joelkfla
Engineer
Took a 3-night trip from Kissimmee FL to Philly, 10/23-28. H-room on the Silver Star northbound (Meteor was either sold out or much higher fare), and Meteor back.
I got my parking pass at the station house, then drove across the tracks to the free parking garage. Star was about on time at KIS. With the SS back to its normal length, I boarded the 1st sleeper, a VL I, from the platform proper rather than the blacktop extension.
Even though the toilet and sink in the VL II H-room are out in the main room, it feels like there’s more space than in the VL I. I’ll try to remember to bring a tape measure on my November trip, when I’m booked in a VL I northbound and a VL II southbound. One disadvantage of the VL II H-room: it has a vent in the bottom half of the door which lets all the wheel noise in from the vestibule; the VL I has a solid door and is noticeably quieter.
I took meals in the diner, which was get your meals at the galley door and carry them back to your table. The diner was open for lounging between meals. I moved up to it when approaching Wash DC to get the nice views out the left side of the Jefferson Memorial and Washington Monument coming off the bridge over the Potomac, and of the Capitol before diving into the tunnel to Union Station.
Arriving in PHL in the evening, a Red Cap was there to meet me as promised by SCA Luther (not always the case in the past.) I’d been checking the radar on the way in and saw that there were showers moving through. I’d decided that I would call a Lyft if it were still raining, or just ride my scooter to Club Quarters Rittenhouse if not. The Red Cap first took me to the Lyft area, and it didn’t look like it was raining, so then he took me to the opposite side of the station nearest the city and pointed me down JFK Blvd. Turned out it wasn’t exactly raining, but there was a very heavy mist, and I got much wetter than expected. After checking in, I just had dinner at the Wendy’s a block away and retired.
On Wednesday morning I drove the ½ mile to SEPTA HQ and got a free senior transit pass, also checking out the interior of the PCC trolley that’s on display there. Then I took the Market-Frankford subway (locally called the El) 3 stops to Independence National Historical Park, and toured Independence Hall. The volunteer NPS tour guide was wonderful, as they always are. Then back on the El to the City Hall area to catch the 12 noon free concert on the world’s largest operational pipe organ in the Macy’s né Wanamaker store. After the concert, I viewed the massive organ console and chatted with the organ player. Then I drove down to &Pizza on Broad Street for an American Honey pizza: pizza sauce, arugula, pepperoni, goat cheese, and honey (and I added some peppers) on a crispy thin flatbread crust; love it! Then back to the park to view the Liberty Bell and some other buildings. By then my scooter batteries were running low, so I called it a day and headed back to the hotel.
Wednesday dinner was at a little cellar hole-in-the-wall called Farina Pasta & Noodles. It’s a startup by a local couple who make their own noodles and sauces. It’s geared to takeout and delivery, but they also have a half dozen tables squeezed into the tiny space. The Bolognese sauce was great, neither sweet nor over spiced, and a bit greasy as it should be. It could have used a bit more ground meat, but I enjoyed it.
First stop Thursday morning was the Mummers’ Museum in South Philly. I left the scooter in the room and took 2 buses to get there. The announcements on the 2nd bus were out of sync so I missed my stop, but in walking back I passed some streets with lovely Philadelphia row houses, so it was all good. The museum exceeded my expectations. It’s focused on displaying costumes from past parades, and there were dozens of them, as well as exhibits on how they’re constructed and what goes into parade preparation. Then they had a half dozen costumes on a rack for visitors to try on, complete with hats and parasols, and a display with step-by-step instructions on how to do the Mummers Strut. The lovely lady at the front desk gave me free DVDs of past parades. I highly recommend this museum to anyone who grew up watching the Mummers Parades on TV, as I did in the NYC area.
