23-04-04 PHOTOS: Reading Viaduct

In 2020, with transit on the ropes and outdoor activities all the rage due to the pandemic, I converted my usual SEPTA Mid-Winter transit trip into an all-day rail history walking tour. Part of this tour included abandoned Reading Company rights of way including the City Branch and the famous Reading Viaduct in and around the old Spring Garden St station. While on this excursion I discovered the secret entrance up onto the viaduct itself, but since I was unable to suddenly transition my event to one of urban exploration, I had to retreat from the viaduct with a plan to return at a future time. In September of 2021 I acted on this plan due to the impending demolition of the Reading Spring Garden Station platforms and northbound head house. Not only was I too late in terms of the demolition, but I found the summertime viaduct to be a to be completely overgrown with vegetation, blocking sight lines and hiding homeless persons who might not take kindly to having their living space intruded upon by a long explorer with camera gear. Again I made a plan to return during the winter months when the vegetation would be more see through and I could return with a buddy. A planned attempt to return in early 2022 fell through when an interested urbexer flaked out and once again I had to put off the trip. Finally, in the Spring of 2023 did I find someone with schedule availability and we were able to get up on the viaduct as the leaves were just starting to re-appear. You can find the photos from my exploration of the viaduct and related spring transit photos here ( mirror ).

We begin at the BWI Airport rail station with Amtrak ACS-86 #659 at the head of a southbound Regional.

Two views of SEPTA Silverliner V #829 at both 30th St Station and Market East.

Back down at BWI on a rather foggy March night.

Between NEC trips I managed to sneak down to Garrett Park, MD to catch the westbound Capitol Limited led by P42DC #83.

On the day before my planned Reading Viaduct expedition I was back at BWI to catch an Acela Express lead by power car #2006.

SEPTA Slverliners V #709 and IV #425 at 30th St station.

The Reading Viaduct was largely constructed in the 1890's in conjunction with the Reading Terminal we all know and love, replacing a previous station near Broad and Vine that had been accessed via a right of way along the Schuylkill River. The viaduct ran from the old Philadelphia and Germantown Railroad terminal near today's North Broad to the new Reading Terminal at 12th and Market. Construction is largely of steel, however there is a brief section of fill between Buttonwood and Hamilton Streets. Shown below is the structure as it crosses Noble St at Ridge Ave.

Reading Terminal served as an active railroad station until November 6th, 1984 when all service was rerouted to the new Center City Commuter tunnel and the replacement Market East station. After the closure of Reading Terminal both the train shed, the approaches and most of the related infrastructure south of the cutover point at Fairmount Ave were abandoned in place. This included overhead signaling infrastructure like the southbound home signal for RACE STREET interlocking seen here.

The reason most of the infrastructure was left intact was due to the continued use of the Reading Callowhill rail traction power substation at the southern apex of the old City Branch Wye at Callowhill St. The substation made use of the 12kv overhead catenary and 24kv feeders as well as the rails and also required SEPTA to generally maintain and secure the right of way. In 2010 the substation was retired and most maintenance activities ceased.

23-01-06 PHOTOS: LEAMAN Distants

When the western end of Amtrak's Harrisburg Line was rebuilt in the mid-2000's, the 1940's vintage PRR signaling was replaced by a flavor of cab signaling without intermediate wayside signaling. However at the time Amtrak would install wayside distant signals in advance of interlockings to provide implicit directional information and to ease operations in case of cab signal failure. Recently Amtrak petitioned the FRA to remove these signals citing that they were not actually necessary. As a result set out to get photos at some of the affected signal locations east of Lancaster along with any Keystone Service activity that might show up. To full out the post I have also thrown in some photos from the NEC at Newark, DE and Perryville, MD. You can find the full set of photos here ( mirror ).

The Milepost 64.5 automatic is the distant to HOLLAND interlocking, formerly part of CORK tower's territory around Lancaster. HOLLAND is only in service on track #4 with a trailing post connection to the New Holland industrial track in the westbound direction. It is displaying an Approach indication as an eastbound Keystone train led by ACS-86 #669 with Metroliner Cab Car #9638

The signal is co-located with a radio alarm Hotbox-Dragging Equipment detector that replaced older ones that read out in the local towers before they were closed.

