23-11-19 PHOTOS: Lehigh Summit

The Reading and Northern continues to be the only bright spot when it comes to interesting signaling with its deployment of CTC and use of both searchlights an recovered Reading vintage hardware like bracket masts. Over the last few years I have been making regular incursions into Reading country to document this signaling, but with all of the low hanging fruit now harvested I have been having to travel a bit further onto the former Lehigh Valley portion of their "Main Line" between North Reading and Pittston. In the winter of 2023 I used a trip to see my vintage radio/TV and railfan friend Phil, to access the former Conrail Lehigh Line passing point around Mountain Top, PA with its associated interlockings, block signals and RBMN passenger operations. You can find the full gallery of these photos here ( mirror ).

On my way up to the East Branch Susquehanna valley I stopped off at CP-ROCKVILLE north of Harrisburg to catch the late running eastbound Amtrak Pennsylvanian Train 42 as it came off the famed Rockville Bridge with P42DC #104 leading.

I stopped off in Sunbury, PA to hike out and photograph the surviving D&H bracket mast on what is now the NS Sunbury Line. Previously serving as the southbound signal for a CTC siding, the old signal was converted into a fixed distant for CP-KASE on the NS Buffalo Line when D&H successor Canadian Pacific downgraded this part of the line to TWC. More recently NS removed the bracket and fixed searchlight from service to be replaced by one of its own standard cabinet masts.

The next morning I drive directly to CP-SOLOMON at Mountain Top, PA where I was greeted by a former New Haven RR cabin car #C566 which had been acquired by a local preservation group and set up to honor the various coal region railroads. Members of the group were on hand to set up an extensive holiday display, which seemed to be the justification for the ample parking facilities.

A Clear signal indication was displaying on the 2E searchlight mast at CP-SOLOMON for the morning run of the Reading Northern's weekend Pittston to Mach Chunk tourist train via the Lehigh Gorge. Historic Mach Chunk has emerged as a significant food and shopping destination as well as a gateway to the Pocono outdoor recreation scene and the RBMN now serves the community with weekend/holiday passenger services from both the north and south. The name CP-SOLOMON is in reference to Solomon's Gap, the geologic feature that both the Lehigh Valley and Central RR of NJ took advantage of to access the Wyoming Valley coal fields and the Scranton metropolitan area.

The three car train of Budd lightweight stock was being easily handled up the stiff grade by R&N GP38-2 #2023. When Conrail came on the scene it used the best parts of the former CNJ and LVRR main lines to create its new Lehigh Line. The alignment changes from CNJ to LVRR just north of the rock cut seen in the photo.

R&N #3023 and the southbound train to Mach Chunk passing through CP-SOLOMON.

23-11-04 PHOTOS: Grand Central Madison

In 2023 the opening of East Side Access, partly rebranded as the name of its new terminus Grand Central Madison, was all the rage. While the excitement would soon turn to disappointment as the LIRR completely botched the resulting service changes, the new GCM remained a must see, so myself and a friend arranged a day trip to NYC with plans to visit PORT interlocking and tower in Freeport, Long Island, traveling into GCM and getting some clean up photos at the M Cabin drawbridge in Long Island City. On the day of the trip I even achieved an unanticipated bonus goal of getting an extended amount of rear facing NEC photos from the back of my NJT train into Penn Station. You can see the full set of photos here ( mirror ).

First up we have an NJT NEC line train comprised of single level stock and a leading Comet V cab car, stopped at MENLO interlocking to wait for my train to pass by and platform at Metropark while a southbound Amtrak Regional train led by ACS-86 #637 pulls away on track #4..

Westbound signals at UNION interlocking with an NJT ALP-46 just visible at the Rahway platform on Track #B.

The DOCK drawbridges, tower and PATH ramps.

Amtrak MoW MP15D at Manhattan Transfer.

PORTAL bridge with the new bridge construction to the right.

NJT ALP-45 #4516 at ALLIED interlocking.

Video from the rear window of the entire North River tunnel from BERGEN interlocking to Penn Station.



Arriving New York Penn Station.

Heritage painted Amtrak P32AC-DM #713 waiting to depart with an Empire corridor train.

LIRR M7's #7692 and #7448 adjacent to Pennsylvania Tunnel and Terminal Railroad milepost zero.

LIRR Babylon Branch M7 #7565 passing the 2E position light mast signal at PORT interlocking. PORT was re-signaled around 2005, just before the LIRR stopped installing new position light type signals.

An inbound Babylon Branch train bracketed by M7's #7739 and #7188 arrives at Freeport.

23-10-21 PHOTOS: Lancaster Distants

With Amtrak's proposal to remove the wayside distant signals on the Harrisburg Line west of Parkesburg, I once again found myself driving around Amish country to properly document things before the ax falls. Specifically I visited three locations west of Lancaster, one in the small community of Florin. Unfortunately actually getting photos of trains did not seem to be in the cards so I proceeded on to HARRIS tower to fill out the content portfolio. You can find the full set of photos here ( mirror ).

The only Amtrak train I managed to catch out on the Main Line that day was an eastbound Keystone led by ACS-86 #616, seen here passing the milepost 70.8 intermediate signal. I was unfortunately not quick enough to get into a good position for the photo.

