opposite just north of the Halethorpe station. Cab car #8051 was on the end of the northbound with K-cab-car #7854 was leading the southbound and MP36PH-3C #30 on the rear.

I did manage to catch some Amtrak action with southbound Amtrak Regional Train #147 with ACS-86 #656 meeting northbound Regional Train #168 with ACS-86 #649. Both trains were traveling around 100mph.