Greetings, As a former technical consultant and currently working for an organization that manages several large industry shows a year, travel is a given to me. But I seldom had an opportunity for rail travel. Sure there were subway trips and light rail, but anything resembling long distance service just wasn't in the cards. Well, recently I was assigned a 3-day stint working a show in Atlantic City, and I soon discovered that financially speaking it was only feasible to fly into Philadelphia and take a bus or train into New Jersey. The trip out coincided with other convention-goers (which meant a bus/shuttle ride) but I was to leave the convention once my duties were complete and prior to the return of the balance of attendees and/or show managers. (typically I would stay, in Maytag Repairman fashion, but budget restrictions squashed that for this trip) So, this meant a trip on Amtrak/NJT from Atlantic City to Philidelphia and a short trip on SEPTA to the Philly Airport for the flight back home. One slight glitch popped up when I discoved I would be travelling on June 6, 2006...aka 6/6/6!!! For those not hellishly inclined, 666 is the "sign of the devil" and represents all that is evil everywhere. But hey, like the (heavily modified) old saying goes...a railfan trip from hell is better than a day at work, right? This post will be a photodocumentary of my trip. Keep in mind that (a) I'm not a great photographer to begin with and (b) most of these pictures are taken from a moving train through a less than clean tinted window. Also, I had VERY LITTLE breathing room schedule-wise and did not have time to take some pictures that I really would have liked to have. Couple of other things: (1) I've never been to Philadelphia and (2) I'm gonna try to go back and fill in the details about location names, etc. as I get time, so cut me some slack on the "hey dummy that's so and so river". Regardless, I think it's a good story to tell and some interesting photos so I hope you enjoy it. I started from the Amtrak/NJT station located in the Atlantic City Convention Center. (home to, among other things, the Miss America contest!) I snapped a pic of the large NJT banner hanging from the roof of the center for all the convention-goers to see: I was running late and had merely time to walk into the concourse and hear the train announcement as the doors open and passengers flooded the platform to find the good seats. I headed for the front of the train as close to the power as possible. (which looked to be a GP40 or similar, never got a clean look at it) The first car after the engine was out of service so I settled into the second car and was able to secure a window view. Incidentally, I also sat across from a mentally challenged fellow who proceeded to carry on a conversation with himself (not unlike someone loud-talking on a cellphone other than he was carrying both sides of the conversation) for the entire trip! It really wasn't bothersome, since I'm used to rude cityfolk blabbing away on their cellphones at volume level ten trying to look and sound important. However, I did entertain the thought that he was some type of "evil Rainman", heading back from a night of counting cards at Trump's, and that he would think I was taking his photo, freak, and slash everyone on the train into a thousand little pieces. So I kept an eye peeled for the first few shots to see if the slingblade was coming out of his bag. But I digress. The first half of the trip was nothing but high speed travel through a tunnel of trees. Not much to see or report. Then I started to see more "suburbish" townships and knew we were close to Philly. Then we came into a clearing and crossed the Delaware river where things began to shape up for this railfanning trip. This is an automobile bridge over the Delaware. Thought it quite picturesque, and found it amazing that the photo turned out decent. This is a massive freighter docked at one of the many ports in the area. http://www.trainboard.com/railimages/data/653/njt_port1.jpg This appears to be a power plant of some type. Not sure of it's status or use. http://www.trainboard.com/railimages/data/653/njt_powerplant.jpg (Continued...)
This yard is Norfolk Southern's yard. NS 2106, an SW1001, idles in the yard on the other side of the NJT overpass. Took this shot of the adjacent right-of-way. Looks to be at least 6 tracks wide for most of the trip through Philly's interior. http://www.trainboard.com/railimages/data/653/njt_tracks.jpg We passed a stopped CSX train not long after crossing the small NS yard. http://www.trainboard.com/railimages/data/653/njt_csxtrain.jpg
This heavily tagged Amtrak car was one of a dozen or so cars sitting outside of an old decrepit building in what looked to be some type of refurb projects. There were also some much better condition stock, including Conrail #4022, the E8A Business Train Executive unit. Just a couple of tourist-y photos. But hey, they're from a TRAIN, OK? http://www.trainboard.com/railimages/data/653/njt_clocktower.jpg http://www.trainboard.com/railimages/data/653/njt_phillydowntown1.jpg I call this one "thank goodness I'm not a bird".
A couple more "non-train" photos but interesting nonetheless. The crazy guy tells me that the second building there is the one that Rocky ran up the steps to. I'm going with that unless someonen argues with me for two seconds about it. Now we are approaching Amtrak's yard near Philly's 30th Street Station. Lots and lots of Amtrak gear around here. Just about any motive power they've ever had is present. An ortner rock hopper with ballast shutes installed in that second photo typifies the myriad of Amtrak stuff around the area.
Couple of Amtubes hanging out across the way from the engine facility. I really liked how this shot turned out. Probably one of my favorites of the trip. Engine facility to the left, and note the GE's hooked up to the HHP8. A lone AEM-7 parked right outside of the platform area going into the station.
God Bless the U.S.A.!!! SEPTA's 30th Street Station vestibule is phenomenal. A very beautiful structure and bustling with activity. In fact, the whole 30th Street complex is something to see. This is my train, the R1, that will rush me to the Philly airport so I can wait for my two-hour-late flight to take off. A snapshot of the outside of the 30th Street terminal building. Heading out toward the airport, there was a short unit train of concrete ties loaded on Amtrak orange flats near the University City SEPTA station.
This fiesty little Amtrak gave us about a half mile headstart before eventually blowing our doors off. We were running around 45-50 at this point and he passed us like we were standing still, toting a half dozen Amtubes toward New York. Delivered to the airport. Inside the airport, this advertisement was very appropriate. Yes, she booked me for travel on Satan's birthday, but hey at least she gets style points for getting me this train ride. THE END.
Great travelogue and photos. I believe the NJT route is the old "Pennsylvania-Reading-Seashore" trackage. My nextdoor neighbor, when I lived in South Jersey in 1960, was a retired Engineer who ran Pennsy E6 Atlantics or K4 Pacifics over that route daily....said he HATED the new diesels, which is why he retired.
Yes, one of the best parts of the trip was imagining what was there 10, 25, 50, 100 years ago since there is so much railroad history associated with the area. The large amount of massive factory structures that look to have been dormant for dozens of years are quite interesting in their own right. I'm sure they all have an interesting story to tell if they could talk. Hemi, Thanks! I didn't recieve any flak from anyone, but I didn't stay in one place for very long. I was a little concerned because I had heard we were bumped up an alert level for the day among fears of a terrorist strike on 6/6/6. That is one reason I didn't get many photos at Atlantic City...didn't want to get "detained" and miss my train. I was probably more concerned about getting mugged than getting harrassed by the railroad dicks.
You have some interesting pics. I know that pics from a moving train are hard to get. But if you think about it to long, you missed the chance. I wish that I could do something like that one day.
Raymond, Thanks. You are right, it is a challenge. I've had a bit of experience with this on the racetrack in Chicago. I've equated it to "trying to watch TV while riding a Tilt-a-Whirl". I think it still produces valuable photos. Most of these photos you couldn't get any other way, (or at least without some serious work and/or equipment) so even if the quality isn't top notch, the content probably makes up for it.
