Philly Railfan Pictures of the Week

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Railfan Pictures of the Week - 06/25/2017

SEPTA West Trenton Line Neshaminy Falls and Langhorne Stations

Neshaminy, Trevose and Langhorne PA

June 19, 20, 21, 22 and 23 2017

Waking up on a Monday is sometimes hard, especially if you are an AEM-7. The oldest of the seven remaining operating AEM-7's in the world, SEPTA SPAX 2301, didn't when called on Train 6325 in West Trenton on June 19 2017. Rather than dispatch a diesel engine to drag the train back into town, SEPTA sent AEM-7 2303 up to bring them home. Gutsy move, sending an AEM-7 to rescue an AEM-7, and a rare shot of a SEPTA doubleheader.

Alas, the delays were minor compared to Tuesday when Train 319 had problems between Langhorne and Neshaminy Falls. The train was unable to continue so the six cars of passengers were detrained at Neshaminy Falls station. Unfortunately, Neshaminy Falls is one of those stations were the outbound platform can only be accessed from the inbound platform, and Train 319 blocked almost all of that, so supervisors were on hand to escort the passengers across the tracks to wait for the next train. That was Train 321, which was following 319 on Track 1, reversed from Woodbourne to CP Wood so it could come down Track 2.

The three cars of Train 321 picked up all the passengers from 319, filling completely after a couple more stops, and ran express into the city.

The second and third pantographs on Train 319 were damaged sufficiently enough that the crew cut through the carbon strips with a saw and secured them to the superstructure.

The next train was Train 323, picking up the next batch of passengers that had not already given up on SEPTA. Many people, even after paying for parking at Neshaminy Falls (and some at Langhorne as well), decided to drive into town this morning, feeling snake bit for the second day in a row.

Meanwhile, the crew managed to raise the pantograph on lead Silverliner V 706 in an effort to move the disabled train, because not only was it blocking the platform but also sitting in Nesh interlocking, which meant SEPTA was singletracking from Jenkintown to Woodbourne. As a result, all outbound service was terminating at Fern Rock.

An hour late, Train 6325, with the youngest AEM-7 2307 leading, arrives to pick up the dozen passengers who were expecting the Silverliners of Train 3223, but instead get the express which ran down to Jenkintown on the "wrong" track.

A little later, Train 319 was able to move to clear the interlocking, and the wire train was sent up to mend the wires between Langhorne and Neshaminy Falls, here returning in the early afternoon just south of Trevose ...

with the six Silverliner V's of Train 319 in tow.

Wednesday came and went without much in the way of problems with SPAX 2307 again on Train 6325.

Ditto for Thursday, and with no emergencies, the wire train was back to its regularly scheduled duties, which in this case happens to be mainenance on Track 1 between Neshaminy Falls and CP Wood on the West Trenton Line, work that commenced on Monday June 18 2017 and expected to conclude in late October.

Friday rolls around and it is AEM-7 SPAX 2302, the fourth unit of its kind on the line in five days, closing out an eventful week.

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Website created January 1, 2017