Finally got out to ride what's left of the Red Arrow Lines. Once, in days of old, there were four suburban trolley routes radiating from the 69th Street Terminal on the west side of Philadelphia. One went to West Chester (abandoned in 1954 and replaced with a bus), and one went to Ardmore (abandoned in 1966 and replaced with a bus). The other two lines, to Media and Sharon Hill, are still operating. When I was in 7th grade (1965-66 school year), I rode the Ardmore trolley three days a week to get from school to Hebrew School. I enjoyed riding it and was disappointed when the abandoned the route the next year. I always wanted to ride at least one of the other two lines, and this week, I finally got out of bed and rode up to Philly to do so.
Here's a link to some photos of the old equipment, most of which lasted until 1981, when the current Kawasaki cars were delivered.
I was up at 6 to get ready for my ride up to Philly on Northeast Regional 172, which leaves Baltimore at 7:79 AM. I had a nice drive down to the station, the traffic on the expressway was slowed only by some sun glare as we approached downtown. The parking lot at Penn Station had more cars than I remembered from my last trip last month, but I still found a spot on the first level. Then, up into the station and waited for my train.
When they announced 172, I went down to the platform and moved to the north (actually east) end to get a seat in the front of the train. The trains are loaded from the back in Washington, so there are more empty seats up front. Usually. When the train came in, the first car of the consist was closed off. The first car of the consist was also closed off on my return train home that evening. Not sure what they're doing, but there were plenty of seats, and I had a seat pair to myself for the 1:15 ride up to Philly. I went to the cafe car and got a cup of coffee. Aside from my finally noticing that coffee was $3.00 (I've been taking business class too much), I also saw that the fresh fruit salad was back on the menu, as well as two types of breakfast sandwiches (one with sausage, and one without and with egg whites), and they had a cold sandwich and a salad. The ride seemed to be slower than usual; it seemed we were passing a lot of work parties along the line. The train arrived into 30th St. about 7 minutes late. I went up to the Metropolitan Lounge to use the restroom, and then I was on my way to ride SEPTA.
They've really cut back the service frequencies of the SEPTA suburban service. I hope this was merely pandemic induced, and that service will increase once ridership does. It's sort of a pain to have to consult schedules in order to plan a little suburban joyride, but that's what I had to do. I had planned to ride to Media, the county seat of Delaware County, one way on the SEPTA Regional Rail (former PRR) and theother way on the Route 101 trolley (former Red Arrow Lines) and the Market-Frankford Line (aka the "Frankford El"). It turns out that the regional rail runs outside the rush hours on a frequency of once every 2 hours (ouch!) and the Media Trolley runs every 30 minutes. In order to maximize connections, and allow me to have lunch in Media, I decided to ride the Frankford El/trolley outbound, and the regional rail back into the city. Fortunately, SEPTA, unlike Amtrak, still issues timetables (both paper and PDF online), so I had an idea of when the trains left.
There's no direct connection between the 30th St. Amtrak station and the 30th St. subway station. There used to be, it was a dank scary corridor, closed off in the late 1970s, I think. The entrance closest to the train station is now closed off, as it's being rebuilt, and so I had to cross Market Street to the stairs going down, where I found most of the mezzanine was an active construction site. No problem, the turnstiles are still there, and I made good use of my senior SEPTA Key Card. A whole day of riding SEPTA for free!
"The Frankford El goes straight to he..." a little rhyme from my youth. This one is going straight to 69th St. A little past the 40th St. station, the line pops out of the tunnel and runs as an elevated, giving one a "scenic" view of West Philadelphia, which appears to be partly the same crumbling decaying neighborhood I used to ride through in the 1960s and partly an area under revitalization and reconstruction. They did rebuild all of the stations, with modern structures and concrete platforms. I arrived at the 69th St. Terminal at about 9:55, and my schedule said the next Media trolley was going to leave at 10. Thus, i quick walk, huffing and puffing (having to wear a mask didn't help) through the old terminal, built in 1907, to the trolley platforms.
The trolley was waiting, and I boarded and scanned my Key Card. After sitting a few minutes, the driver boarded, the bells clanged, and off we went.
An interior view of the seating arrnagements.
A bunch of the Kawasaki Series 100 LRV cars used on the service. They are similar to the trolleys used in the city on the Subway-Surface lines, except that they're double ended and have a pantograph. The city cars are single ended and use a trolley pole. The overhead wire is old-fashioned trolley wire, not catenary.
Some more background about the line: SEPTA Routes 101 and 102 - Wikipedia
It went into service in 1906. The track is Pennsylvania Trolley Gauge (5 ft. 2 1/4 in or 1581 mm). The distance of the route is 8.6 miles. Most of it is on dedicated right of way, but there's single track street running in downtown Media. There's also a short stretch of single track (although it seems there's right of way for double track) between Woodland Avenue and Pine Ridge. Most of the stations have nice substantial stone waiting-room shelters. There are lots of grade crossings, mostly ungated. The trolley speed seems to max out at about 45 mph, but the stations are so frequent, it usually doesn't go that fast.
Soon we ended up in Media, where the tracks abruptly end.
