Philly NRHS - Railfan Pictures of the Week

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The Philadelphia Chapter of the

National Railway Historical Society

Established in 1936

Railfan Pictures of the Week - 11/03/2013

NS Harrisburg Line Abrams Yard, SEPTA Lansdale Station Lansdale and Delaware Valley College Station Doylestown PA August, October and November 2013

The end of August finds NS SW1001 2102 sitting forlornly on the Seaboard side of Abrams Yard. Having been pulled out of storage barely a week before, it is waiting for SEPTA personnel to pick it up and bring it down to their Wayne Electric shops for inspection. It's leaf season and SEPTA has leased the former Reading unit to supplement their own fleet for use on wash trains, wire trains, ballast trains, tie trains, you name it. After two weeks of work, SEPTA took it out for a shakedown cruise and it made it all the way to Jenkintown (nearly six whole miles!) before dying. To add insult to injury, they had to pull AEM-7 2306 off the Great Valley Flyer (parked on the northbound layoff track there) and used the electric to drag the diesel back to Wayne Electric.

After a little more attention to get it in working order, 2102 was assigned to one of SEPTA's nocturnal wash trains that work the Reading side of the system, based out of Wayne Electric to keep it close. That is until the RL1A's, which had been alternating on the wire train out of Lansdale working the Doylestown Branch, came up lame. CORRECTION: That lasted a couple weeks until it burned up a traction motor. NS said no backsies, so an alternate plan was devised: wire train duty. Working on the wire train only requires enough power to get the train to the desired location and then being able to move it short distances at low speeds. So SEPTA sent gen set 70 and 2102 up to Lansdale and swapped 2102 for the RL1A that was holding down the job.

On weekends in September and October, the wire train had been out working the Doylestown Branch and, as scheduled, it could be found at Delaware Valley College Station on the last Sunday of October.

Even after the weekend bustitution ended and regular service resumed, the month of November arrived and 2102 has not yet departed. The usual lease runs until around Thanksgiving, so look for it if you are in the neighborhood this month. With only six SW1001's still in service, it is unknown what will happen after it is returned to NS. Perhaps it will join its brothers 2100 and 2101 working out of Abrams Yard, or head back to the dead line.

Update: With the burned out traction motor, 2102 is probably checking the "organ donor" box.

All pictures August 29, October 22 and 27 and November 1 2013

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Last Updated November 5, 2013

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