The milepost 55.3 signals are the westbound distants for the new CTC crossover at LEAMAN, a hand operated temporary block station under the old system. Despite the new interlocking, the original slow speed crossover alignment was retained which is why both distant signals can display Approach Slow. Here ACS-86 #648 pushes past en-route to Harrisburg.

This part of the PRR Main Line was electrified between 1937 and 1939 after the PRR had dialed in a lower cost cable span suspension system. Here ACS-86 #665 rounds the curve just past the Strasburg Rail Road junction at Paradise.

Amtrak #665 with its keystone train closer to the Vintage Rd bridge near Kinzers, PA. When the new signaling was installed it was somewhat overbuilt with a high density block arrangement that is almost never fully utilized at today's service levels. This resulted in some interesting signal progressions, especially around LEAMAN with distants displaying Approach, Approach Slow, Cab Speed 60 or 80 and Clear. The track 1 westbound signal can also support Approach Medium/Limited. Recently Amtrak has been simplifying the signal logic, cutting out certain block states so it is not uncommon to see these signals go directly from Stop and Proceed to Clear.

Metroliner cab car #9649 after passing Vintage Road. This right of way originally sported 4 tracks, but was cut back to two tracks in 1948 due to the post-war reduction in traffic and the more efficient use of parallel electrified low-grade freight lines. However the 4-track legacy is still reflected in the track numbering of #1 and #4.

The new Amtrak distant locations did not exactly align with the old PRR Rule 251 ABS signals. Whereas the original PRR era distants would be located a standard 2 mile block length away from the interlocking, the Amtrak signals were about 1 mile away. Here we can see #665 and #9649 passing under the old PRR Milepost 54 signal gantry.

22-11-10 PHOTOS: Baltimore Penn Rehab

Baltimore Penn Station is currently undergoing a revitalization project that will see the upper floors converted into some sort of commercial space, the tracks #1 and #3 platform re-opened and converted to high level and a new track #8 platform constructed with a connection to the current concourse. In the fall of 2022 I modified my travel plans to engineer a brief layover at Baltimore Penn and get some photos. Also included in the full set ( mirror ) are photos from Philly and around the Milepost 110 automatic signal in Severn, MD.

Waiting for a northbound MARC train at BWI, a peak period DC bound train was first to arrive on the far track with Kab Kar #7858 and HHP-8 #4911.

My MARC train was being hauled by MP36PH-3C #33. Note the smoke from heavy breaking.

At Baltimore Penn Station the cab car on my train was split lever Bomber #8058.

The low level track 1-3 platform had been completely removed in preparation for a high level conversion. Unfortunately this would mean the end of Baltimore's traditional brick paved platforms.

Departing Track #7 was a southbound MARC train with MP36PH-3C #17.

One discovery was the installation of a new southbound B&O style CPL dwarf signal on track #7 in CHARLES interlocking. This and an adjacent PRR style pedestal signal replaced a cantilever structure at the same location to make way for the new track #8 platform.

Although the exterior of the station was covered by scaffolding, the interior was pretty much the same as it always had been.

22-09-17 PHOTOS: Harrisburg Power Office

In 2022 the Harrisburg Chapter NRHS took out a long term lease on the Harrisburg Power Director office in Amtrak's Harrisburg Station. The Harrisburg Chapter is known for its previous purchase and restoration of HARRIS tower on the west end of the old PRR Harrisburg Station complex and has been negotiating for the opportunity to perform a similar restoration on the PDO since it closed in 2013. Built above STATE tower as part of the general Harrisburg project of the late 1930's, the Harrisburg PDO was one of the first implementations of a wide area SCADA network that would ultimately form the basis of the modern power grid. In September 2022 I was able to visit during a volunteer cleanup day and also took the opportunity to check out Amtrak's new Middletown, PA station. The full set of photos covering both locations can be found here ( mirror ).

Before checking out the Middletown station I stopped by ROY interlocking in Royalton. PA. This was previously the junction between the PRR's Royalton Branch low grade freight line and the Main Line proper. Here Amtrak ACS-86 #636 leads an eastbound Keystone Service trainset with Metroliner Cab Car #9641 through the three-track full crossover.