I had about an hour and a half to kill before the Regional Rail back into the city, so I walked the very nice main street (State Street), caught a glimpse of the county courthouse, and found a pizza/sub joint where I got an authentic Philadelphia style hoagie for a carry-out lunch. Then I went over to a nearby Wawa and got a drink and a Tastykake to complete my Philly Phine Dining.
Next, off to the train station and my ride back into the city. - to be continued.
Here's a link to some photos of the old equipment, most of which lasted until 1981, when the current Kawasaki cars were delivered.
I was up at 6 to get ready for my ride up to Philly on Northeast Regional 172, which leaves Baltimore at 7:79 AM. I had a nice drive down to the station, the traffic on the expressway was slowed only by some sun glare as we approached downtown. The parking lot at Penn Station had more cars than I remembered from my last trip last month, but I still found a spot on the first level. Then, up into the station and waited for my train.
When they announced 172, I went down to the platform and moved to the north (actually east) end to get a seat in the front of the train. The trains are loaded from the back in Washington, so there are more empty seats up front. Usually. When the train came in, the first car of the consist was closed off. The first car of the consist was also closed off on my return train home that evening. Not sure what they're doing, but there were plenty of seats, and I had a seat pair to myself for the 1:15 ride up to Philly. I went to the cafe car and got a cup of coffee. Aside from my finally noticing that coffee was $3.00 (I've been taking business class too much), I also saw that the fresh fruit salad was back on the menu, as well as two types of breakfast sandwiches (one with sausage, and one without and with egg whites), and they had a cold sandwich and a salad. The ride seemed to be slower than usual; it seemed we were passing a lot of work parties along the line. The train arrived into 30th St. about 7 minutes late. I went up to the Metropolitan Lounge to use the restroom, and then I was on my way to ride SEPTA.
They've really cut back the service frequencies of the SEPTA suburban service. I hope this was merely pandemic induced, and that service will increase once ridership does. It's sort of a pain to have to consult schedules in order to plan a little suburban joyride, but that's what I had to do. I had planned to ride to Media, the county seat of Delaware County, one way on the SEPTA Regional Rail (former PRR) and theother way on the Route 101 trolley (former Red Arrow Lines) and the Market-Frankford Line (aka the "Frankford El"). It turns out that the regional rail runs outside the rush hours on a frequency of once every 2 hours (ouch!) and the Media Trolley runs every 30 minutes. In order to maximize connections, and allow me to have lunch in Media, I decided to ride the Frankford El/trolley outbound, and the regional rail back into the city. Fortunately, SEPTA, unlike Amtrak, still issues timetables (both paper and PDF online), so I had an idea of when the trains left.
There's no direct connection between the 30th St. Amtrak station and the 30th St. subway station. There used to be, it was a dank scary corridor, closed off in the late 1970s, I think. The entrance closest to the train station is now closed off, as it's being rebuilt, and so I had to cross Market Street to the stairs going down, where I found most of the mezzanine was an active construction site. No problem, the turnstiles are still there, and I made good use of my senior SEPTA Key Card. A whole day of riding SEPTA for free!
"The Frankford El goes straight to he..." a little rhyme from my youth. This one is going straight to 69th St. A little past the 40th St. station, the line pops out of the tunnel and runs as an elevated, giving one a "scenic" view of West Philadelphia, which appears to be partly the same crumbling decaying neighborhood I used to ride through in the 1960s and partly an area under revitalization and reconstruction. They did rebuild all of the stations, with modern structures and concrete platforms. I arrived at the 69th St. Terminal at about 9:55, and my schedule said the next Media trolley was going to leave at 10. Thus, i quick walk, huffing and puffing (having to wear a mask didn't help) through the old terminal, built in 1907, to the trolley platforms.
The trolley was waiting, and I boarded and scanned my Key Card. After sitting a few minutes, the driver boarded, the bells clanged, and off we went.
An interior view of the seating arrnagements.
A bunch of the Kawasaki Series 100 LRV cars used on the service. They are similar to the trolleys used in the city on the Subway-Surface lines, except that they're double ended and have a pantograph. The city cars are single ended and use a trolley pole. The overhead wire is old-fashioned trolley wire, not catenary.
Some more background about the line: SEPTA Routes 101 and 102 - Wikipedia
It went into service in 1906. The track is Pennsylvania Trolley Gauge (5 ft. 2 1/4 in or 1581 mm). The distance of the route is 8.6 miles. Most of it is on dedicated right of way, but there's single track street running in downtown Media. There's also a short stretch of single track (although it seems there's right of way for double track) between Woodland Avenue and Pine Ridge. Most of the stations have nice substantial stone waiting-room shelters. There are lots of grade crossings, mostly ungated. The trolley speed seems to max out at about 45 mph, but the stations are so frequent, it usually doesn't go that fast.
Soon we ended up in Media, where the tracks abruptly end.
I had about an hour and a half to kill before the Regional Rail back into the city, so I walked the very nice main street (State Street), caught a glimpse of the county courthouse, and found a pizza/sub joint where I got an authentic Philadelphia style hoagie for a carry-out lunch. Then I went over to a nearby Wawa and got a drink and a Tastykake to complete my Philly Phine Dining.
Next, off to the train station and my ride back into the city. - to be continued.