22-02-19 PHOTOS: MBTA Trolleybuses

In February 2022 I was able to able to ride most of the MBTA's Cambridge trolleybus network for the first, and unfortunately last time as it was shut down and scrapped about two weeks after my visit. I was actually quite lucky as the shutdown lined up with my annual late winter trip to the Boston area via Amtrak's NEC that provides the opportunity to utilize any remaining discount and upgrade coupons. The full set of photos ( mirror ) includes both legs of the NEC round trip as well as use of Boston's subway network to reach the trolleybus terminal at Harvard Square.

Although my trip began at Amtrak's BWI Airport Rail Station, I was not catching my Acela Express train from there, even though I arrived in time to see #2029 departing northward. The 10am departure from Washington offered a better price point as well as the ability to ride the entire NEC instead of just most of it. Instead I boarded MARC cab car #7851 in the opposite wirection to begin my trip.

My Acela trainset had power car #2012 on the rear seen here at the typical AX departure platform at Union Station.

K TOWER hanging on, LANDOVER looking sad and ZOO with new windows and a PRR keystone.

One of the nice parts of taking the Acela is no Trenton stop!



At at Manhattan Transfer my Acela was routed on the less frequently used track #1 due to Amtrak ACS-86 #667 being stopped on track #3 while a conductor fouls track #2 to carry out a hotbox inspection on an Amfleet.

A PATH train passing HUDSON tower en-route to Newark.

#2012 at New York Penn during the extended station stop.

P42DCs #106 and #99 leading the Lake Shore Limited at Boston Back Bay.

The next morning I was heading to Harvard Square via Green Line Type 8 trolley #3889 and 1800 series Red Line car #1840.

Although greater Boston once featured quite an extensive trolleybus system, all but 3 routes were shut down by 1963. Those that remained were saved due to the construction of an underground transit tunnel in Harvard Square in 1958 where the exhaust from diesel buses would present a hazzard in the confined space.

Unfortunately both the Routes 71 and 73 had been bustituted that morning due to a problem with the overhead wires. The MBTA was never a fan of the operational complexities of trolleybus operation and the wealthy residents of Cambridge were increasingly hostile to the "unsightly" overhead wires. By 2022 the need to invest in both the overhead power system and new vehicles gave the T an opening to bustitute the entire operation.

22-01-15 PHOTOS: Nicholson Cutoff

In the winter of 2022 I finally made it out to the famous Tunkhannock Viaduct in Nicholson, PA. Although closer in proximity to me than many of the sights in central and western Pennsylvania, Scranton was just not a place I had either the ability or motivation to visit until recently when Subchat buddy Phil N moved into the area. Phil was nice enough to drive me around to both the viaduct and a variety of signal locations over the course of a day, and although I got about 1000 infrastructure photos we scored a goose egg for actual train movements. Fortunately another Subchat buddy, Kevin Painter, was able to bail me out with not only the usual tour of Reading and Northern equipment at North Reading, but also an introduction to the Colebrookdale Railroad in Boyertown, PA. You can view the lengthy set of photos here ( mirror )with the non-signal stuff all the way at the bottom.

The Tunkhannock Viaduct, sometimes known as the Nicholson Viaduct or Nicholson Bridge due to the community it spans, is typically viewed as a singular achievement of railroad engineering. In actuality it was just the showpiece of a far larger project initiated by the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad in 1915. The Clark's Summit-Hallstead Cutoff (aka the Pennsylvania Cutoff or Nicholson Cutoff) was the second great construction project undertaken by the DL&W shortly before The Great War (the first being the famous Slateford cutoff in New Jersey that proceeded the PA cutoff by a few years) and replaced over 40 miles of the 1850's era alignment with a brand new, high speed and low grade main line. The viaduct, measuring 2,375 feet in length and 240 feet above the ground at its highest point, was necessary to traverse the Tunkhannock Creek at an elevation sufficient to free the railroad from having to follow the path of existing rivers just north of Scranton.

Fueled by the flush profits transporting premium home heating coal at the turn of the century, the DL&W had the financial resources to not only reconstruct its greater Pocono region main lines, but also use the era's high tech wonder material, reinforced concrete. It would be the bridge's 167,000 cubic yards of concrete that would make it such an iconic and imposing presence compared to a similar bridge of steel beams.

The bridge consists of 10 spans, 9 piers and 2 abutments, all made from reinforced concrete. At the time of construction it was the largest concrete structure in the world and is likely still one of the largest concrete bridges in the world.

Although still branded Lackawanna, the DL&W Main Line did not survive the 1960 Erie Lackawanna merger with most traffic transferring to the Erie side. The Conrail merger of 1976 saw the line pass to the Delaware and Hudson, which was able to abandon its own less efficient Scranton-Binghampton route. In the 90's the D&H was sold to Canadian Pacific before ultimately falling under the umbrella of Norfolk Southern in the 2014.