The afternoon was devoted to riding city transit. I tried to start with the El, but after waiting about 20 minutes on the platform, there was an announcement of a signal problem between the stop I was at and the preceding one, so I made my way to the trolley platform at the same station and boarded the 1st car that came along. The trolleys share the Market St. tunnel with the El going west past 34th St. then rise to the surface. The car I was on ran on street tracks shared with auto traffic; I enjoyed riding it out to the terminal loop in Darby. It was going out of service, so I had to transfer to another car. But then that car had some mechanical issue, and about 5 minutes from the terminal, everyone was kicked off onto the street before it turned towards the carbarn. Dark clouds were gathering, but the next car showed up before any serious rain fell. I grabbed the front seat and rode to the Center City loop under 13th St.
At 13th St. I found my way to the El platform for another try. The El cars have a half-width cab, with both a front door window and a railfan seat on the left! I stood at the front door until some kids who were in the railfan seat got off, and then took that over, riding out to the terminal at 69th St. The elevated structure appears to be all concrete. Personally, I prefer the rickety feeling of the steel structures in NYC and CHI. But the views were nice.
At 69th St., after wandering lost around the station for a while, I finally found the Norristown High Speed Line. It uses the Spanish Solution, and I went thru the turnstile to the exit platform instead of the boarding platform (I don’t know why that’s even possible.) And once you use your pass to go thru a turnstile, you can’t use it again to immediately go thru another turnstile at the same station. A kind local showed me the way around it: just push open the handicapped exit gate and walk thru it. Anyhow, this line turned out to be an unexpected highlight! Parts of the line wander through forested hills, and the fall foliage was beautiful. Other parts pass through residential areas of lovely houses amongst the foliage. And there were some brief views of mountains off to the west. The nature of this line sort of defies categorization. I suppose it’s closest to an LRT, with 2-car EMU’s running off 3rd rail on dedicated ROW. It feels like a commuter line, but runs every 15 minutes, and SEPTA lumps it in with their trolleys. I rode out to the Norristown terminal and back to 69th St., then grabbed the railfan seat on the El back to Center City. By now it was rush hour, so I quit for the day and took a couple of now frequently-running buses back to the hotel.
(to be continued)
I got my parking pass at the station house, then drove across the tracks to the free parking garage. Star was about on time at KIS. With the SS back to its normal length, I boarded the 1st sleeper, a VL I, from the platform proper rather than the blacktop extension.
Even though the toilet and sink in the VL II H-room are out in the main room, it feels like there’s more space than in the VL I. I’ll try to remember to bring a tape measure on my November trip, when I’m booked in a VL I northbound and a VL II southbound. One disadvantage of the VL II H-room: it has a vent in the bottom half of the door which lets all the wheel noise in from the vestibule; the VL I has a solid door and is noticeably quieter.
I took meals in the diner, which was get your meals at the galley door and carry them back to your table. The diner was open for lounging between meals. I moved up to it when approaching Wash DC to get the nice views out the left side of the Jefferson Memorial and Washington Monument coming off the bridge over the Potomac, and of the Capitol before diving into the tunnel to Union Station.
Arriving in PHL in the evening, a Red Cap was there to meet me as promised by SCA Luther (not always the case in the past.) I’d been checking the radar on the way in and saw that there were showers moving through. I’d decided that I would call a Lyft if it were still raining, or just ride my scooter to Club Quarters Rittenhouse if not. The Red Cap first took me to the Lyft area, and it didn’t look like it was raining, so then he took me to the opposite side of the station nearest the city and pointed me down JFK Blvd. Turned out it wasn’t exactly raining, but there was a very heavy mist, and I got much wetter than expected. After checking in, I just had dinner at the Wendy’s a block away and retired.
