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The Philadelphia Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society Established in 1936
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Railfan Pictures of the Week - 3/27/2016
| SEPTA West Trenton and Main Lines Woodbourne and Lansdale PA March 5 and 10 2016 |
| In anticipation of the 2018 delivery of thirteen ACS-64 engines (with an option to purchase five more) ordered in May 2015, Siemens Mobility lent to SEPTA Amtrak ACS-64 664 before it is accepted by its owner. The engine arrived on February 29 and after familiarizing themselves with the operation of the unit, SEPTA crews started testing it on many of its lines. On Saturday March 5 2016, it ventured up to West Trenton before returning to Roberts Yard, here with a six car train approaching Township Line Road just north of Woodbourne Station. |
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| On March 10 2016 the same train made a round trip to Doylestown, here leaving Lansdale on its return to Wayne Electric. After three weeks of testing on all over SEPTA (except the Fox Chase and the Cynwyd lines), the engine was returned on March 21. |
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| These locomotives, along with the order of up to 55 bilevel coaches and cab cars, will change the face and operations of SEPTA. The deadline for proposals for the new cars was March 15 2016 but it has been extended to April 5 2016. With delivery of pilot cars scheduled for 2018 and the remainder of the cars arriving in 2019 (or 2021 if you go by the 2016 Captial Budget), the push-pulls may yet return to the Doylestown Line. Next on the agenda for SEPTA will be the replacements for the Silverliner IV's sometime in the 2021-2027 and beyond time frame. |
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| Here is a rendering of what they might look like in SEPTA colors (courtesy of SEPTA). |
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| Now that they have almost completely relieved its predecessor, the AEM-7, of its duties on Amtrak, if you want to see ACS-64's in their current natural habitat, they can be found running on Amtrak's Northeast and Keystone Corridors every day of the week, pulling (or pushing for Keystone trains) regional trains such as Northeast Regional Train 161 pulled by ACS-64 AMTK 644 and long distance trains such as The Crescent Train 19 featuring ACS-64 class engine AMTK 600 named for former Amtrak president (and former SEPTA general manager) David L. Gunn, both pictured at North Philadelphia Station on March 6 2016 |
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All pictures March 5, 6 and 10 2016 Copyright © 2016 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. |
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Last Updated March 27, 2016
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