The scope of the cutoff can be seen at other points along the line where local roads have to literally tunnel through the massive embankments.

The DL&W applied its use of reinforced concrete technology to everything, including station buildings and interlocking towers. Here the station in Glenburn, PA has been repurposes as public works offices with EL caboose #C267 on display nearby.

Moving down to North Reading the next morning, Kevin and I encountered the NRFF lashup awaiting its departure with GP38-2 #2014 on the tail end behind the two NRFF painted SD50s.

22-01-09 VIDEOS: R32 Retirement

In my previous post I covered the R32 retirement runs in early 2022 and mentioned that I would need to put all of the video content in a separate post. This will have both the long R32 railfan window videos on its combination B/Q routing as well as shorter clips from throughout the day.

In fact we'll start off with one such clip taken at the Hamilton NJT station on the cold Sunday morning as the southbound Amtrak Train 79 Palmetto races through en-route to the warmer environs of Savannah, GA.



The only way to get a railfan window for the southbound trip from 96th St on the Second Avenue Subway was to camp out in the rear of the consist from Brighton Beach. For all of the railfan window videos I had to use a selfie wand to get the GoPro camera up close to the window due to the presence of an anti-COVID chain to keep people "away" from the half-cab. The first video covers the reverse view of the express run from Brighton Beach to Prospect Park.



The second part covers the reverse view from Prospect Park to DeKalb Ave.



Part three is DeKalb to 42nd St Times Square.



And the final part covering 42nd St Times Square to 96th St Second Avenue.



My plan worked perfectly and by standing firm I managed to snag a prime RFW view for the southbound trip. Again the videos are in four parts, 96th to 42nd, 42nd to DeKalb, DeKalb to Prospect Park and Prospect Park to Brighton Beach.









After the first round trip I did a little walk along the platform and through the trainset to capture the whole vibe of the proceedings.



I then proceeded ahead of the next R32 departure to get some photos at Kings Highway. While waiting for the R32 retirement train to show up, I caught a pair of Q Brighton Beach local trains using R46 stock passing each other near Avenue U.



The payoff was this video of NYCTA oldest rolling stock passing NYCTA's second oldest rolling stock just south of the Kings Highway crossover. The R32's were the only express trains running on the Brighton Line that day due to the Covid related suspension of the B train. The camera runs as the R32irement train arrives past the throngs of Fantographers where I then enter to find Fred G.



I then proceed to 72nd St and Second Ave and get off in order to get video of the R32 set returning from 96th St. It seemed to miss its departure so I also shot some R46 and R68 Q train filler.







I'll wrap things up where I part ways with the R32's for the final time as it pulls southbound out of 34th St Herald Square.



I hope you enjoyed all of the videos as I begin to share a new year's worth of railfan content.

22-01-09 PHOTOS: R32 Retirement

At the time of the announced R32 retirement runs I figured that attending one of the holiday season weekends would be sufficient. It was only later that NYCTA announced that The R's 32 would be running on a special express Q/B service between Brighton Park and the Second Ave subway terminal at 96th St that I decided to attend due to the opportunity to return video along the route. My plan was to catch the first departure from Brighton Beach, get video on my first round trip and then figure out the situation from there. As with the R32 Holiday Train I will post still photos first ( mirror ), followed by videos.

NJT was once again the most practical way to get to the city with split level #7008 seen here pulling into Hamilton.

Along with the Penn Station support building, the Hotel Pennsylvania can be considered part of the original Penn Station complex. Unfortunately I've been told that it has become very run down inside and is slated for redevelopment into something that will totally not raise the cost of visiting the city.

At 34th St Herald Sq I caught an R46 Q Brighton Local to Brighton Beach. Despite the diamond the Q was all local on weekdays with (B) service suspended due to Covid. Seeing as i started riding the NYCS prior to 2001, it is hard for me to related to the Q being something other than an orange bulleted Brighton express.

There was already a crowd at Brighton Beach, but the only thing moving were Q trains of both the R46 and R68 variety.

At some point before departure the R32 train did finally appear in the decorations it had worn for the holiday trips still applied to #3894 on the south end.

At the other end of the train, R32's #3360 and #3361 had been further restored to their 1964 appearance with blue painted doors and pantograph gates, TA meatball logos and roll signs, and a banner similar to the one worn by the first train of R32's on the occasion of the entry into service. Even the H2C couplers had been painted.

