24-04-14 PHOTOS: FoPT #9000 Heritage Trip

As I noted in my previous video post, despite living in the area for all my life I had never attended any of the several streetcar charters the Friends of Philadelphia Trolleys puts on every year. One of the reasons was that I have attended numerous trips arranged by the Enemies of Philadelphia Trolleys, aka SEPTA, and with the complete revenue streetcar system under my belt I didn't feel much urgency to pay extra money for a few staged photoshoots. Well, for whatever reason the announcement of an April 2024 charter featuring LEV #9000, the leading member of the K-Car LRV's, in a special "Day 1" heritage paint scheme caught my eye and I signed up. What followed was a great day with great people and great weather. I almost have too many good photos to post ( mirror ), but I'll do my best to pare things down a bit.

The charter was scheduled for a Sunday to avoid disrupting service, this also meant #9000 had plenty of company in the Elmwood depot yard before the trip kicked off.

PCC 2 cars for the Route 15 were on track #25, including #2330 seen here. At this point the Route 15 trolleys were still out of service, but would return later in the year.

View inside the inspection and light repair shoppe while hitting the restroom before the charter kicked off.

The first staged photo op of the day was #9000 pulling out of Elmwood depot onto what is normally the Route 36.

The event was well attended and at $60 was a pretty good deal.

The first stop was the Route 11 terminus at the Darby Loop, reached via a short stretch of non-revenue track that crosses under the NEC before a left hand turn onto the Route 11 at the site of the historic Blue Belle tavern, which had been hit be a runaway streetcar the previous year. Note the black Dodge pickup. This was a chase vehicle that followed #9000 over the surface portions of the trip.

At the Darby Loop, LRV #9020, in revenue service, held short so that the railfans could get their photos before being allowed to pass on the bypass track.

#9000 seen here pulling out of the loop and posing for another photo.

Low angle of #9000 crossing the CSX Philly Sub in Darby.

Trip organizers stop traffic so that the trip participants could get another posed photo near 60th St where the Route 11 re-crosses the CSX Philly Sub on an overhead bridge.

Speaking of, there was quite a bit of congestion on the Philly Sub as a manifest freight on track #1 held short of 58TH ST interlocking while a NYC garbage train was holding things up on track #2.

We didn't get very far before the next photo stop near 52nd St where #9000 met an opposing Route 11 streetcar, #9008.

The next stop was the 40th St trolley portal where #9000 discharged the attendees to #9088 to head down the Route 34 before taking a spin on the circle track, before #9002 showed up on a revenue Route 13 run.

Next up was an express run through the downtown Subway Surface tunnel, followed by a photo stop at 13th St.

This was followed by a brief race with a normally "express" MFL train, which we ultimately won when it had to make the 30th St stop.



After this the #9000 exited the tunnel at the Route 10 36th St portal to pose for another photo.

From there the charter proceeded to the infrequently used 54th St turnback on the Route 10. This is located near the site of the old 52nd St passenger station on the former PRR Main Line.

While getting set up for a run-by, Amtrak's westbound Pennsylvanian Train 43 passed by in the distance.

Here is #9000 waiting for #9076 on an inbound Route 10 run to pass by before exiting the 54th St turnback and passing #9051 heading in the opposite direction towards the Malvern loop.

Near Powelton #9000 posed with some blooming cherry trees.

After second run through the trolley tunnel, the charter stopped briefly at 30th St station to get a photo of #9000 with the lead member of the in-house SEPTA design team that had worked closely with Kawasaki to make the LRV's some of the best equipment SEPTA ever purchased.

The trip then set out on the Route 34th with a photo stop at the Angora Loop.

The photo line then repositioned itself to catch #9000 exiting the loop and then turning back onto Baltimore Pike.

Up next were a pair of photo stops on the 58th St diversion track at Warrington Ave and Regent St.

After a spin around the Woodlawn heavy overhaul depot the charter made a left off 58th St and onto the Route 13 towards Darby. An approaching inbound R3 Wawa train with Silverliner IV #336 resulted in a spur of the moment photo-op on the bridge over the 49th St station.

The photo stop was a bit rushed because we were kind of blocking revenue service, but after everyone re-boarded I got this photo of outbound LRV #9027 passing inbound car #9002, which you might remember from the 40th St portal stop.

Since we had already been to Darby, the charter short turned at the Mt. Moriah Loop for another photo stop. Unfortunately we kinda forgot to reset the loop entry switch for #9027.

After departing the loop time was getting short so the charter hightailed it back to the 58th St diversion track, however after pulling off the Route 13, we found time for one more photo stop.

Due to needing to catch another train I couldn't stay for the Elmwood shoppe tour and so I'll end with this photo of K-Car #9003 on the Route 36 returning me to centre city.

