The Philadelphia Chapter of the

National Railway Historical Society

Established in 1936

If you have been a railfan for any decent length of time, you have probably encountered the "oh no, not the same old thing" feeling, whether it is the ubiquitous NS Dash-9's or CSX's GEVO's or Amtrak's AEM-7's or SEPTA's Silverliner IV's. After a while, even digital photographers put their cameras down when they feel that this shot will be like the million others they have already taken. Railroad employees often ask "why are you taking the same pictures over and over again? Don't you have enough?"

The answer to the second question is usually no, but here is the answer to the first, at least in this case. SEPTA striped their Silverliner fleet several years ago, applying red and blue decals along the window bands and cab ends. While the corrugated ends of the Silverliner II's and III's required a little ingenuity and adaptation (and variation), the Silverliner IV's monotonous slab ends were made for the decals. And with the Silverliner IV's being rebuilt and/or refurbished and the II's and III's earmarked for replacement by the Silverliner V's, it is clear that the IV's will be around for a bit, but for II's and III's, it is "get your shots now" time. Silverliner IV's were all the same and as common as pigeons, so why bother. Or so I thought.

After taking umpteen thousand pictures of the IV's, I had previously noticed that some had cowcatchers and some had pilots, holdovers from their Reading Company and Penn Central days respectively. But not until now did I notice that the cab decals also varied. I guess some of us are just slow on the uptake.

All pictures January 19 and 20 2008 Copyright © 2008 John P. Almeida

Photographs for personal use only. All rights reserved by original owner of image. Reproduction or redistribution in any form without express written permission is prohibited.