chuljin
Lead Service Attendant
Post-Gathering C: Railfanning Philly *despite* a SEPTA strike.
Pictures of this part are here.
The first thing I did when I woke on Tuesday, November 3 was turn on the news to see if there was an update on the SEPTA strike. Unfortunately and unsurprisingly, it was still going on. Fortunately, though, Regionals were still running. I went to the SEPTA website to see what else might be running, and was delighted to discover that while the MFL and BSL subways, and the Subway-Surface Trolley Lines were not running, the Norristown High-Speed Line (100) and the 101 and 102 light rail lines, in addition to Regional Rail. For those interested in or familiar with SEPTA, this meant, in other words, that the strike affected only the City Transit Division, not the Suburban Division or Regional Rail Division. So the plan I devised, an abbreviation of my earlier pre-strike one, was: Take R6 to Norristown, 100 to 69th, then 101 or 102 (whichever was next to depart when I went to board) to its end and back to Drexel Hill Junction, then the other to *its* end and back to 69th, and figure out what to do from there.
But first, I had to 'fund' this itinerary, and see some history. So my first stop (after a pause at Franklin's burial place along the way) was the Independence Visitor Center, where my research had told me Independence Passes are sold. They're $10, twice the $5 I'm used to in LA, but a hell of a deal, as they include Regional Rail. (Imagine a $10 Metrolink day pass! Never gonna happen.) In a thoughtful attempt to look out for me and save my money, the cashier told me that SEPTA was on strike, and it took me a little while to persuade her that I knew it would still be a good deal. I then went into the lobby of (but did not fully enter) the Constitution Center, and then, on my way to Independence Hall (again, to see every inch of the outside, but none of the inside), fully explored the free Liberty Bell center, and got the several necessary pictures of the same.
Thence west along Market and around Philadelphia's very attractive City Hall, and past (following carriage returns are intentional)
LO
VE park, to Suburban Station. Having read about it on Wikipedia, I was a little disappointed that Suburban Station, rather than having a grand hall like 30th street, is just a series of tubes! (OK, narrow hallways). After collecting a full set of Regional Rail Timetables
, R6 to the Norristown Transportation Center. As soon as I detrained, I was treated to a clear view of a 100 train on the bridge above. The center was festooned with signs saying 'NO BUSES HERE', and some wags walking by yelled 'Buses are on strike!' After pictures of the station name in no less than three different places/forms, off we went (after the operator's annoyance with my question 'Do I show you this [independence Pass]?' The scenery on this largely rural line is quite nice, beginning right away with the crossing over the wide Schuylkill River. Some things I found interesting: many (all?) of the stops were flag stops, and as such we merely slowed down before proceeding; some parts (near Radnor, in my notes) are so rural that trees actually slap the train as it goes by; we overshot the Garret Hill station by about 2 car-lengths and had to back up (wet leaves?); and finally, there were times we'd be cruising along (and so the doors obviously closed) when a door-closing-like beep would go off. During the last few turns into 69th street, I managed a few pictures of the yards here, including the subways that I'd never again (on this trip) ride.
Upper Darby being more inviting in the daytime, I walked south from the Terminal along 69th street, stopping in a Radio Shack to get a replacement for the phone charger I'd left in Boston, to Walnut, where I had Wendy's, for the first time in quite a while, for lunch. I got one picture of what I (perhaps alone) thought was a nice view: 69th descending southwest into a shallow valley, then ascending southeast again, lined with single-family homes. In Upper Darby, besides the most obvious residents, I noticed quite a few South Asians, as well as a small (but perhaps not Philadelphia's main) Koreatown. I noticed the latter from aboard the 101; I wish I'd seen it earlier...I'd have eaten there instead of Wendy's.
So next, according to the plan hatched in the morning, was to do the whole 'upside-down Y' of the 101 and 102 light rail lines. I picked up the 101 and 102 timetables, and noticed that the 102 is currently 'bustituted' the whole part of its route not shared with the 101. My choice then seemed clear, the 101. I went out to the 101/102 platform, and saw a 2-car train, with the rear (closer) car showing '101'. I wanted to see out the front, of course, so I boarded the front car, which said 102. Back outside and saw what was up: It was 2 1-car 'trains', parked really close together. Soon after I was aboard the real 101, off to Media. It was a nice trip; some observations: most stops, at least in the dedicated-ROW part, have attractive small brick station 'buildings' of which I now regret not taking any pictures; there's a wide variety of signaling, including regular RR signals, and in the street-running part, not only the | - signals I'm used to with LA's Gold and Blue lines, but also regular red/amber/green 'car' stoplights, as well as simpler small red/yellow signals at some intersections for both the train and crossing auto traffic. After Bowling Green, it is street running, though allowing parallel parking, so between the train and the parked cars there's only a half car-width...traffic on the street would occasionally have to duck into the area before a driveway to allow the train past.
