04-06-12 CLASSIC PHOTOS: Seashore Trolley Museum

Often referred to as the gold standard in streetcar museums, the Seashore Trolley Museum is unfortunately a bit off my beaten path being both in Maine and also transit inaccessible. However back in July of 2004 I did make the journey with some friends which checked off the box in a similar fashion to my one and only trip to the Shoreline Trolley Museum in 2005. This set ( mirror ) also includes photos from my Amtrak trip to and from New Englande.

Arriving at Baltimore Penn Station I found GP40WH-2 #69 along with an elusive pair of AEM-7's with #4900 (nice) and AEM-7 replacement HHP-8 #4910. Despite both Amtrak's and SEPTA's AEM-7 fleets soldiering on for another decade, the MARC units generally vanished from public view before winding up at the Locust Point shoppes.

If I recall correctly my traveling companion joined me in New Haven to continue on to Boston via train. Once in Boston our local host treated us to a tour of the MBTA's Cabot Car Shoppes where the Red Line fleet is maintained. The 01500 and 01600 cars were already over 30 years old and have subsequently turned 50.

A new cam controller had just been delivered from the Everett shoppes for the purely DC-drive 01500/01600/01700 cars. Everett had been the Orange Line shoppes until the line was rerouted up to MBTA Reading Line to Oak Park, but still would perform component refurbishment.

The Seashore Trolley Museum can be considered the "Boston" streetcar museum in the same way that Shore Line is the "New York" museum. It also has quite a few bits of preserved infrastructure such as this copper clad Orange Line tower, a former New Haven RR dwarf semaphore signal and motor generator set for converting AC power to DC.

It also has an extensive collection of rapid transit vehicles from all over the country. Their literal party piece is a State of the Art Car, which can in fact be rented for parties.

In addition to vintage wayside automatic block signals, Seashore used this "token" system to implement traffic control. The system could support platoons of either 5 or 6 streetcars.

 

04-07-04 CLASSIC PHOTOS: Independance Day NEC

Back in 2004 the NEC was a lot more interesting than it has become so it wasn't hard to be able to fill a full set of photos with just what I was able to take on the Amtrak trip to/from my northeast destination. Having coach access to the rear facing window also helped a lot. This set of photos was taken over the July 4th holiday and includes a New Haven power change for what I assume is Amtrak's Train 56 Vermonter. The full set of photos can be found here ( mirror ).

Starting off in Baltimore, the MARC HHP-8's were still pretty new and, despite prevailing trends, examples like #4912 here would still be in service far after the Amtrak fleet was put in storage.

Bi-level Kab Kars like #7849 would also remain a MARC mainstay even after the delivery of newer Bombardier split-level stock.

Passing through Philadelphia, SHORE tower still looks to be in reasonably good condition with the wooden staircase still intact. SHORE would continued to see neglect and suffered a fire in 2021.

FAIR tower in Trenton had recently had a passenger friendly sign added to it.

For the NEC's last two active main line towers, UNION would close in 2009 followed by DOCK in 2017.

Speaking of DOCK, I also captured some of the interesting components that make electrification work across the drawspan of it's 3-track movable bridge.

At Manhattan Transfer we find the since sold-on NJT GP40FH-2 #4144 coupled to a Comarrow coach in the Hudson yard likely part of a Raritan Valley Line trainset.