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.

If you were also wondering why the Route 15 was cut back to the Sugarloaf Casino for over a decade(!) its because this trench under the old Port Reading freight tracks needed to be completely rebuilt. Compare with this photo taken the last time the Mid-Winter Trip was able to get to the Richmond loop in 2009!

PCC III #2337 at the Westmorland Loop.

The initial plan was to take the Route 15 back to the MFL at Girard, but we were so late that we were forced to take the Route 60 bus to the MFL at Allegheny.

Our destination was the Arrott Transportation Center at the Margaret Orthodox MFL stop (whom I assume was a community leader like Cecil B. Moore). Our intent was to catch a Route 75 trackless trolley to Wayne Jct, but the group was a bit slow getting off the El platform so we missed #836 and had to settle for another bus due to the lateness. >:-(

The plan to catch Regional Rail to Fern Rock also had to be scrapped so we just caught the Broad Street Subway at Wyoming, riding it around the loop where we spotted SEPTA B-IV "timer" car #555 in the ready yard.

After transferring to a Ridge Line train at Olney, we went express to North Philadelphia, getting up to the semi-derelict Regional Rail platforms in time for an inbound R7 with Silverliners IV #153 and #140.

The original plan was to gotten an R7 to Hill East at Wayne Jct, but missing the connection made traveling to North Philly via the broad street the "faster" option. We still faced an prolonged layover, but at least the NEC would provide some entertainment. Here we have lead ACS-86 #600 in front of the old NORTH PHILADELPHIA tower in addition to #646, acela power car #2007 and Metroliner #9645 traveling through LEHIGH interlocking.

Adding insult to injury SEPTA was dealing with a wire problem at 16TH ST junction so practically the whole Regional Rail system was running late. Still, Amtrak dispatchers still timed things so that inbound and outbound Hill West trains would pass within LEHIGH interlocking. The inbound had SL-IV #399 and the inbound #186.

Finally reaching Hill West we broke for a very late lunch in Chestnut Hill. However I loitered on the platform for some photos of the train that brought us.

After lunch I walked over to the Hill East station via the old Route 23 trolley loop, currently populated with more damn buses >:-o

The picturesque Reading Company Chestnut Hill East station shows the advantages of requiring construction to align with community aesthetics. A long train of Silverliners V was sitting on the platform as this run would become a peak period train to Trenton.

Another major win for NIMBYism was that the Chestnut Hill East rail substation was still in its original Reading configuration after all of the others had been rebuilt.

Passing Wayne Jct electric shoppes our inbound run slowed to a halt due to continued congestion from the wire issue at 16TH ST. As the second of 2 SEPTA wire trains was still in the yard, I guess they only had one wire repair crew available.

Although the day had been incredibly challenging, it did end the same way it began with a chance encounter with a heritage unit. In this case Penn Central Silverliner IV #401 pictured at Suburban Station.

I'm going to end things here and point out that even when the Mid-Winter Trip goes completely off the rails (literally due to all the buses we were forced to talk), a good time was still had by all with lots of quality railfanning oppurtunities.