19-08-17 PHOTOS: West Chester Railroad

The West Chester Railroad is a tourist line that operates on the former PRR branch line that runs east from the current SEPTA R3 terminus in Elwyn, PA. SEPTA temporarily suspended service to West Chester in 1983. eventually leasing the portion past the quarry in Glen Mills to the WCRR for tourist operations. Today the WCRR operates out of Adam's Yard, a little to the south of the old Main Street station. The full set of photos can be found here (mirror).

The WCRR runs most of its trains out of the West Chester Main Street station, which previously served as the terminus of the electrified branch line until 1983. In addition to a small ticket shack, the WCRR has parked an old Plymouth gasoline mechanical industrial engine at the end of the track as an eye catching static display.

Although West Chester is a major town and county seat, passenger traffic was drawn away to the Exton stop on the surprisingly close by PRR Main Line, which provides a faster ride downtown with frequent express services during the peak. By comparison, trains on the curvy (40mph) West Chester branch would take over 30 minutes longer to get to Center City. This ultimately lead SEPTA to cut service back to Elwyn in 1986, with an expansion to Route 1 at Wawa set to open soon.

 The service suspension was listed as temporary, citing equipment shortages after the MP54s were retired, and a replacement shuttle bus continuing into the 1990s. Funds to rehabilitate the line never materialized and SEPTA pulled down the overhead wire in the late 90's or early 2000's, turning over operation to the WCRR.

Most of the WCRR coaching stock consists of former Reading "Blueliner" MU coaches which were modernized in the 1960's before being operated by SEPTA until 1990. Here we see Blueliner #9114 and #9124 sitting in Adams yard in a pre-rebuild Reading green paint scheme. 

Reliable power on the WCRR consists of former Penn Central GP38 #7006, painted in an Erie Lackawanna scheme.

Backup EMD power is in the form of former B&O GP9 #6499.

WCRR fan service power consists of MLW RS-18 #1803.

And the requisite end cab switcher is Alco S-2 #3.

19-01-12 PHOTOS: Station Sidetrips

Not much was going on in January 2019 so I patched together a couple of trips to DC area MARC stations and to the SRNJ short line base at Winslow Jct, NJ during the NJT Atlantic City Line hiatus. You can find the full set of photos here (mirror).

The Garrett Park Brunswick Line MARC station, located on the former B&O railroad Metropolitan Sub, is situated between the two prongs of the WMATA Red Line north of the city. It consists of a small inbound shelter and low level platforms for the peak direction weekday service.

Parking is highly limited and the station primarily serves walking distance neighborhoods on both sides of the tracks.

The old mill town of Kensington has been subsumed by suburban housing developments, but the old town core still features a vintage B&O railroad station.

Although largely converted into a coffee shoppe, the station still features a waiting room and ticket vending machines. 

The falling snow would soon start to accumulate making condition a bit treacherous. 

Moving to Winslow Jct, despite some recent scrappings, the SRNJ still has three MLW (Alco) M420 locomotives on the ready service tracks. These consisted of CNJ painted numbers 3578, 3519 and 3517 and NYO&W painted #800.

11-07-02 PHOTOS: PRSL Artifacts

Well I am finally returning to me regularly scheduled programming with an informal railfan trip organized by the West Jersey Chapter NRHS that consisted of a driving tour around the former PRSL territory looking for interesting historical artifacts that have survived in the decades since their abandonment. Stops include Winslow Jct, Tuckahoe,Woodbine Jct. Vineland, Newfield and Glassboro. Of course I'm not usually one for taking pictures of overgrown rights of way or an odd tie poking out of the sand, but there were more than a few subjects of general interest available on the trip and my featured photos will focus on those.

You can locate the entire set of photos here at: http://acm.jhu.edu/~sthurmovik/Railpics/11-07-02_PRSL_ARTIFACTS/-Thumbnails.html.

We start off at the Southern Railroad of New Jersey yard at Winslow Junction. Old Red and White CNJ painted GP-7 #100 was once the mainstay of SJRR operations, but today is buried deep in the storage track as newer power has come in to supplement it.

After demise of the OnTrack commuter rail line in Syracuse, NY, former NYS&W RDC unit #7 was purchased my the SJRRto facilitate some sort of passenger operations, which were put on hold after the death of the previous SJRR owner.

Here is a rare beast indeed. Former Providence and Worcester U18B #1801 is one of only a small handful of 1960's era "Universal Series" engines still remaining. GE's first cut into full sized diesel locomotives, the Universal Series were not as robust or reliable as the dominant EMD equipment of the same vintage and most were traded in for Dash 7 or Dash 8 units in the 70's and 80's. 