I took many pictures of this pretty town (including, interestingly, a Trader Joe's sharing an old stone barracks with a veterans museum), and was originally going to just go back to 69th on route 101, and figure out what to do there, but while resting a minute and looking at my RR timetables, noticed that R3 was entitled Elwyn/*Media*. So I mapped it, and discovered that it was a significant, but not impossible walk. So south on Orange, through a beautiful residential neighborhood, to the R3 Media Station. The timetable indicated about 25 minutes until the next inbound train, I decided to take a few pictures. The last I took, of the tracks going under the pretty stone bridge of Orange street, attracted attention. A SEPTA Police officer called me over, asked what I was doing, and soon after started a sentence with the words 'Well, since 9/11 ...' He of course was mistaken, but since I'd dumbly forgotten at the hotel my printout of the official policy, and he was unfailingly polite, I was unfailingly cooperative. He filled out an 'incident report', called in to check my rapsheet , and 'released' me. Though not strictly necessary, to further prove I wasn't some terrorist I myself offered to remove any objectionable pictures, and so wound up deleting that one offending picture of the bridge. Whatever.
Soon enough, what I guessed was my R3 train back to Center City came along. I had to guess because its 8 (?) cars displayed no less than 3 distinct destination signs. A few stations after leaving Media, I was joined by an elderly Lady with whom we commiserated about the strike. Just before getting to the place where SEPTA and the NEC diverge, we were met by a single-level long distance train. I *guess* it may have been the Silver Meteor, but it seems awfully early. (This was slightly after 4pm...unless I have time-zones screwed up.) 30th Street was a madhouse! The crowd of people scrumming to get from the main hall to RR trains was so thick that it was with considerable difficulty that people like me got from RR trains to the main hall.
The lack of subways gave me a convenient excuse to get from 30th St to my hotel in Penn's Landing by way of Lindenwold, NJ so I went and got an NJT ACL ticket. Thence up into the ClubAcela, to get above the madness. The same Lady as the day before said 'Oh, Day 2?' and I chuckled and proudly said 'yes, but this time I'm going somewhere!' She brightened up and asked where, and I grinned and said 'Lindenwold!' She smiled and said 'well, welcome, anyways' and told me that those trains use the lower Amtrak platforms, but it would not be a track accessible from the CA, I'd have to go back out into the main hall. I was soon off on my first NJT ride. I was surprised (then, when I thought about it, unsurprised, considering they own and must maintain the NEC) to see many kinds of Amtrak rolling stock, like hoppers carrying gravel, etc. I was also surprised how far along the NEC we went before turning off onto our own tracks. During that shared part, we were met by another southbound LD train, more likely (based on time) to be the Meteor (so still wondering what the above was). Soon we turned east and crossed the Delaware River, on the Delair Bridge, paralleling the rather plain (compared to the Benjamin Franklin Bridge) Betsy Ross Bridge. Lindenwold station was impressive in size only...I found it rather strip-mall-like, in that it was a wide but not very tall building separated from the street by an enormous parking lot.
Since there was nothing whatsoever to see or do within walking distance, I soon turned back for my first PATCO ride. These, too, were interesting, from the retro seats to the actual bell warning of the closing doors. The view of the city from the Franklin Bridge was impressive, though not as much from the north side of the bridge as the south that I'd be on crossing the other way the next day. Also impressive was the extremely sharp west-to-south curve just before we reached the 8th/Market Station. I rode all the way to the end (15th/16th) and walked over to the remaining Center City stations, Market East. As I arrived, I checked in on Foursquare (of course), and as I'd gotten hungry, with the shout 'dinnertime'. Well, Bill Magee, of Another Place Mileage Tally fame, noticing the resulting tweet, gently chided me for, when Philly has so much to offer, dining in a mall food court. When I assured him that I'd be eating the signature sandwich at Geno's the next day, as suggested by battalion51, he chided me less gently and suggested Campos instead. Perfect, as it's right on Market, right on the next day's itinerary. At any rate, I'd lost track of the time, and hurried through my KFC in time for my chair in the food court to be the last inverted onto the table.
Thence back to the hotel. On the way, tried, with a little success, to get night-time pictures of City Hall, Independence Hall, and the Bridge, but had more success with a PCC at the transit museum, and Mr. Bar Stool (which I thought interesting. Background: the stretch of 2nd, between Market and Race, is called 'Restaurant Row' because stores there sell furniture and whatnot for restaurants. In addition, there are non-restaurant things like '3rd Street Gallery on 2nd Street', of which I neglected to take a picture ) Some TV (including the series premiere of V, then bed.
