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.

Passing K-car #102 on a Route 102 routing at Beverly Hills station on the Routes 101/102 shared trunk line.

#126 again after finishing its run at 69th St terminal.

SEPTA Route 100 interurban cars #138 and #148 at 69th St.

Route 100 interurban cars #138 and #151 at Radnor.

Unfortunately I had a bit of a planning problem in that the Route 100 just missed a connection with an inbound R5 at Radnor and because of service cuts there was not another one for another hour. The better move would have been to get lunch at 69th St and then try to make a better R5 connection. Anyway, while waiting at the Radnor PRR Main Line station we encountered an outbound SEPTA R5 local, an outbound SEPTA crew training move and westbound Amtrak Pennsylvanian Train 43 with P42DC #87 leading.

Eventually the next inbound R5 showed up with SEPTA Silverliner V #725 leading and as we headed towards Overbrook we began to encounter some snow flurries.

The intent was to have a quick lunch at the commercial strip adjacent to Overbrook station, however the Chinese place was closed on Mondays and the Pizza place was not taking walk-up orders due to "Covid". Fortunately a Bodega was able to provide deli class sandwiches and we returned to the Overbrook station platform to catch an eastbound Keystone with Amtrak ACS-86 type locomotives #659 and #609 running Janus style.

Along with a westbound Keystone with ACS-86 #665 and Metroliner cab car #9643 making a diverging movement at OVERBOOK interlocking from local track #4 to express track #3 over the #9 switch in front of the still manned OVERBROOK tower.

From there it was a quick walk over to the Malvern Loop to catch a Route 10 trolley back to Center City. The group was able to set up in the back of #9097 where myself and Koi captured the entire run in GoPro video.

Taking the Route 10 trolley to 13th and Juniper we eventually connected to a northbound Broad Street Subway express at City Hall.

At Fern Rock, because SEPTA's new "day passes" were limited to 10 trips that may or may not include some definition of transfer I declined to go down to the Regional Rail platform at Fern Rock, instead getting this photo of Silverliner IV #148 from inside fare control.

After a high speed run down the Broad Street express tracks, we alighted at North Philly for a Twilight photo-shoot at North Broad.

The evening peak service was just gearing up, but due to the failing light I eventually switched to creating a video montage. The most interesting movement was a SEPTA Bomber set trailed by cab car #2410.

Eventually a Regional Rail train of Silverliner V's led by #874 stopped and we returned to Center City.

My return trip on PATCO to Woodcrest was courtesy of rebuild car #1087.

Thanks to all of you who attended! Despite the screw ups with lunch and the wait at Radnor it was a great trip.