Back in 2024 I paid a visit to the Columbia Ave overpass over Amtrak's Northeast Corridor in Northwest Philadelphia. When later processing the events of the trip I realized that the location as adjacent to some Conrail era signaling accessible via the Fairmont Park disc golf course. When I was back in the area in the summer of 2025 I set out to rectify this oversight as well as getting some additional photos of traffic on the old Connecting Railway.
Reaching the 33rd St overpass that overlooked Amtrak's MANTUA required me to revisit the Columbia Ave location I visited in 2024. While there I managed to catch the "sequential" classic Acela set with power cars #2013 and #2012.
Amtrak's MANTUA interlocking used to be part of ZOO tower's territory up until the late 1990's. Today it is most notable for being where SEPTA and Amtrak traffic have to switch places for the former to head to 30th St Station's upper level while the latter descends to the lower. To partly remedy this conflict center track #3, formerly used by the PRR for freight, was given a "straight" shot to the "River Line" track to 30th St lower level while the SEPTA trains on outer track #4 are left to navigate a 30mph diverging move. In the videos below we see the 4W signal at MANTUA at first displaying Medium Approach and later Medium Clear to a pair of single unit Silverliners V, including #708, from Chestnut Hill West
Next along was a southbound Regional train with ACS-86 #657.
Next up was a northbound Regional with ACS-86s #636 and #626 running top and tail.
Running behind the Regional was an outbound SEPTA R7 Trenton train.
I was then surprised by the appearance of an Amtrak Next Gen Acela trainset with power cars #2133 and #2124. They were in the final stages of testing before entering service later in the month with simulated revenue trips running to a real, but unlisted schedule.
CP-PARK on the former Conrail Trenton Line has seen some modifications since the CSX takeover in 1999, however the east end still sports Conrail mast signals and the blue station sign.
On February 9th, 2025, the Philadelphia Eagles smothered Patrick Mahomes, former Eagles coach Andy Reid and the rest of the Kansas City Chefs in Super Bowl LIX, giving the team its second Super Bowl championship. Since I was unable to attend the parade after the "all gas, no brakes" victory over the New England Patriots in Super Bowl LII, showing up for 2025 event was a top priority. Not long after the confetti and beer cans were cleaned up, I came to learn that the downtown Macy's with its world famous Wannamaker Grand Court Organ was going to close for the indefinite future triggering another trip downtown to catch one of the "final" live recitals. The result is a collection of photos documenting these two unique things that make Philly special.
After the mess that was the 2008 Phillies World Series Parade, SEPTA and PATCO pretty much decided that they just weren't going to try for future parades with plans that limited service to a subset of stations with large parking lots. As a result my plan had been to taken Amtrak and and just walk to the parade route from 30th St station and I had purchased refundable tickets for the Wednesday and Thursday after the Super Bowl as soon as the Birds won the NFC Championship. Unfortunately the Eagles broke precedent and scheduled the parade for Friday due to cold weather on Thursday. This required me to fall back on Plan B, drive up and grab a parking spot at the Woodcreast Station Park M Ride at 5am for a parade that wouldn't get downtown until about noon.
PATCO's parade plan involved dropping all passengers at 9th/10th and Locust to use the rest of the line as yard space and so that they could lock down the station concourse tunnels directly around the parade route for security purposes.
I grabbed a spot at 17th and Parkway with my friend. I was a bit surprised by the lack of crowds, but that was probably due to the fact I wasn't aware the parade wouldn't start until about 11am and take a good 1-2 hours to reach my location.
After the parade passed we attempted to walk via a non-direct route to the Art Museum, but the crowds were too much to get anywhere close so my friend and I decided to abort and walk along Spring Garden St to Triple Bottom brewing located inside the old Reading Spring Garden St station. On the way we ran into the Concrete Cowboys, a well known urban riding stable that had taken over the street because all the normal "rules" had been suspended for the parade xD They stopped their roundup at the String Garden St Broad Street Subway entrance as my friend and I continued on to get lunch and a green beer.
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The point of the brewery tour was to 1) find a TV to watch the ceremony in front of the Art Museum and 2) wait out the crowds returning to New Jersey on PATCO. We were prepared to wait until 6 or 7pm, but got word that there was no wait around 5p. After walking all the way from Spring Garden my friend and I were greeted by a fresh train lead by car #1085
Despite the darkness I attempted to get a front facing video of this rare "express" service, but due to the collapse of parade crowds, PATCO shifted back to making all stops while we were en-route which impacted the resulting product. All told PATCO claimed to have handled 3 times its usual weekday ridership, although I am not sure where people parked as half their stations/lots were closed for the day.
A few days later I was still in the Philly area and decided to head back downtown to catch Wannamaker Department Store Grand Court Organ recital. This was a Philly tradition that I had not experienced in decades because...why would anyone go to a downtown department store? For some reason I caught PATCO at Westmont instead of Haddonfield and here is a westbound run with cars #1056 and #1077.
PATCO was wrong railing across the Ben Franklin bridge so I managed to get this video of the process including the long crossover at 8th and market.
In past years I could have used the concourse system to travel directly to City Hall, but it was still fenced off, forcing me onto the street. Despite cleanup efforts a lot of parade trash was still around along with this cool street art mural of Saquon Birdley.