On Wednesday morning I drove the ½ mile to SEPTA HQ and got a free senior transit pass, also checking out the interior of the PCC trolley that’s on display there. Then I took the Market-Frankford subway (locally called the El) 3 stops to Independence National Historical Park, and toured Independence Hall. The volunteer NPS tour guide was wonderful, as they always are. Then back on the El to the City Hall area to catch the 12 noon free concert on the world’s largest operational pipe organ in the Macy’s né Wanamaker store. After the concert, I viewed the massive organ console and chatted with the organ player. Then I drove down to &Pizza on Broad Street for an American Honey pizza: pizza sauce, arugula, pepperoni, goat cheese, and honey (and I added some peppers) on a crispy thin flatbread crust; love it! Then back to the park to view the Liberty Bell and some other buildings. By then my scooter batteries were running low, so I called it a day and headed back to the hotel.
Wednesday dinner was at a little cellar hole-in-the-wall called Farina Pasta & Noodles. It’s a startup by a local couple who make their own noodles and sauces. It’s geared to takeout and delivery, but they also have a half dozen tables squeezed into the tiny space. The Bolognese sauce was great, neither sweet nor over spiced, and a bit greasy as it should be. It could have used a bit more ground meat, but I enjoyed it.
First stop Thursday morning was the Mummers’ Museum in South Philly. I left the scooter in the room and took 2 buses to get there. The announcements on the 2nd bus were out of sync so I missed my stop, but in walking back I passed some streets with lovely Philadelphia row houses, so it was all good. The museum exceeded my expectations. It’s focused on displaying costumes from past parades, and there were dozens of them, as well as exhibits on how they’re constructed and what goes into parade preparation. Then they had a half dozen costumes on a rack for visitors to try on, complete with hats and parasols, and a display with step-by-step instructions on how to do the Mummers Strut. The lovely lady at the front desk gave me free DVDs of past parades. I highly recommend this museum to anyone who grew up watching the Mummers Parades on TV, as I did in the NYC area.
The afternoon was devoted to riding city transit. I tried to start with the El, but after waiting about 20 minutes on the platform, there was an announcement of a signal problem between the stop I was at and the preceding one, so I made my way to the trolley platform at the same station and boarded the 1st car that came along. The trolleys share the Market St. tunnel with the El going west past 34th St. then rise to the surface. The car I was on ran on street tracks shared with auto traffic; I enjoyed riding it out to the terminal loop in Darby. It was going out of service, so I had to transfer to another car. But then that car had some mechanical issue, and about 5 minutes from the terminal, everyone was kicked off onto the street before it turned towards the carbarn. Dark clouds were gathering, but the next car showed up before any serious rain fell. I grabbed the front seat and rode to the Center City loop under 13th St.
At 13th St. I found my way to the El platform for another try. The El cars have a half-width cab, with both a front door window and a railfan seat on the left! I stood at the front door until some kids who were in the railfan seat got off, and then took that over, riding out to the terminal at 69th St. The elevated structure appears to be all concrete. Personally, I prefer the rickety feeling of the steel structures in NYC and CHI. But the views were nice.
At 69th St., after wandering lost around the station for a while, I finally found the Norristown High Speed Line. It uses the Spanish Solution, and I went thru the turnstile to the exit platform instead of the boarding platform (I don’t know why that’s even possible.) And once you use your pass to go thru a turnstile, you can’t use it again to immediately go thru another turnstile at the same station. A kind local showed me the way around it: just push open the handicapped exit gate and walk thru it. Anyhow, this line turned out to be an unexpected highlight! Parts of the line wander through forested hills, and the fall foliage was beautiful. Other parts pass through residential areas of lovely houses amongst the foliage. And there were some brief views of mountains off to the west. The nature of this line sort of defies categorization. I suppose it’s closest to an LRT, with 2-car EMU’s running off 3rd rail on dedicated ROW. It feels like a commuter line, but runs every 15 minutes, and SEPTA lumps it in with their trolleys. I rode out to the Norristown terminal and back to 69th St., then grabbed the railfan seat on the El back to Center City. By now it was rush hour, so I quit for the day and took a couple of now frequently-running buses back to the hotel.
(to be continued)