Of course the real motive power that the SJRR is renown for are late model Alcos, some in fact are so late that they were produced well after Also itself went bust by the Montreal Locomotive Works. Here is one such unit, an MLW M420 #3578 painted in CNJ red, which was a lisence built Alco Century Series model C420 with a 2000hp 251C engine. 

The former SJRR owner was a huge fan of the New York, Ontario and Western railroad and were we see another MLW century unit painted up as NYO&W #800.

The pair of SJRR F Units, which used to hold down the local assignment on the Salem Branch, are now stored deep in the power line collecting rust.

Also hanging out is one of a pair of SJRR GE 44-tonners. 

If you head several miles south of Winslow Junction there is a hot mix plant that still gets its stone shipments via rail. Just south of this location on a heavily overgrown siding are a pair of locomotives, one EMD, one Alco, heavily stripped and decaying away. One is former Amtrak CF7 #538, which is still painted in in Amtrak MofW grey. CF7's were former F7 cab units converted into hood style road switchers by the AFST railroad back in the day.

Here is a view of the electrical cabinet inside the generally stripped cab.

Valve train on top of the cylinder bank on #538's EMD 567 prime mover. With all that oil the engine still seems t be in pretty good condition and there is no reason that old 538 might not run again some day.

Hanging out with 538 is ALGX C420 #7221. This is an authentic Alco unit, not some MLW knockoff, but like 538 it was the victim of parts and scrap theft back in 2007 with the head covers and inspection ports being stolen off the 251 engine. Taction motor cables were also removed from both units.

Closeup view of the stripped 251C engine.

Skipping head to Tuckahoe, home of the Came May Seashore Lines, we find everybody's favourite wooden interlocking tower with a pair of disc brake equipped passenger rail truck axles sitting around due to bad roller bearings.

Sitting on he CMSL power line we have former CNJ HEP equipped GP7 #1523, which was used in the CNJ's commuter operations before the GP40Ps were delivered.

Also in attendance are the pair of Lehigh Valley painted F Units along side PRR GP9 #7000.

07-09-01 PHOTOS: Abandoned South Jersey

Last Labour Day I spent some quality time roving around South Jersey checking out a number of interesting "Forgotten" locations interspersed with more standard Railfan locations. So the photos here will include something for everyone.

First off is the old Dydee Service building in Westmont. For years cloth diapers were cleaned there and delivered back to peoples houses. Shuttered by the advent of disposable diapers the building stood vacant for decades before being razed for a new development. I sort of regret not getting in there for a look around before it was demolished.

Next is SOUTH RACE interlocking at Utica Ave in Westmont. Despite being the closest interlocking to my house I had never bothered to go out and take a complete photo set.

After SOUTH RACE I popped over to the adjacent abandoned Westmont sewage treatment plant. This was actually the first of two Sweage treatment plants in this area before things were centralized with the CCMUA. The old plant only had primary treatment, while the second plant had secondary treatment. Today it sits decaying in the woods.

After the jaunt around Westmont I took a jump to the the legendary Haddonfield Waterfall. This is located on the Cooper River deep in the bowls of the Crows Woods recreation area. The river drops over about an 18" clay pan creating a little waterfall. Over the years the fall has retreated some 150 feet.

Next I ventured a little farther afield to the Winslow Junction area. After a bit of railfanning I took off down the RoW to a tip I had on something called Ancora Village. This was a community of assisted living houses for low-risk patients of the Ancora Psychiatric Hospital. Closed probably due to cost reasons the houses stood for several years before all being demolished. Now the site is left to be reclaimed by nature.

Finally, I walked back to Winslow Jct in time to catch an unannounced employee special labour day train as well as the new Alco C420 in its NYO&W Paint.

That was a little whirlwind summary and you can find the full set of pics at:

http://acm.jhu.edu/~sthurmovik/Railpics/07-09-01_FORGOTTEN_SOUTH_JERSEY/-Thumbnails.html

And more of a guided tour below in the same order as described above.

Here is the landmark Dydee Service building with the demolition fence already erected. This building has literally stood vacant here for 20 years or more.

In the forest next to SOUTH RACE interlocking the original Westmont sewage plant. Probably in service until the 1950's. Here is the primary settling tank.

Here's the input channel. Hard to believe this setup managed to "treat" anything at all.

Moving on to the Haddonfield Waterfall. Cute ain't it.

Here's where it used to be 10 years ago.

Also saw this on my way out. Nasty surprise for any lineman.

Finally some railfan stuff. WINSLOW Tower 2008. The bay windows have finally been boarded up from the inside.

06-08-21 PHOTOS: South Jersey Tour

Several months ago I took a small road trip around South Jersey with a friend from Boston. We started off near Trenton with some photos of MILLHAM tower, then wandered down to Cove Road at CP-HATCH for some RiverLINE photos. Finally we headed east to Winslow Township home of the South Jersey Railroad and the Cedarbrook Bunker. Tomorrow I hope to head out to one of the Abandoned NIKE Missile bases which once surrounded most large American cities.