The Royalton Branch was electrified from 1939 until the end of Conrail electric operations in 1981 and is currently used by road freights to/from Maryland and Delaware that wish to bypass Enola Yard. Today the Royalton Branch is owned an operated by Norfolk Southern for freight purposes making ROY one of the few remaining locations where Amtrak dispatchers control part of an NS line. Here we see the Amtrak style position light signal governing westbound Royalton Branch trains standing in front of the ROY tool house. Despite the station sign, this building was never an interlocking tower.

Across the Swatara Creek, nearly all traces of the old Middletown Station, except for the parking lot, have been removed. The low platform station was of the holdout variety with a single platform and eastbound passengers needing to board across the westbound track, resulting in time penalties and procedural complexity.

The old station had the advantage of providing an easy connection to the Middletown and Hummelstown railroad's tourist operations. When I arrived the M&H had not yet opened for the day. GE 44-ton switcher #1 was coupled to a string of former Lackawanna, MU cars with Western Maryland Alco S6 #151 on an adjacent track.

To find the new station following the M&W westward down Broad Street past Kuppy's Diner.

The new station has a central island platform accessed by one of the trendy track overpasses that give riders the choice of long elevator waits or getting their steps in.

The new platform provides a great view of the M&H interchange track. The hard part is being around when the NS local freight performs its work during the overnight hours.

While I was at the station a westbound Keystone service train arrived with Metroliner Cab Car #9645 and ACS-86 #645.

I also managed to catch the final operational flight of an EC-130J Commando Solo airborne broadcast facility operated by the 193rd Special Operations Wing, Pennsylvania Air National Guard out of the adjacent Harrisburg International Airport. The 193rd Wing had been performing the electronic/psychological warfare mission since 1968, but was shifting to more kinetic covert operations with the MC-130J platform. This EC-130J was en-route to provide special radio broadcasts for the Lancaster County fair near Lititz, PA.

Finally rolling into the lot at HARRIS Tower I was greeted by a westbound NS intermodal train with ET44AC #3669, C44-9W #9396 and C44-9W #9628

Due to all the time spent faffing about at Middletown, I was barely in time to catch the arrival of eastbound Pennsylvanian Train #42, led by P42DC #118.

The mid-day Keystone trainset reposition move took place with ACS-86 #645 and Metroliner #9646.

Next up was another eastbound intermodal with C44-10W #7537 and AC44C6M #4121.

This was followed by a westbound doublestack train with ES44AC #8176 and AC44C6M #4461.

After some time at HARRIS tower, I headed over to the Harrisburg Power Director's office, which is located inside the PRR Harrisburg station, behind this door and up these stairs. In the space that greets you, Power Director's controlled PRR/Penn Central/Amtrak/Conrail electric traction power operations on the lines west of Morrisville, Paoli and Perryville between 1938 and 2013.

Formerly this was the home of the Power Directors for electric power zones 8 and 9. The central podium contained two desks for each zone, although after the cession of electric freight operations under Conrail in 1981, Amtrak would operate both zones with a single power director.

Although Power Director Offices had been built in Philadelphia, New York and Baltimore, Harrisburg was the last and most modern through the use of supervisory control, the predecessor of today's SCADA technology, to give the Power Directors direct control over most substation functions. This eliminated the need to rely on relaying instructions through manned interlocking towers. The relay based telecom style technology remained in service throughout the office's operation and still resides in the space today.

The fully illuminated big board that provided real time status of the electric traction power system across hundreds of track miles of would have been considered a marvel of 1938 technology, however all of the graphics were still painted by hand.

Of course because tech could be finicky, the Directors were also provided with these manually operated carousels that used colored wooden pegs instead of lights.

The board seemed even larger behind the scenes and the office could be fed from either 60hz utility power or 100hz railroad signal power.

I will have the opportunity to go more in detail about the Harrisburg PDO over the course of future visits. However on my way out it was not lost on me that the power office was sitting directly above the old STATE tower that was closed in 2017. If both STATE and HARRIS were restored to the same standard, it would be possible to simulate the totality of the PRR's Harrisburg Station operations.

Here is a photo from the Power Office shortly before in 2008 to show what the big board looks like when fully illuminated.



Next time I'll be back with a trip to Boston and some Baltimore area photos.