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Broad Ridge Spur Operations (1984 - Pre Railworks); How did it run on rush hour before?
Topic Started: Nov 17 2009, 05:07 PM (1,766 Views)
Neoei3318
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I'm at City Hall after work on a Sunday Morining. I see a peeling BSL map. Peeling off some more, it's the 1984 BSL Map underneath.
Some things about it are very curious...
For starters:

- This is years before the Railworks project on the RRD, which forsaw the expansion of Fern Rock from a stub end terminal, to the current "Transportation Center" which now has a connection to the RDD and the Loop track for the BSL, greatly expanding service.

At this time (1984) only Local Trains terminated at Fern Rock, Express Trains terminated at Olney, and Bucks/Montco suburbanites had to ride down to North Broad and catch a BSL at Lehigh-Glenwood to get downtown.

- What is most interesting is The Broad-Ridge Spur. It ran as a true Spur, Between Girard and 8th-Market from 6:30 AM - 9:30 PM.

- Druing Rush Hour, it ran up the local tracks to Erie, to where I assume, it terminated on the Ramps-to-Nowhere north of the station.

Now the part where I'm pulling what's left of my hair out to ponder what's going on, is the track layout at Erie:

- There are no crossovers on the tracks South of the station, and I don't think there ever was. (No gaps in the Bents)

- The Switch to the ramps North of Erie are only accessible from the Local tracks. In order to acesss the Southbound ramp, a train reversing from the Northbound tracks would have to cross over to the Southbound tracks, pull into Erie, then Reverse again to go up the Southbound ramp. A time consuming manuever, and a major headache, pre B-IV's.

- So how did they do it back then? did the Ridge Spur Trains deadhead to Olney?
- Also when were the Express tracks intalled between Olney and Erie? I heard they weren't even there until the early 90's.
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philabob1
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The spur shuttled between 8th-Market and Girard in off-peak hours and to Erie in the peaks. In off-peaks the trains used the express tracks and crossed over north of Girard. This got interesting when the all-day express service (Walnut to Olney) began running.

Before the Walnut-Olney express service, mainline trains ran express in the peaks. The express tracks north of Erie did not exist (placed before Railworks started) so the mainline trains ran local north of Erie. The spur provided local service between Girard and Erie and used the ramps to the upper-level storage area to cross over between local tracks. At certain times, usually after the PM peak, some spurs ran to Fern Rock (and this happened on the old Wednesday late-night shopping time, when Lit's, Gimbel's, etc stayed open until 9 PM).

I recall fairly detailed signage explaining that the mainline Fairmount station could not be accessed in the peaks and riders had to use the C bus to get there (even though the spur called at its station - PTC/SEPTA never encouraged crossing over and backtracking (which is what northbound patrons could do when expresses skipped Fairmount)).

As noted, the Erie-Olney gap in express tracks was closed in 1991 or so, just before Railworks.

Not sure of this sentence - "At this time (1984) only Local Trains terminated at Fern Rock, Express Trains terminated at Olney, and Bucks/Montco suburbanites had to ride down to North Broad and catch a BSL at Lehigh-Glenwood to get downtown." Why wouldn't the Bucks/Montco riders catch the express (or local) further north? When Railworks was in effect, before Fern Rock RR was completed (and the old station was just north of the current one), the old Reading side trains terminated at the now-gone Logan station and riders had to walk down from there to the Logan subway stop and vice versa to get to Center City. Is this what you're noting?
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Mark
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Neoei3318
Nov 17 2009, 05:07 PM
I'm at City Hall after work on a Sunday Morining. I see a peeling BSL map. Peeling off some more, it's the 1984 BSL Map underneath.
Some things about it are very curious...
For starters:

- This is years before the Railworks project on the RRD, which forsaw the expansion of Fern Rock from a stub end terminal, to the current "Transportation Center" which now has a connection to the RDD and the Loop track for the BSL, greatly expanding service.

At this time (1984) only Local Trains terminated at Fern Rock, Express Trains terminated at Olney, and Bucks/Montco suburbanites had to ride down to North Broad and catch a BSL at Lehigh-Glenwood to get downtown.

- What is most interesting is The Broad-Ridge Spur. It ran as a true Spur, Between Girard and 8th-Market from 6:30 AM - 9:30 PM.

- Druing Rush Hour, it ran up the local tracks to Erie, to where I assume, it terminated on the Ramps-to-Nowhere north of the station.

Now the part where I'm pulling what's left of my hair out to ponder what's going on, is the track layout at Erie:

- There are no crossovers on the tracks South of the station, and I don't think there ever was. (No gaps in the Bents)

- The Switch to the ramps North of Erie are only accessible from the Local tracks. In order to acesss the Southbound ramp, a train reversing from the Northbound tracks would have to cross over to the Southbound tracks, pull into Erie, then Reverse again to go up the Southbound ramp. A time consuming manuever, and a major headache, pre B-IV's.

- So how did they do it back then? did the Ridge Spur Trains deadhead to Olney?
- Also when were the Express tracks intalled between Olney and Erie? I heard they weren't even there until the early 90's.
Prior to the 1980's, the service pattern on the Broad St Subway was like this:

Rush hours:

EXPRESS - Fern Rock/Pattison: Trains run local between Fern Rock and Erie, switch to express tracks, express to Spring Garden [with stops at N.Philly and Girard], then all stops to Pattison [between Spring Garden and Walnut-Locust, service operated only on the Express Track, no trains on the local tracks.]