Next up in Part 10: Commuter crawl to, and first night in, NYC.
Pictures of this part are here.
The first thing I did when I woke on Tuesday, November 3 was turn on the news to see if there was an update on the SEPTA strike. Unfortunately and unsurprisingly, it was still going on. Fortunately, though, Regionals were still running. I went to the SEPTA website to see what else might be running, and was delighted to discover that while the MFL and BSL subways, and the Subway-Surface Trolley Lines were not running, the Norristown High-Speed Line (100) and the 101 and 102 light rail lines, in addition to Regional Rail. For those interested in or familiar with SEPTA, this meant, in other words, that the strike affected only the City Transit Division, not the Suburban Division or Regional Rail Division. So the plan I devised, an abbreviation of my earlier pre-strike one, was: Take R6 to Norristown, 100 to 69th, then 101 or 102 (whichever was next to depart when I went to board) to its end and back to Drexel Hill Junction, then the other to *its* end and back to 69th, and figure out what to do from there.
But first, I had to 'fund' this itinerary, and see some history. So my first stop (after a pause at Franklin's burial place along the way) was the Independence Visitor Center, where my research had told me Independence Passes are sold. They're $10, twice the $5 I'm used to in LA, but a hell of a deal, as they include Regional Rail. (Imagine a $10 Metrolink day pass! Never gonna happen.) In a thoughtful attempt to look out for me and save my money, the cashier told me that SEPTA was on strike, and it took me a little while to persuade her that I knew it would still be a good deal. I then went into the lobby of (but did not fully enter) the Constitution Center, and then, on my way to Independence Hall (again, to see every inch of the outside, but none of the inside), fully explored the free Liberty Bell center, and got the several necessary pictures of the same.
Thence west along Market and around Philadelphia's very attractive City Hall, and past (following carriage returns are intentional)
LO
VE park, to Suburban Station. Having read about it on Wikipedia, I was a little disappointed that Suburban Station, rather than having a grand hall like 30th street, is just a series of tubes! (OK, narrow hallways). After collecting a full set of Regional Rail Timetables
, R6 to the Norristown Transportation Center. As soon as I detrained, I was treated to a clear view of a 100 train on the bridge above. The center was festooned with signs saying 'NO BUSES HERE', and some wags walking by yelled 'Buses are on strike!' After pictures of the station name in no less than three different places/forms, off we went (after the operator's annoyance with my question 'Do I show you this [independence Pass]?' The scenery on this largely rural line is quite nice, beginning right away with the crossing over the wide Schuylkill River. Some things I found interesting: many (all?) of the stops were flag stops, and as such we merely slowed down before proceeding; some parts (near Radnor, in my notes) are so rural that trees actually slap the train as it goes by; we overshot the Garret Hill station by about 2 car-lengths and had to back up (wet leaves?); and finally, there were times we'd be cruising along (and so the doors obviously closed) when a door-closing-like beep would go off. During the last few turns into 69th street, I managed a few pictures of the yards here, including the subways that I'd never again (on this trip) ride. Upper Darby being more inviting in the daytime, I walked south from the Terminal along 69th street, stopping in a Radio Shack to get a replacement for the phone charger I'd left in Boston, to Walnut, where I had Wendy's, for the first time in quite a while, for lunch. I got one picture of what I (perhaps alone) thought was a nice view: 69th descending southwest into a shallow valley, then ascending southeast again, lined with single-family homes. In Upper Darby, besides the most obvious residents, I noticed quite a few South Asians, as well as a small (but perhaps not Philadelphia's main) Koreatown. I noticed the latter from aboard the 101; I wish I'd seen it earlier...I'd have eaten there instead of Wendy's.
So next, according to the plan hatched in the morning, was to do the whole 'upside-down Y' of the 101 and 102 light rail lines. I picked up the 101 and 102 timetables, and noticed that the 102 is currently 'bustituted' the whole part of its route not shared with the 101. My choice then seemed clear, the 101. I went out to the 101/102 platform, and saw a 2-car train, with the rear (closer) car showing '101'. I wanted to see out the front, of course, so I boarded the front car, which said 102. Back outside and saw what was up: It was 2 1-car 'trains', parked really close together. Soon after I was aboard the real 101, off to Media. It was a nice trip; some observations: most stops, at least in the dedicated-ROW part, have attractive small brick station 'buildings' of which I now regret not taking any pictures; there's a wide variety of signaling, including regular RR signals, and in the street-running part, not only the | - signals I'm used to with LA's Gold and Blue lines, but also regular red/amber/green 'car' stoplights, as well as simpler small red/yellow signals at some intersections for both the train and crossing auto traffic. After Bowling Green, it is street running, though allowing parallel parking, so between the train and the parked cars there's only a half car-width...traffic on the street would occasionally have to duck into the area before a driveway to allow the train past.