When Amtrak re-signaled the western end of the Harrisburg Line in the middle of the 2000's, it implemented cab signals without fixed wayside signals except on approach to interlockings. This was to support the case of speeding up traffic in the case of cab signal failure. Due to the presence of LITITZ interlocking on track #2 west of CORK interlocking in downtown Lancaster, the eastbound approach signals are offset by about a mile. Signal 708 here has a lower head to support diverging movements at CORK. For reasons unknown many of these wayside signals no longer display an Approach indication, changing from Stop and Proceed to Clear.

The track #2 signal, #718, is just visible about a mile down the tracks.

The #708 signal location is adjacent to a surprisingly intact Pier 1 Imports store. The chain closed down for good in October 2020.

Meanwhile, the #718 signal is located near the now closed Rohrerstown Rd grade crossing.

This was previously the location of the first automatic block signal location west of Lancaster, the mounts for which are still attached to the overhead catenary poles.

The Milepost 81.5 signals are the westbound distants to RHEEMS interlocking, which replaced the old FLORIN temporary block station and hand throw crossover.

These are also offset a bit due to the placement of a hand throw industrial siding. The western part of the Harrisburg Line has a robust amount of on line customers.

HARRIS tower is never lacking in rail traffic and shortly after I arrived I caught C40-10W #7563 and AC44C6M #4386 leading an eastbound intermodal train.

This was followed by a westbound trailer train with three units on the head end, C44-9W #9898 and AC44C6M's #4388 and #4092.

My first EMD unit for the day was SD70ACe #1206 running ahead of AC44C6M #4576 on a westbound stack train.

A following westbound manifest run with fairly new AC44C6M #4513 and not at all new C44-9W #9828 stopped short of CP-HARRIS and conducted a crew change. AC44C6M #4258 was providing some help at the end as distributed power.

Zooming in towards the station track I caught PRR GG1 #4859 sitting next to Veterans ACS-86 #642.

NS C44-9W #9918 and AC44C6M #4355 running lite to the Harrisburg fuel pad from Rutherford Yard.

While I was too late for westbound Pennsylvanian Train 43's arrival, I was able to catch Train 42 with P42DC #129 leading.

Final train of the day was an eastbound manifest with ES44AC #8013 and SD70ACe #1232.

That's all for now. Next time I'll be heading to Grand Central Madison via Freeport, Long Island.

23-10-16 PHOTOS: Exton

SEPTA's Exton Station on the R5 Thorndale portion of the old PRR Main Line is arguably the most important station west of Paoli. The station is served by both SEPTA and Amtrak, and was recently upgraded with high level platforms and a new station building. With service steadily expanding in the 21st century and a vintage PRR signal location adjacent to the parking lot I made the effort to stop by in the fall of 2023 where I generated this set of photos ( mirror ), which also includes a bunch of Baltimore area MARC and light rail photos.

New rebuilt Exton station features two high level platforms and a station building with a waiting area and rest rooms. The new amenities opened in 2018 replacing low level platforms with a mini-high for ADA access. For years crews on the line used the concept of time consuming ADA process at Exton to cover up for small delays that may have been their own fault. The magnitude of ADA-linked delays may have actually accelerated the high level platform project.

The parking lot serving the westbound platform is sandwiched between the PRR Main Line proper and the Low Grade Extension of the Trenton Cutoff that was built around 1906 to extend the alternate freight route from the original junction at Glendale to Thorndale. This extension was abandoned around 1980 as Conrail discontinued electric operation and through freight left The Main Line, however its impressive right of way is still intact.

To the west one can see the famous Whitford Flyover where the Low Grade Extension crosses the Main Line. The SEPTA Whitford Station is located under the flyover and due to its close proximity to Exton and much less parking it sees substantially less ridership. The 1981 construction of Exton was also instrumental in the demise of R3 service to West Chester. With 635 parking spaces, the city of West Chester fell within the new station's driving catchment and offered travel time to Philly that was 30-60 minutes faster than old curvy R3 with its many stops and 40mph top speed. To this day the presence of Exton is the largest barrier to SEPTA West Chester service restoration.

In the western direction one finds the Milepost 27 intermediate signal location looking towards Paoli. At Exton, the center track #2 is only used by the daily regional freight to Coatsville and a few SEPTA deadheads running in to the rear of the SEPTA yard and Frazer.

A westbound R5 Thorndale arrives at Exton. The station has seen a roller coaster of service patterns over the last 30 years. In 1990 most SEPTA service ended at Paoli with some continuing to Parkesburg, supplementing Amtrak Keystone service that also served all the stations west of Paoli. In 1996 SEPTA cut back service to Downingtown, but also moved its yard to Frazer, making Malvern the final stop of regular "Paoli" trains. At this point Amtrak dropped service to Whitford and Malvern. In 1999 the R5 was extended to its current terminus at Thorndale.

There wasn't much train traffic while I was getting my signal photos, but I did spot this Red Tailed Hawk scanning for prey.

Jumping back down to Baltimore, hI caught CSX ET44AC #3252 and #3262 along with AC4400 #237 between them stopped short of the Hollins Ferry Road crossing. A special "Crossing Indicator" signal informs the crew that a route is lined through Zepps Bridge to avoid blocking the crossing.