11-10-15 PHOTOS: SEPTA Rodeo 2011

One again SEPTA was nice enough to invite a number of rail enthusiasts to its annual employee picnic and skillz rodeo located at the Fern Rock Transportation Complex. Like last year the Fern Rock shoppes held a number of technical displays, while outside joy rides and skills tests were being offered on the BSS cars. Over at the Fern Rock Regional Rail station a selection of SEPTA Regional Rail EMUs were displayed on the infrequently used third track.

As I had already attended the year before, I didn't feel the need to take a second set of photos of the same subjects. Also more parts of the shoppes were closed off than the year before which reduced the variety of photographic subjects in general. However I did make an effort to get some better quality photos of some of the technical displays. You can see all of the 2011 Rodeo Photos here.

First up is a Silverliner IV gearbox and drive assembly fresh from being rebuilt. The electric motor would be mounted to the exposed gear on the left and each truck would have two of these gearbox assemblies, one for each axle. Oh, don't let that small hole fool you as that is not actually one of those "unsafe" hollow axles.

Here we see a variety of Silverliner gearboxes returning from being rebuilt. The ones with the flat tops are for Silverliner II's and III's.

Exploded view of an SL-IV gearbox.

MFL M-4 car drive assembly with the wheels mounted. The Fern Rock shoppes handles the heavy gearbox overhaul work for all of SEPTA's rail fleets with the axle sets being trucked to the line specific maintenance areas.

M-4 gearbox exploded.

MFL M-4 car disc brake units both refurbished and unrefurbished.

BSS B-4 car tread brake unit that attaches to the units' GSI-70 trucks.

No this is not one of those suitcases used to arm nuclear missiles for launch. It is a test unit for the old GE supplied cam motor controllers for the BSS B-IV cars as they were originally delivered in 1980. Since the last Rodeo SEPTA completed its $11 million upgrade from cam DC controllers to IGBT chopper controllers, but the old test equipment was kept on for display purposes. 

View of the cam controller showing the high voltage contactors and their associated arc chutes.

The smaller cam unit for the control circuitry. 

11-10-06 PHOTOS: Silverliner II Consolation

On October 6th, 2011 the Philadelphia Phillies lost the 5th game of the National League Divisional Series in an embarassing and painful to watch 1-0 loss with the only run coming the first inning. Had that been my only activity that day it probably would have ranked amoung my most disappointing. However, before the the game I had gone out with Phil Nasadowski to help him get some footage for his Silverliner II 16mm film, and to both of our delights II's and III's were out and plentiful with several sets running all day on the R5 and more sets appearing in the peak periods.

I trip started at Jenkintown, having just missed a train of II's at Glenside. Jenkintown provided a handy parking space so Phil and I could just catch the first II to wherever and not have to worry about his car. When a train of II's did show up we rode them out to Paoli and then caught a different set back in to Center City before trying to find some set of II's on the R3 routing to West Trenton. We eventually had to settle on a train of IV's to Bethayres where another railfan met us and gave us a ride back to Jenkintown for us to set up camp and film the parade going past.

Anyway you can see the entire set of photos, which includes a PRR Main Line survey section due to a friendly crew providing a rear vestibule ride on the inbound R5 leg of our trip, right here.

After getting dropped off at Jenkintown to meet Phil one of the II/III replacements including SL-V single #715 shows up as a non-revenue test train.

Shortly there after a short turning SL-IV train with #411 pulled out of the pocket track at Jenkintown.

And proceeded to cross over south of the station after a bit of wrong railing.

The first train of II's soon arrived on a Malvern train with #252 in the lead.

This we took all the way out to Paoli station where we decided to disembark so I could get this photos of 252 ready to accept the Clear signal on the 12L at PAOLI interlocking.

#215 was the last car on that train here shown pulling out as a train of SL-IVs pulls in on #1 track.

The next eastbound R5 consisted of IV's with #153 on the front.

 The next outbound was also IV's with #385 and PAOLI tower in the background.

After that it was Keystone time with Metroliner cab car #9634 on point. Thanks to both the SL-IIs and III's those vintage Metroliners were the third oldest piece of equipment we rode that day.

After the stationmaster came out to accuse Phil, myself and another Amtrak employee we were railfanning with of being terrorists our fortune improved when Silverliner II #Ox100 arrived on an eastbound R5.

We were treated to a rear vestibule ride in #9007 which was exhibiting a bit of a black mold problem :-D

11-10-01 PHOTOS: Altoona Wet

Late last summer it became apparent that the killjoys at Norfolk Southern were embarking on a project to resignal the entire Altoona terminal area which for the 100+ years have been under the auspices of ALTO tower, which I had visited previously in 2005. This was coming on the heels of a similarly mean spirited project to replace the PRR position lights up and around the horseshoe curve and unlike a number of other recent resignaling projects I was not going to be caught flat footed and therefore resolved to drive out the 3+ hours to Altoona to document what was there before it all came crashing down.