I took many pictures of this pretty town (including, interestingly, a Trader Joe's sharing an old stone barracks with a veterans museum), and was originally going to just go back to 69th on route 101, and figure out what to do there, but while resting a minute and looking at my RR timetables, noticed that R3 was entitled Elwyn/*Media*. So I mapped it, and discovered that it was a significant, but not impossible walk. So south on Orange, through a beautiful residential neighborhood, to the R3 Media Station. The timetable indicated about 25 minutes until the next inbound train, I decided to take a few pictures. The last I took, of the tracks going under the pretty stone bridge of Orange street, attracted attention. A SEPTA Police officer called me over, asked what I was doing, and soon after started a sentence with the words 'Well, since 9/11 ...'
He of course was mistaken, but since I'd dumbly forgotten at the hotel my printout of the official policy, and he was unfailingly polite, I was unfailingly cooperative. He filled out an 'incident report', called in to check my rapsheet , and 'released' me. Though not strictly necessary, to further prove I wasn't some terrorist I myself offered to remove any objectionable pictures, and so wound up deleting that one offending picture of the bridge. Whatever.Soon enough, what I guessed was my R3 train back to Center City came along. I had to guess because its 8 (?) cars displayed no less than 3 distinct destination signs. A few stations after leaving Media, I was joined by an elderly Lady with whom we commiserated about the strike. Just before getting to the place where SEPTA and the NEC diverge, we were met by a single-level long distance train. I *guess* it may have been the Silver Meteor, but it seems awfully early. (This was slightly after 4pm...unless I have time-zones screwed up.) 30th Street was a madhouse! The crowd of people scrumming to get from the main hall to RR trains was so thick that it was with considerable difficulty that people like me got from RR trains to the main hall.
The lack of subways gave me a convenient excuse to get from 30th St to my hotel in Penn's Landing by way of Lindenwold, NJ
so I went and got an NJT ACL ticket. Thence up into the ClubAcela, to get above the madness. The same Lady as the day before said 'Oh, Day 2?' and I chuckled and proudly said 'yes, but this time I'm going somewhere!' She brightened up and asked where, and I grinned and said 'Lindenwold!' She smiled and said 'well, welcome, anyways' and told me that those trains use the lower Amtrak platforms, but it would not be a track accessible from the CA, I'd have to go back out into the main hall. I was soon off on my first NJT ride. I was surprised (then, when I thought about it, unsurprised, considering they own and must maintain the NEC) to see many kinds of Amtrak rolling stock, like hoppers carrying gravel, etc. I was also surprised how far along the NEC we went before turning off onto our own tracks. During that shared part, we were met by another southbound LD train, more likely (based on time) to be the Meteor (so still wondering what the above was). Soon we turned east and crossed the Delaware River, on the Delair Bridge, paralleling the rather plain (compared to the Benjamin Franklin Bridge) Betsy Ross Bridge. Lindenwold station was impressive in size only...I found it rather strip-mall-like, in that it was a wide but not very tall building separated from the street by an enormous parking lot.Since there was nothing whatsoever to see or do within walking distance, I soon turned back for my first PATCO ride. These, too, were interesting, from the retro seats to the actual bell warning of the closing doors. The view of the city from the Franklin Bridge was impressive, though not as much from the north side of the bridge as the south that I'd be on crossing the other way the next day. Also impressive was the extremely sharp west-to-south curve just before we reached the 8th/Market Station. I rode all the way to the end (15th/16th) and walked over to the remaining Center City stations, Market East. As I arrived, I checked in on Foursquare (of course), and as I'd gotten hungry, with the shout 'dinnertime'. Well, Bill Magee, of Another Place Mileage Tally fame, noticing the resulting tweet, gently chided me for, when Philly has so much to offer, dining in a mall food court. When I assured him that I'd be eating the signature sandwich at Geno's the next day, as suggested by battalion51, he chided me less gently and suggested Campos instead. Perfect, as it's right on Market, right on the next day's itinerary. At any rate, I'd lost track of the time, and hurried through my KFC in time for my chair in the food court to be the last inverted onto the table.
Thence back to the hotel. On the way, tried, with a little success, to get night-time pictures of City Hall, Independence Hall, and the Bridge, but had more success with a PCC at the transit museum, and Mr. Bar Stool (which I thought interesting. Background: the stretch of 2nd, between Market and Race, is called 'Restaurant Row' because stores there sell furniture and whatnot for restaurants. In addition, there are non-restaurant things like '3rd Street Gallery on 2nd Street', of which I neglected to take a picture
) Some TV (including the series premiere of V, then bed.Next up in Part 10: Commuter crawl to, and first night in, NYC.
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