If you remember the old Bell System, you might not know that all those monopoly profits went into building a long distance network that was literally bomb proof, Atomic Bomb proof. Across the country there exists to this day a network of bunkers to keep the phones working in case of nuclear attack. They were linked by a series of microwave relays and L4 co-axial carriers. So next time when you're shouting "Can you hear my now" into your Cell Phone, think of what "6 9's of service" used to mean.

The other cold warriors in South Jersey are the SJRR's fleet of Alcos. Granted most of them are Canadian imports, but it's close enough. You don't see any imported diesels from Lada or Gaz.

The whole group of pix is at:

https://www.redoveryellow.com/position-light/06-08-21_SOUTH_JERSEY_TOUR/-Thumbnails.html

If you want to learn more about the old Bell System go to

http://www.long-lines.net


And a brief tour...

MILLHAM tower in Hamilton NJ is located on a straight stretch of NEC that used to contain a complete 4-track interlocking. Ultimate the interlocking was removed during one of the NECIP's as Trenton area freight traffic declined, but was partly compensated for by the construction of the new Amtrak HAM interlocking about a mile to the east.  MILLHAM was controlled by what became the prototype "corridor" style tower built in 1941 which replaced many older plants.  The peaked roof is a new addition to shield the leaking flat roof. 

RiverLINE unit #3501B at Cove Rd.

The bunker at Cedarbrook. The pryamyds are vents and the brown thing on the concrete post is a gamma ray detector to alert the ppl inside to a nuclear blast.  It's amazing the quality of service we got when AT&T was still a monopoly.  Even after a nuclear war the old network would have still functioned. 

Old microwave relay horn antennas. If you hook your laptop up to one of these you can get 802.11b wireless up to 30 miles distant.

Wow...that's a lot of backup power. Something still uses this place.

Lehigh Valley painted SRNJ C420 #415 getting it's brakes repaired.

05-07-04 CLASSIC PHOTOS: Winslow Jct

Winslow Junction could be considered the nexus of railroading in South Jersey. Although of lesser importance today when compared to Pavonia or the Delair Bridge complex, at one time in the early 20th century it featured some of the highest traffic densities in the world as high speed steam train shuttled the middle and working classes between Philadelphia and the shore points. Created in it's final form with the PRSL merger in 1934, Winslow joined the PRR Camden and Atlantic main line with the Reading line to Ocean City and other points south with the CNJ Southern Division also making an appearance on the lower level.

Today, as in 2005, Winslow is the home base of the Southern Railroad of New Jersey short line, although 13 years ago it was home to a distinctly more eclectic mix of locomotives and rolling stock as the former owner was still alive enough to indulge his various personal railroading interests. In this photo set we'll take a quick tour of what was hanging out at Winslow Jct in the summer of 2005 along with some other random photos from a trip to Washington, DC via MARC and the Metro Orange Line.

The former owner of the SRNJ had a thing for Alcos and the New York, Ontario and Western and while the latter interest eventually manifested in some special paint schemes, the former was exercised via the purchase of a small fleet of Montreal Locomotive Works M-420 locomotives. These were a wide cab copy of the Alco century series C420 built in the 1970's after Alco had shut its doors in 1969. Here we see SRNJ #3579 and #3519 still in their Canadian National livery.

Here we see a non-CN painted #3517 coupled to CN #3578 on the ready service track. Much of this collection would eventually be scrapped after the indictment and death of the long time SRNJ owner in the early 2010's.

The SRNJ cast its net far and wide, harvesting this M-420 (#802) from the Iowa Interstate railroad.

The SRNJ had a pair of GE 44-ton locomotives and in 2005 this example was getting rebuilt to operating condition. I forget the exact details, but after the death of the old owner I believe both the 44-tones were either scrapped or sold. GE 44-ton switchers featured two 8 cylinder diesels in the 150hp range. The model was popular as at the time any locomotive weighing under 90,000 lbs did not have to run with a fireman in the cab.

Lehigh Valley painted Alco C420 #414 was a mainstay at Winslow Jct until it was moved to Scranton and used in Delaware Lackawana service that may have also involved a change of paint scheme.

Of course the EMDs were the most economical units to run and GP10 #102 was sitting on the main line awaiting the next call to duty. This unit had an oil fired burner installed in place of a plug-in block heater.

Up on the NJT Atlantic City line Comet IV cab car #5014 passes Winslow Tower.

WINSLOW tower was built after the 1934 merger to control the new wide ranging interlocking plant. You can learn more about it in another of my posts. The tower was closed with the end of NJ DoT RDC operations in 1983 and now serves as an NJT radio base.