Unfortunately my schedule in the fall of 2011 was quite full and combined with the fact that many people didn't know when the project would be completed and that there was a Fall Foliage running out of Altoona and around the Horseshoe Curve on October 1 I made the choice to pick that weekend for my trip. I say unfortunately because the weather was just a few hairs short of completely unworkable with a light to moderate drizzle falling over the entire day with ambient lighting about what you would expect. Doublely disappointing was that my first trip was in only slightly better conditions so it looked as if every time I was to go to Altoona the clouds would roll in and the sky would open up.

Anyway armed with a pair of cameras, one a high resolution DSLR, I set out in the wee hours of Oct 1 in order to make it to the "Brickyard" automatic signal west of town to snag a picture of the Bennett Levin PRR E8's passing under it. After that I would head downtown to take as many photos of ALTO tower and its related signaling as I could and then I could head out to see if CP-ANTIS was part of the re-signaling project as it's interlocking hardware dated from 1981 instead of the 1970's or before for the rest of the Altoon Terminal. All said and done I took about 500 photos that day which are all visible in the full gallery.

We begin at the Milepost 238 automatic known as "Brickyard" which is also the distant to SLOPE interlocking, which itself is under direct wire control from ALTO tower. This section of the main line has three tracks, the outer two running under Rule 251 with only the center track #2 being bi-directional rule 261. Both eastbound signals on tracks 2 and 3 can display / over / for Slow Speed moves at SLOPE as SLOPE has a very short signal distance to ALTO and will display Slow Approach instead of Approach when a Stop signal is displayed at ALTO. The Approach Medium indication available on track #1 is for 1 to 2 diverging moves at SLOPE.

The MP 328 signal gantry was in a bad way with the uprights separating from the concrete footings and 1930's era signaling with tar impregnated cotton insulation around the signal cable wires. Still the replacing it with cheap Darth Vader masts on an ungainly 4 track wide cantilever is just insulting the the home of the PRR, especially for a railroad that recently installed brand new N&W PL's in its home of Roanoke, VA. Anyway all of the signals up and down the eastern slope are approach lit and were able to provide warning of the approaching Foliage Charter. 

PRR E8 #5711 was heading the charge up the grade. The charter's route was to head up and around the curve before heading back through Altoona, up the N&BE to Lock Haven and then down the Buffalo Line to Harrisburg before returning to Altoona (I think).

On the rear was Bennett Levin's PRR 120 and a couple other PV's providing the first class consolidations behind 4 Amfleets and one Metroliner Cab Car.

Unfortunately I left the Brickyard just a few minutes too soon as the Eastbound Pennsylvanian rolled by as I was waiting to cross the main line at the grade crossing just south of the signal location. Amtrak P42 #51 was providing the power that day.

After parking at the Altoona Railroaders Museum I walked over to the 17th St bridge which provides an uninterrupted view of ALTO interlocking and tower. The tower which dates from the first decade of the 20th century was deceptively given a new coat of paint just a few years ago by NS. Here we can see the eastbound signal gantry directly adjacent to ALTO tower and governing movements on tracks 1 and 101, which is just a short siding between here and SLOPE, as well as the new 3 track cantilever replacement. The new ALTO interlocking will encompass the space between here and the western limits of SLOPE and get rid of the old pusher pocket and replace the right handed yard ladder with a new universal crossover arrangement with the helper tracks pushed off onto the south side of the line. 

It wasn't too long before the E8's showed up again. #5711 was still in the lead as there is a loop track west of the Horseshoe Curve at CP-UN. The charter was run in conjunction with the annual Altoona Railfest which wasn't very festive due to the rain.

Here is a video of the move passing through ALTO interlocking.



Here we have PRR 120 passing under the famous ALTO westbound signal gantry which dates from the Penn Central era when the State was installing the 17th St bridge and needed to move things around a bit.

Heading in on track #2 right behind the Charter was an NS helper twin pack composed of SD40-2's 6312 and 6301. Here they are making a diverging move from track #2 into the helper pocket although their final destination would be the Altoona Yard.

Video of the helper set making the diverging move.



Of the 5 tracks the ALTO beam gantry spans, the center one is a pocket track designed for helper sets like 6312/6301, seen here diverging onto track 1, to lay over and be attached to the rear of through trains before they begin their assault on the eastern slope.

A rather wet ALTO as seen from the rear quarter. The whole area is highly accessible from local roads, although be prepared to hug the curb as the "PRR Expressway" lacks both sideways and a shoulder on that side.

11-09-05 PHOTOS: Search for the Silverliner II's

After returning from Boston I reserved a Saturday to help Phil scout some locations for his Silverliner II 16mm film. We were hoping to spot some II's in action, but as it was a weekend we would be lucky enough to see SEPTA trains at all let alone the old stuff. Like I said the primary goal was scouting out some locations that Phil would need in his film and once found he could come back on a weekday and stake them out for II trainsets.

