Philly Railfan Pictures of the Week

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Railfan Pictures of the Week - 01/15/2017

Philadelphia Sports Complex

South Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

August 2000

The 2000 Republican National Convention was held in Philadelphia in August of 2000 and Union Pacific brought most of its office car fleet to the city for the event. Stan Feldman has a few pages on the train at Cheltenham Junction and down in South Philadelphia: Pages One Two and Three.

A banner for the "Union Pacific Adventure" decorates the fence at the corner of Pattison Avenue and Darien Street and the convention and its assorted festivities are in full swing.

But even with the circus in town, the regular operations of the railroad continued, as a cut of cars is shoved from Greenwich Yard and up the Darien Street siding to service a customer.

In a few days, GP40 CSX 6565 in Chessie paint would be pulling many of the office cars off their temporary trackage and assembling the UP train for its departure, but today it's the same old same old.

Traffic is stopped on Pattison Avenue as the local shoves across the roadway; the main convention site, the then-First Union Center, is in the background and UP E9A 949 in the foreground.

If you were to visit this spot now, you would be looking at Citizens Bank Park, home of the Philadelphia Phillies, but back in 2000, it was just another non-descript warehouse being serviced by an engine that had seen better days.

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Website created January 1, 2017