The Philadelphia Chapter of the

National Railway Historical Society

Established in 1936

and heads east to Grundy Interlocking to interchange with ESPN (formerly PRL) at Bristol. Last summer Amtrak finally got around to replacing the wooden ties under the siding switch with concrete ties to match those installed on Track 1 back in 2003.

An interesting note: while they left most switches untouched when the TLM ran Track 1, Amtrak removed a few "abandoned" switches including one at MP 74 and the I-95 Industrial Park switch just to the east of Eddington. For many of the switches that was not a problem as they were single industry sidings and those industries were no longer in operation. However, even though the I-95 switch had not seen use in a few years, there were several prospective customers in the industrial park, none receiving shipments at the time. So shortline Penn Eastern Rail Lines (PRL) saw an opportunity and in 2005 sought to provide freight service to the park and evidently even lined up at least one customer. Enter Amtrak. To reinstall the switch, Amtrak reportedly quoted them a mid six figure price tag, to be paid by PRL, and that was the end of that.

All pictures February 17 2009 Copyright © 2009 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.