21-12-27 PHOTOS: SEPTA Mid-Winter Trip XXI

After the Covid induced SEPTA Mid-Winter Trip XX walking tour of downtown Philly rail sights, SEPTA Mid-Winter Trip XXI would represent a return to normal, albeit one still impacted by the ongoing cuts to weekday SEPTA service levels. The headline trip of MWT XXI was taking the R3 all the way to Elwyn in its final year of it being the terminus of the Media / West Chester Line as the new Wawa station neared completion. The rest of the trip included a slow meander back to Center City via the Routes 101, 100, R5 and 10. Attendance was robust and you can view the entire gallery of photos here ( mirror ).

For me the day started at the Woodcrest PATCO station with rebuilt car #1002. With PATCO express service showing no signs of making a comeback there is no longer any need to travel out to Lindenwold to secure a frontish seat window.

Although technically the MWT starts at Market East, it doesn't have to begin with an outbound Regional Rail ride, although that's often how it works out in practice as it tends to make the itinerary a bit easier to schedule. Here is Silverliner IV #362 on the 8:50 R1 Airport run ahead of our outbound R3 Elwyn.

After wrong railing in from Media for reasons unknown, the trip reached Elwyn with SEPTA Silverliner IV #300 leading.

In 1986 SEPTA R3 service was cut back from West Chester due to declining ridership on the slow, single track line past Elwyn. Elwyn has no other importance except for being the place where the switch was that allowed trains to turn back. The Mid-Winter Trip had never bothered to visit Elwyn because of the convenient Route 101 connection in Media.

The layover in Elwyn was only about 20 minutes so we were soon back at the Media station, ready to walk the 3 or so blocks to the SEPTA Route 101 trolley terminus.

Our suburban trolley into 69th Street that day would be K-car #126.

Meeting K-car #109 on the passing siding just east of the Media street running. The spring switches have been recently interlocked as part of an ongoing re-signaling project.

21-12-26 VIDEOS: R32 Holiday Tribute

This post is a companion to the previous photo post covering the use of R32 cars on the 2021 NYCTA Holiday Train. This will contain all of the associated video content I recorded on this trip.

We begin with the Holiday Train pulling into the 2nd Ave station express tracks with #3360 leading, visually modified to resemble its 1964 appearance.



Because of the crowding in the lead car, I decided to settle for the reverse view. I also had to use an extension wand to place my camera against the railfan window due to a Covid safety theatre rope that kept people away from the cab area. Because the run was pretty much all express, I was able to get it in one 25 minute take starting at Broadway-Lafayette and continuing to the terminus of the run at 145th St. The train was running as a 'D' train via a 6 Avenue express routing.



Here is the return video in the #3894 car starting at 125th St and continuing on to the 2nd Ave terminus of the run.



After most of another complete round trip, I decided to bail out at W 4th St and get back to Penn Station. Here is the rear view from 34th St on the 6th Ave to W 4th.



I'll wrap things up with one more video I caught at Hamilton after returning from NYC. I managed to catch part of a three way meet between my train with NJT ALP-46 #4635, Amtrak ACS-86 #605 on southbound Silver Star Train 91 and a northbound Acela Express. The commuter train unfortunately blocked out most of the Acela, but managed to move just before Train 91 passed by.



Well that's it for the videos, I'll have even more for the R32 retirement run however before that will be SEPTA Mid-Winter Trip XXI.

21-12-26 PHOTOS: R32 Holiday Tribute

As the concept of the NYC Transit Museum sponsored holiday trains enters their second decade they have had to do some innovation as running a set of R1/9's between 2nd Ave and Queens Plaza started getting a bit repetitive. The first set of changes involved different routes such as going up Central Park West to 135th or 145th Streets, but as the ultimate retirement of the R32 cars approached, the powers that be decided to give the "obviously vintage" R1/9 cars a year off and substitute in the R32's for holiday duty running on the 2nd Ave to 145th St CPW routing. Of course a change to the itinerary meant I felt required to make the trek up from South Jersey to ride them and you can find the full set of photos here ( mirror ).

My day started early at Hamilton where I passed on an NJT Corridor Line local pushed by ALP-46 #4635 in favor of an express led by split level cab car #7013.

PATH's long headways now makes it quicker to just go directly to Penn Station wher I caught an R46 A train to West 4th Street.

While waiting for an F to 2nd Ave I noted that W 4TH ST tower has closed since my last visit in December 2019.

I also caught the R32 holiday train heading north on the lower level, likely having traveled from Coney Island and needing to make a reverse move to get to 2nd Ave.

An R160 F Train soon arrived on the local track and transported me to 2nd Ave where the r32 holiday train soon arrived with southward leading car #3360 modified by the transit museum to resemble its as-delivered 1964 condition.

Northward leading car #3894 was equipped with a wreath and signed as a "D" train for the day's service.

Austere half cab of #3894.