04-12-29 CLASSIC PHOTOS: SEPTA Mid-Winter Trip IV

The fourth annual SEPTA Mid-Winter Trip took place in 2004 and was built around the mid-day Cynwyd round trip, departing Suburban Station.  At the time SEPTA was actively trying to kill the Cynwyd branch service, but despite all of its efforts people kept riding the line and in the following years ridership would actually increase so much that it started to require a single married pair to serve them (as opposed to a single Silverliner unit).

To fill the morning the trip ventured out onto the Market Street Elevated, which was being targeted for reconstruction, and the R8 Fox Chase Line.  After Cynwyd the trip embarked on a CHE to CHW transfer, continuing up at North Philadelphia and finishing with a BSS Fern Rock express turn.  All in all it was a fantastic trip with a lot of Silverliner II and III action.  I got a lot of photos of "things that aren't there any more" and if you'd like to check out the entire set you can find it here.


First stop in the morning was the Market Frankford Line 62nd St station where a new headhouse was under construction.

Returning to Center City, the group transfered to an R8 Fox Chase.  Here we are getting a Medium Clear signal indication at NEWTOWN JCT.  You can see the removed connections to the Reading Wayne Jct freight bypass that had since been re-designated the Conrail (CSX) Trenton Line.  CSX was in the process of untangling itself from the control of SEPTA dispatching both here on the R8 and northern R3 West Trenton.

The flat junction with a movable point diamond would soon be reconfigured into a more typical configuration leading to a single track line.

SEPTA Lawndale Station.  Today the outbound platform is closed because SEPTA and CSX couldn't learn to share.

At CP-CHELTENHAM JCT the former Reading Newtown Branch diverges from the New York Short Line.  The branch was electrified to the City border in Fox Chase in the 1960's. SEPTA ultimately replaced double track  segment with a single passing siding between Cheltenham and Lawndale.

Budd Silverliner II #257 at Fox Chase.

At one point the Fox Chase siding was bounded by interlockings on each end.  Here NORTH CHASE interlocking stands abandoned, although its signals and overhead lines remain intact.  Beyond this point diesel RDC shuttle service operated until the early 1980's.  Attempts to reduce costs by converting the line into a transit operation also failed.  Service has been "temporarily" suspended since then with SEPTA leading parts of the RoW as trails to pretty much prevent a full restoration of service.

Our R8 train was composed of 3 Budd Silverliners with #217 on the reverse end, seen here laying over at Fox Chase.

Diesel power at 30th St station was in transition.  New P42DC's had taken over from F40PHs and HHP-8's had displaced the E-60's, but AEM-7's and high hood GP-8/10 rebuilds were still on the active roster.

Here a fairly new P42DC #145 sits next to GP-10 #770 painted in MoW orange.

Amtrak N-11 Caboose was of PRR or Conrail vintage.  These utilitarian boxes were built to replace the earlier classically designed N-5 series of cabin cars in PRR service.

NJT GP40PH-2B #4205 arrives into the lower level of 30th St station with an Atlantic City Line train.  15 years later the GP40PH-2B's would still be holding down this assignment.

Heading out to Cynwyd the single SL-IV car departs Suburban and joints PRR Main Line on the same route of such famous trains as the Broadway Limited, which arrived from New York via the NY-Pittsburgh Subway to the left.

Previously Main Track #4, the "Valley Jct" ramp and Flyover were built to send passenger trains over the adjacent Belmont freight yards.  This was because freight trains kept to the middle tracks while most passenger trains stayed on the outer tracks. Valley Junction gets it name from the Schuylkill Valley Branch that departed the Main Line at this point. Here we can see the old 52nd St station that had its platform elevated on the ramp to serve outbound trains on track 4.

In 1994 a new track 4 was constructed so that SEPTA's new Overbrook Maintenance Facility could be built on the old track 4 alignment.  Westbound trains would cross over at the new STILES interlocking just west of ZOO.  This move was intended to remove the burden of maintaining the increasingly dilapidated Valley flyover bridge.  SEPTA, assuming the Cynwyd service would eventually be terminated, put no work into the bridge, eventually seeing train speeds reduced to 5mph.  It was only around 2015 that work was started on a new flat connection between the Main Line and the Cynwyd branch that would allow the bridge to be retired.  Here we can see the old Valley truss and the VALLEY interlocking 68L signal, remotely controlled from OVERBROOK tower.

SEPTA territory started at CP-JEFF.  This was not an interlocking, but a controlled point with a spring switch and automatic signals. Note the unique PL dwarf "bracket" with a fixed stop provided for reverse direction trains.

SEPTA single unit Silverliner IV #411 laying over at Cynwyd.  We could tell from the reaction of the crew that the run typically didn't see more than 1 or 2 paying passengers and our entourage likely would double the weekly ridership totals.  Our trip threw the conductor for such a loop that he didn't collect our tickets on either leg of the trip!

MWT IV group photo featuring a young Fred G, Chuck Grene, Lincoln, Chuchobob, Pigs and others.

On the return trip, a comparison of the former track 4 and track 1 platforms at 52nd St.

7 car SL-IV deadhead train waiting to make its way into Roberts Yard in the early afternoon.  A R/Y/R Medium Approach aspect with a route indicator lit indicated the train would be headed into the yard at HUNT interlocking.

Heading through WAYNE JCT on an R7 Chestnut Hill East train.

The old CHE platform featured a low level holdout platform.  Today there is only a single high level platform serving the outbound track, which creates a bottleneck.

SEPTA SL-IV #423 at Chestnut Hill East.

Reading companyBudd Silverliner II #9007 at Chestnut Hill West.

The wealthy PRR built an interlocking tower for the crossover at Chestnut Hill West.  The less wealthy Reading made do with a non-interlocked spring switch solution that was in place until just a few years ago. This tower was eventually replaced by a small table interlocking machine in the station office and later remote controlled to SEPTA  'A' tower and then a dispatcher.

SEPTA SL-II #257 ready to depart Chestnut Hill East.  If this unit is familiar it's because this same trainset had been running back and forth on the R8 all day and we had previously caught it outbound to Fox Chase.

SL-II #257 ready to take the Slow Approach signal at NORTH PHILADELPHIA interlocking.  The bagged signal indicates a project was underway to close the tower.  The project was ultimately completed in the summer of 2005.

Like I said, it was the same trainset with SL-II #217 on the rear.

Amtrak liked to have R8 CHW trains pass eachother at North Philadelphia so that the NEC would only be tied up by half the number of conflicting movements.  Here SEPTA SL-II #260 arrives with a northbound train to CHW.

SEPTAQ wasn't opposed to mixing Silverliner II's and III's as neither had dynamic braking. SL-III #236 was operating behind #260.

The famed NORTH PHILADELPHIA tower, seen in its final winter of service.

Well I hope you enjoyed the photos and if you liked what you saw don't hesitate on attending a future Mid-Winter Trip.  They take place on a weekday between Christmas and New Years when people should be using their time off ;-)