The old flagship John Wanamaker department store is mostly known for three things, the Eagle, the Grand Court Organ and the Christmas Light Show. Since it was February I was only able to partake of the first two. Old John Wanamaker clearly knew how to find bargains as the Eagle statue was bought as surplus from the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exhibition and the core of the organ was bought from the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair. Wanamaker's as a chain was purchased in 1994 by the May company and between 1995 and 2006 it was converted fist into a Hecht's, then a Strawbridge's, and then a Lord & Taylor before it settled upon its final incarnation as a Macy's in 2006.
Although the Atlantic City Boardwalk Hall Auditorium Organ is the world's largest existing musical instrument, the Wanamaker Grand Court Organ is currently the largest playable instrument with 28,762 pipes in 465 ranks. Expanded in stages between 1911 and 1930, the console and method of operation can be considered a child of the electro-mechanical era, on par with panel telephone switches and power interlocking machines. For those of you who are unaware, a mega organ such as this can be considered a pre-electronic synthesizer. Most of the 28000 pipes simulate non-organ instruments like strings and horns turning the organist into a meat based sound processor that can render music of orchestral complexity.
The small number of visible pipes and their decorative surroundings are actually a facade lifted directly from the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair. The actual pipes are tucked away in chambers behind the end wall of the grand court. An automatic louvre system helps modulate the volume. When Macy's took over, operation and maintenance of the organ was turned over to the non-profit Friends of the Wanamaker Organ. With the store closing, live performances were to go on hiatus until a sale and redevelopment plan could be finalized.
Heading back to New Jersey I caught a pair of PATCO trains at 12th/13th and Locust. Later that evening I would travel back to the city **again** to connect with my Acela train back to Baltimore, that time using both the Haddonfield and 8th and Market stations. So over the course of the extended weekend I somehow used three different New Jersey PATCO stations and every Center City station.
Due to the lateness of the hour, I decided to use the MFL to get to 30th St. Here are MFL M-4 cars #1141 and #1030 at 8th St and 30th St respectively.
Down on the platform I ran into ACS-86 #649 and Acela power car #2016. I would actually be on the Acela that day due to a surprisingly competitive ticket price.
Well that's all I have from the Eagles championship weekend. Compared to the Phillies Parade of 2008, things were a lot more organized even if they weren't as convenient or helpful.
When Amtrak re-signaled the Connecting Railway between ZOO and NORTH PHILADELPHIA interlockings around 2005, the short block distances resulted in a split signal arrangement with brand new 4-track gantries erected at Columbia Ave (eastbound) and Susquehanna Ave (westbound). The Milepost 86.8 signal bridge at Columbia Ave in particular was less than a half mile away from MANTUA interlocking's westbound signal bridge creating a high quality viewing location from the Oxford Ave road bridge that sat between the two signal locations. It was this area that I set out to explore ( mirror ) in August of 2024.
First one has to get to Philly, which in this case involved catching an Amtrak Regional at BWI and then the SEPTA connection to suburban. Locomotives encountered include MARC SC44 #87, the class leading Acela trainset with power car #2000, Amtrak ACS-86 #634 and SEPTA Silverliner IV #435.
The Connecting Railway portion of the NEC hosts the standard list of Amtrak trains plus SEPTA R7 Trenton and R8 Chestnut Hill West service, NJT Atlantic City Line trains and Conrail freight trains to Frankford Jct and Pavonia Yard. Here an eastbound SEPTA R7 with Silverliner V equipment rolls by taking the Clear signal indication on track #1.
This was followed by northbound Regional with Veterans ACS-86 #642
and a northbound Silver Meteor Train 98 with ACS-86 #628.
Track #1 is also used for the Atlantic City trains like this southbound example with Comet V cab car #6019 and GP40PH-2B #4204.
A southbound Acela showed up with power cars #2024 and #2021.
As freight traffic on the NEC's center tracks was replaced by high speed passenger trains in the 1970's, Amtrak had to essentially undo many of the PRR era infrastructure optimizations that separated freight and passenger traffic. One of these was at ZOO interlocking where the center tracks would lead to the freight only High Line forcing high speed passenger trains on track #3 to make a 30mph diverging movement to track #4. Amtrak remedied this situation by re-aligning the track to make track #3 take a straight route towards 30th St station and the "local" track #4 the diverging route. This sort of realignment is known as a "poor man's high speed turnout".
The Acela action resulted in this southbound Amtrak Regional with ACS-86 #640 to run on track #4.
Up next was on track #3 was ACS-86 #611 at the head of another long southbound Regional.
This was followed by a northbound Acela with power cars #2019 and #2012.
As the Acela rolled past a CSX transfer run between Pavonia and South Philly showed up with ES44AH #728, ES44AH #957 and SD40-2 #8881.
Amtrak tends to run SEPTA R8 Hill West trains out on track #2 to reduce the number of route conflicts. Here SEPTA Silverliners IV #313 and #12 take the Approach Slow indication for the slow speed diverging route onto the Chestnut Hill West Line at LEHIGH interlocking.
The SEPTA R8 move forced an eastbound Keystone with ACS-86 #632 over to track #1 while the CSX manifest freight waited for a signal at CP-PARK.
I waited around a bit, but the CSX transfer run was stuck fast and I ended up needing to wrap things up.
I did have a friend with me on this trip and they were able to get video of most of the train movements which I have compiled into a short montage.
Heading home to New Jersey my eastbound PATCO train made an unscheduled employee stop at the yet-to-be-opened Franklin Square station.
I'll close things out with this cool reflection of 1 Liberty Place across from the old PRR Suburban Station building.
Make sure you tune in next week as we fire up Reading #2102 for a round trip ramble to the Pittston Tomatoe Festival.