As you can see this was a superb trip. The weather was perfect, #900 looked great and I want to give a special shout out to Bill Monaghan, who has been the mover and shaker behind these events for many decades.

24-04-14 VIDEOS: FoPT #9000 Heritage Trip

Friends of Philadelphia Trolleys have been organizing multiple charters on SEPTA's extensive streetcar network per year for the last few decades and until April of 2024 I had ridden exactly zero of of them until when a trip featuring the newly heritage painted #9000 was offered. TLDR I can see why people were always enthusiastic about these events and I managed to come away with enough content for two complete posts. The first will cover the video I recorded from the back of LRV #9000 and the second will cover the still photos and shorter video clips.

We start off with #9000 pulling out of Elmwood depot and using a short stretch of diversion track to pass under the NEC and reach the Route 11 on Baltimore where the #9000 charter made a left and proceeded to the Darby Transportation Centre.



After completing a photo stop at Darby, the character proceeded to the 40th St trolley portal with a brief intermediate stop at the CSX Philly Sub grade crossing.



At the 40th St portal, #9000 took a 360o spin on the circle track with charter organizer Bill Monaghan Jr performing some work with the the switch iron due to the automatic switching mechanisms being not quite functional.



Next up was an express run through the Subway-Surface Trolley Tunnel with an intermediate photo stop at 13th St, ultimately emerging at the 36th St Route 10 portal.



After a pair of photo stops on the Route 10, the charter returns to the 36th St portal after a short turn at the 54th St loop with an intermediate stop at the 40th St diversion junction.



At this point it was time for another run through the trolley tunnel. One of the party pieces of these trips is to turn off the lights while inside the tunnel, which makes for a very cool effect.



After a photo stop at 30th St station, the character proceeded down the Route 34 to the Angora Loop.



Skipping ahead a bit, the character departs a photo stop opposite the 49th St R3 station, to then use the 49th St diversion trackage to loop around the Woodlawn heavy repair depot and return to the Route 13 on Woodland Ave before short turning at the infrequently used Mt. Moriah loop.



The final leg of the journey involved running from the Mt. Moriah loop to Elmwood depot via the 49th St diversion track, Woodlawn depot, the Route 11 and finally the Island Ave connector track.



I hope you all enjoyed this special video content. I'll be back next time with all the fantastic stills.

24-04-08 PHOTOS: Northeast Kingdom

In 2017 I ventured to eastern Tennessee to witness the total solar eclipse whose track spanned the full width of the continental United States. I enjoyed the trip so much that I immediately made plans for the 2024 eclipse that would run from the Canadian border above New Englande to Texas. At the time my expectation was to stay with friends in the Cleveland area as there was only a 30% chance of clear skies in upstate New York, where my travel partner had family we could stay with. Of course a lot can change in 7 years and a week out it became clear that Cleveland was going to have varying levels of overcast, while Upstate Vermont, where we had since acquired a new friend in St. Johnsbeary, was forecast to have clear skies. Therefore I found myself returning to the Connecticut River valley where I had already engaged in a substantial railfan activity just two weeks prior. The good news was that the repeat trip allowed me to document ( mirror ) more former Boston and Maine signaling between Bellows Falls and Windsor as well as the remains of the old B&M Passumpsic Division that connected to railroads in Quebec.

An interesting note about the drive was that while the viewing location for the 2017 eclipse of Monroeville, TN was only two states away, the 2024 journey to Vermont's Northeast Kingdom crossed 6 state borders, but was actually a shorter distance. While on the way up I caught Metro North M8 #9718 straddling the Merritt Parkway on the New Canaan Branch.

The Connecticut River rail corridor has an interesting history involving both the Boston & Maine and Central Vermont Railroads. The CV had been an American based business unit of Canadian National running between Montreal (New France) and the port of New London (New Englande). Early in its history the component of this route running between Windsor, VT and Brattleboro, VT was taken over by the Boston and Maine, requiring trains from both companies to use trackage rights to run on the segments owned by the other. Although currently united under the guise of the New Englande Central RR and their G&W corporate overloord, evidence of the old arrangement was all over. Here at the south end of the Claremont siding we find a pair of mileposts. One, S99, indicates the mileage to Springfield, MA via the Boston and Maine route, while the other, 160, indicates the Central Vermont mileage to New London.

Claremont is the least used Amtrak station in the state of New Hampshire, but like other stations on the Vermonter route it benefits from strong community support. While the old B&M station building is now a restaurant, a small purpose built shelter is stocked with books and children's activities while a volunteer host is on hand to help passengers.

Following the Vermonter route by road, one will encounter the famous Cornish-Windsor covered bridge, which arguably has the congest clear channel span of any vehicular covered bridge in the world.