Specifically we were looking for a station next to a grade crossing with good sight lines. By the end of the day we ended up making stops at Prospect Park, Secane, Morton, Primos, North Wales, Lansdale and Warminster. You can see the entire set of photos including all of those locations here.

We begin at the SEPTA Prospect Park station where we just stayed long enough for a double headed northbound Regional train to round the curve and pass under the 94 automatic signal.

Next up was Secane where we caught a single Silverliner IV pait with #444 and 443 heading westbound.

 Next up was Primos where the old low level station was being upgraded with high level platforms.

 I also had a chance to document the 82 automatic signals which are the westbound distants to CANE interlocking.  Note the Reading RR style lower heads.

 Next up was the Morton station which features a station building which is quite an upgrade from Primos' trailer.

Morton features the westbound 101 automatic distant signals to CANE interlocking which we see Silverliner IV #443 splitting as it returns from Elwyn.

Also at Morton we have one of two classic PRR substations on the line, still equipped with its original 1930's hardware. The 132kv 25Hz power is provided by Amtrak, but SEPTA is responsible for maintaining the overhead wires and substations.

11-09-01 PHOTOS: Boston Blue Line

Ever since the new Siemens Blue Line cars arrived a few years ago I have been trying to get out and ride them for more than a stop or two downtown. Well this year on a trip up to New Hampshire I had some extra time making my connection between North and South stations and so I decided to head out on a trip to Reveah Beach (as I wasn't sure if Wonderland still dumped outbound riders outside of fare control. Anyway, after that I caught an MBTA train up to Haverhill to visit my friend up at Portsmouth, NH and later returned to Boston via a Downeaster which gave me an additional opportunity to take some photos at North Station.

This trip took place only a few days after Hurricane Irene flooded out the NEC at Trenton so I have some photos of what that looked like only hours after service was restored. Like always you can find the full set of photos located here.

For all of you who remember, SEPTA made the mistake of leaving some equipment at the Trenton Station where it proceeded to get flooded out by several feet of water. Managers at SEPTA claimed not to be able to have predicted that the flooding would have taken place, but as you can see by the spray painted markings on the retaining wall they had two previous instances of flooding to learn from, one in 1975 and Hurricane Floyd in 1999.

Fortunately FAIR interlocking is still equipped with pneumatic point machines which can be quickly brought back to service following a flood.

Here we see the stranded SEPTA Bomber set with AEM-7 #2005 after their good soaking. The good news was that the loss of this equipment prolonged the life of many Silverliner II and III sets.

C&S workers were inside FAIR interlocking mucking it out.

Moving on to New Haven we find Amtrak P40 #843 now in Shore Line East service.

In a bit of irony the old Penn Central branding is slowly returning to the New Haven Wheel Mill as the paint used to blank out the PC bits is fading faster than the PC paint it was meant to cover up.

Getting off the Regional train at South Station we find HHP-8 #664 standing along side MBB cab car #1507.

I found it rather hard to take pictures outbound on the Blue Line due to a stretcher blocking the view out the front second level railfan windows, however once at Reveah Beach there were no such restrictions. Here we see 0737 arriving with an inbound train.

#0768 was bringing up the rear of the same train.

11-08-12 PHOTOS: San Francisco Mornings

San Francisco basically consists of two thing...Caltrain and MUNI light rail and since last week our theme was Caltrain it's time we move onto the the MUNI section of this trip. This year I was a bit too busy to go out on an official MUNI field trip on one of their more far flung lines, however I was able to get some pretty good coverage of both the Cable Car system and the Heritage F Market Trolley line.

So for those of you who like such things this set of photos is going to be packed with them instead of the normal droves of railroad signals. So I urge you to all check out the entire collection of photos here because the selection below is not going to feature all pictures of such.

We start on Powell St showing cable car #21 heading southbound through a "pop out park" installed where street parking used to be. Ironically the company that made this destruction of car habitat possible was Audi.

Trio of cable cars including #14 at the Powell St terminal.

A packed Peter Witt Milan car #1859 attempts to add on more passenger on a bright sunny August day at the Ferry Terminal station.

Melbourne car #496 passing by the Ferry Terminal station.

California Ave cable car #58 hanging out at the Market Street terminal.

Cable car #6 approaching Union Square on Powell St.

Here I caught one of the single ended cars having trouble with it grip resulting it a replacement having to be installed outside the cable carhouse. The car had previously failed out on the road and had to be towed to the carhouse for a running repair. Still, sure beats an AC traction motor and a bank of IGBT's.

Despite the city's wet weather I encountered an original Austin Mini that hadn't turned into a large pile of rust. Of course it didn't look any way near as cool as another British import I came across.

A few of the cable cars had been given a new green paint job like #13 here shown crossing the California Ave diamonds.