A Railfan's List of Points of Interest: Southwest New Jersey and Philadelphia

In this post, I will list various points of interest for railfans in the southwest New Jersey/Philadelphia area. I've been to (or through) many of these places, so I know a little bit about them.

Trenton Rail Station

At the top of the list is the NJT/SEPTA/Amtrak station in Trenton. This serves as the dividing line between New Jersey Transit and SEPTA on the Northeast Corridor. Many trains pass through here, and if you're lucky, you might even see a Norfolk Southern freight move as well. Good luck trying to catch an Acela Express here in anything but a movie or a photograph. They don't stop here, but they do make for a good photo op if your camera is equipped with some kind of burst mode.

Burlington Town Centre

Further down the RiverLINE is a station called Burlington Town Centre. It's a single track station in the middle of Broad Street in the town of Burlington (hence the name). Burlington has the appearance of a quaint little town, and the RiverLINE cars make for an interesting juxtaposition.

36th Street

In the area of this station, there is a large freight yard, with numerous freight cars and locomotives on the sidings. A good place for your freight shots. Just north of the station is the main RiverLINE maintenance facility (where southbound trains change drivers). Further north is the point where New Jersey Transit Atlantic City Line trains cross the RiverLINE. If you look at the RiverLINE's schedule, you'll notice that there's generally no RiverLINE service between Midnight and 5:30 AM. That's when the freight trains shine the rails. For some reason, you can't have freight trains running on the same tracks as light rail trains. Heads are scratching on that one…

SEPTA Headquarters

The address is 1234 Market Street in Center City Philadelphia. The street level and the lower level are of particular interest because part of that area serves as a transit museum of sorts, including a vintage PCC trolley car. There is also a transit museum gift shop, and a SEPTA sales office, where you can buy all sorts of maps and passes. They don't sell train tickets, but Market East station is nearby, and you can get them there. The SEPTA sales office is a good place to plunk down six bucks for your Inconvenience Pass. It's also a good place to pick up schedules for your SEPTA trips. Schedules for every bus and rail line are available here, but you have to buy the maps.

Girard Avenue

The trolley line that runs down Girard Avenue is different from the others in one particular way. It uses rebuilt and modernized PCC trolley cars in its service. At least, they are when the line is not being attacked by oversized trucks that inadvertently rip down the overhead wire the trolleys use to collect power. If that does happen, say it with me. BUSTITUTION!

Broad Street Subway

No list of Philadelphia area railfan points of interest is complete without the Broad Street subway. The BSS runs from the sports complex at Pattison Avenue all the way up to Fern Rock, basically echoing a large part of bus route C. However, the BSS has something the C bus rarely has: speed. The BSS has an express service which features trains that could make New York City's subway cars eat their proverbial dust. I rode one train on the BSS Express between Girard Avenue and North Philadelphia (Cumberland/Lehigh), which topped out at 61 Miles per hour. While that doesn't beat the 62 mile per hour record of the 60th Street Tunnel, the BSS doesn't need a 4,000 foot long downgrade exceeding 4% to achieve 61 MPH. The northern terminal is also interesting. It's a cross between Coney Island Yard and South Ferry. As you approach the Fern Rock Terminal, you get to see the whole BSS yard. The station itself is built on a loop, but unlike South Ferry, the platform is straight. No gap fillers necessary.

The Darby CSX Crossing.

Take a Route 11 trolley out to Darby and get off near the intersection of 6th and Main Streets, or take an R2 Newark/Wilmington train to Darby station, and walk north for about 10 minutes. You will see something interesting. The two-track trolley line crosses an active CSX freight line at grade here. What makes this even more interesting is that the recent rehabilitation to the crossing (apparently performed by CSX) causes the wheels on the Route 11 cars to ride on their flanges as they cross over the CSX rails. Though it's been worked out so that only one flange is on a CSX rail at any given time. Recent photos of the crossing show the CSX rails marred with flange grooves from all the trolley cars that have crossed them. (About 770 trips per track each week!)

Route 100

The Norristown high speed line from the 69th Street terminal in Upper Darby to the Norristown Transit Center in Norristown is one that shold be done by any railfan at least once.

There you go. It's not an exhaustive list, but it'll do for now. More spots can be found at Railfans Welcome and clicking on the links for NJ and PA.