Questions About Acela Express Station Stops

[Thirdrail7]

What/where are Fair, i8t Ham, and Barracks Yard? I have always wondered where SEPTA wanders off to after it drops the Philly commuters off in Trenton.

Ham and Fair are interlockings, which are switches that are used to route trains. Trenton station sits in the middle of Fair Interlocking. Ham is an interlocking just east of Trenton and Fair Interlocking.

This is the view heading east from Fair. The SEPTA train is sitting in the remnants of the old West Barracks Yard. It closed many years ago. The tracks to the right of the high signals is East Barracks yard. Ham sorts all of the tracks so you can reach or leave Trenton from any track.

 

[Mystic River Dragon]

Thanks, Thirdrail7.

You are absolutely right--I did mean "scheduled" instead of "dispatched." (Serves me right, considering I spend much of my work life asking authors, "Don't you mean [this word] instead of [that word]?") Just got a taste of my own medicine.

Thanks for explaining how the interlockings work and what the names refer to. I will now have more respect for my commute and stop thinking of TRE as "the dump I have to go through" and instead find some fascination and beauty in how everything works.

One final question--do the SEPTA trains sit in the West Barracks Yard to rest til they go back to Philly? Or do they go further out of TRE before they return? If they do, why do some of them sit in the West Barracks Yard, as in the photo?

 

[Thirdrail7]

Septa's typically stage in West Barracks yard for rush hour. There are a few that also "long turn" in West Barracks during the day. The rest of them turn on the platform or just east of Trenton between Fair and Ham.