This marked the end of PATCO's bold experiment with an open operator's compartment and a passenger friendly front window and door arrangement. Designed as a way to reassure passengers with an operator's presence during an era of urban decay and high crime, it also forced the operator to be responsive to customer service issues and to also generally interact with the riders, all of which would be enabled by Automatic Train Operation. With full width cabs the riding public deprived protected from the nuts and bolts of train operation and is free to look at their phones and get their customer service via a Twitter feed. As usual, the full set of photos can be found here.
Anticipating heavy crowds at the front of the train I decided to first catch it at Woodcrest and board the rear facing car that would turn and become the front car upon reaching 15/16th. Here we see car #272 approaching Woodcrest station on the center track as the train is in the process of crossing over due to track work.
Car #257 was facing east in the trailing position.
At 7:30am on a Sunday I was pretty much alone in the car and decided to get some interior shots before I settled in for the backwards journey. The Vickers built cars have a solid partition behind the operator. Some Budd cars were retrofitted with this, but others maintained the soft curtain.
View of the operator's console at 15th/16th. Not a digital display in sight! The speedo is color coded in relation to the 4 cab signal speeds, 20mph, 30mph, 40mph and 65mph. The knob at the upper right selected manual or automatic operation. The trains would auto-stop and the operator would then control the doors. The only other manual part of the run was use of a 15mph button for the sharp curve eastbound out of 8th and Market.
Cars #272 and #257 back at Lindenwold.
Better view of the front railfan seat with the hand brake and horribly dated interior color scheme. The plush seats were maintained for nearly the first 50 years of the service whereas other systems had to switch to plastic due to vandalism.
An inactive operator's console locked by a stout metal bar. Originally two file cabinet style wafer locks had secured the cover. through the mid-2000s there was no explicit prohibition for passengers to sit in the inactive operator's seats.
Vickers Canada builder's plate.
Passing rebuilt car #1042 at Ashland.
Philly Inquirer photographer with car #272 immediately following a run at 15th/16th.
Car #257 at 15th/16th.
The Vickers cars feature an original style route map that also include the Woodcrest infill station that triggered the new for new cars in 1980. On the original cars the maps were updated with a Woodcrest Station sticker.
As the day wore on the cars began to fill up mostly with persons attending the Philly Pride parade, although a few railfans were sighted :-)
While laying over between runs at Lindenwold a Philly bound NJT Atlantic City train trailed by Comet V cab car #6082 pulled away.
Rebuilt car #1040 upon departure from Lindenwold.
More railfans getting their photos in from the Collingswood and Ferry Ave station platforms.
View of the north, Philly side Ben Franklin Bridge anchorage tower while proceeding westbound on Track #2.
Due to the constraint of having to catch an Amtrak train before noon I was unable to be on hand for the official last run. However I did decide to stretch my experience a bit further and make a half run back to City Hall station in Camden as I would, in theory, be able to immediately catch a westbound back to Philly as the weekend passing point is at Broadway. While on this half run I snagged a photo of the minor league Campbell's Field on the Camden Waterfront that would soon be demolished due to the departure of it's professional team. Lasting less than 20 years, Campbell's Field was part of an ambitious urban renewal project that ultimately petered out.
Also in evidence on the NJ side of the BFB was the project to construct a bicycle friendly ramp up onto the southward pedestrian walkway. Previously access to the walkway was via a 2-3 story set of stairs.
My last view of a classic car, departing City Hall, was somewhat underwhelming a I also tried to get a video of the departure and managed to screw up both :-(
My day was almost ruined by a PATCO service disruption that nearly caused me to miss my Amtrak train back to Baltimore. I managed to make the train with only about a minute to spare. Join me next week as I spend some time along the B&O's Old Main Line.
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