LOCAL - Erie/8th Market: All local stops Erie to Girard, then Fairmount [lower level-Ridge Spur], Spring Garden [Ridge spur station now abandoned], Chinatown/Vine St and 8th and Market.
Trains on this route used the ramps at Erie to go to the upper level and turn back southbound, however some trains on pull-ins and pull-outs would go all the way to Fern Rock at the edges of the rush hours.

Non-Rush Hours:

LOCAL - Fern Rock/Pattison: all stops on the local Track

SHUTTLE [not marked as such, it was marked as Girard-8th & Market], trains pulled in from 8th and Market on the NB express, discharge passengers, go north past a set of crossovers, cross over to the SB express tracks, pull into Girard, load passengers then go on the way to 8th St. The Early-morning and late evening trains would go all the way to/from Fern Rock and use the local tracks.

The Ridge spur was shut down from 1979 to 1984 first due to equipment shortage [the old red cars were dropping like flies and SEPTA needed them to keep the subway open so they ran only locals, then in 1980 the Commuter Tunnel necessitated that the Ridge Spur be closed and the Vine station was reconstructed because the subway had to be lifted a few feet where it crossed the Commuter Tunnel.]

In 1983, SEPTA instituted Express Service. Starting from Olney to Walnut-Locust, the trains started at Olney, stopped at Erie, Girard, City Hall and Walnut-Locust. SEPTA originally used scheduling manuevers because until 1991, the Express and Locals shared the same track between Olney and Erie [express bypassed Logan, Wyoming and Hunting Park. Ridge-spur trains came back on-line in 1984 and originally stuck to their long-time service pattern [with scheduling manuevers during off-peak for the midday Girard-8th & market shuttles].

In late 1991, the Express tracks between Erie and Olney were constructed, and Express trains used the middle tracks all the way to Walnut-Locust, then there was a signal failure at Erie which prevented the Erie locals from using the ramps to turn back, so SEPTA converted the Ridge Spur trains to an express service, running from Fern Rock to 8th and Market. The signals were repaired in the late 90's and the Ridge Spur went back to the original local service, but passenger complaints forced SEPTA to reinstate the express service and it remains to this day.
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Neoei3318
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Thanks for the replies!

So there is a cross over on the upper level ramps North of Erie. It's a lot bigger than I thought. Any guess as to how far it goes North before stub ending? I would imagine it stub ends near Pike St.

Quote:
 
Why wouldn't the Bucks/Montco riders catch the express (or local) further north? When Railworks was in effect, before Fern Rock RR was completed (and the old station was just north of the current one), the old Reading side trains terminated at the now-gone Logan station and riders had to walk down from there to the Logan subway stop and vice versa to get to Center City. Is this what you're noting?


Didn't know there was a Logan Station on the RDG. I was Speed-reading a pamplet from the closure of the Reading Terminal, and I didn't catch the paragraph above the North Broad related info.

One thing for sure, as much as people complain about SEPTA, we take the current operations of the Broad Street Line for granted.
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philabob1
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Neoei3318
Nov 18 2009, 07:06 PM
Thanks for the replies!

So there is a cross over on the upper level ramps North of Erie. It's a lot bigger than I thought. Any guess as to how far it goes North before stub ending? I would imagine it stub ends near Pike St.

Quote:
 
Why wouldn't the Bucks/Montco riders catch the express (or local) further north? When Railworks was in effect, before Fern Rock RR was completed (and the old station was just north of the current one), the old Reading side trains terminated at the now-gone Logan station and riders had to walk down from there to the Logan subway stop and vice versa to get to Center City. Is this what you're noting?


Didn't know there was a Logan Station on the RDG. I was Speed-reading a pamplet from the closure of the Reading Terminal, and I didn't catch the paragraph above the North Broad related info.

One thing for sure, as much as people complain about SEPTA, we take the current operations of the Broad Street Line for granted.
Logan was right at Broad St where the old Reading crosses it (which is why I believe the Broad St subway stop wasn't named 'Lindley' or 'Windrim' like the others (except for North Phila which was named that for the same reason - near the train station). I believe Logan was closed and removed right after the new Fern Rock station opened.

Not sure how far the upper level at Erie extends. This was intended to be the junction/connection for the Blvd line.
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Mark
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philabob1
Nov 17 2009, 08:21 PM



Not sure of this sentence - "At this time (1984) only Local Trains terminated at Fern Rock, Express Trains terminated at Olney, and Bucks/Montco suburbanites had to ride down to North Broad and catch a BSL at Lehigh-Glenwood to get downtown." Why wouldn't the Bucks/Montco riders catch the express (or local) further north? When Railworks was in effect, before Fern Rock RR was completed (and the old station was just north of the current one), the old Reading side trains terminated at the now-gone Logan station and riders had to walk down from there to the Logan subway stop and vice versa to get to Center City. Is this what you're noting?
During the October 1984 forced shutdown of the Reading side when they had to make those emergency repairs at 9th and Columbia, Reading side trains [R2 Warminster, R1 West Trenton, and R5 Doylestown] were terminated at Logan Station [actually trains picked up and discharged their passengers at Logan, the trains actually went to Wayne Junction to turn back.]. Passengers then transferred to the BSS at Logan station [express trains made a stop at Logan]. For passengers going outbound, SEPTA parked several buses in the lot behind the station [brand new Neoplans] and used them as waiting rooms for the trains [naturally that neighborhood wasn't that great even back in the day]. When the trains arrived that particular group of buses were emptied onto the train.
The R6 Norristown and the R7 Chestnut Hill East had to transfer at North Broad./North Philly subway station.

It took about 35 days to put up that temporary bridge at 9th and Columbia [an idea from then-mayor Wilson Goode] and full Reading service was restored in early November just in time for holiday shopping.
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septafan
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philabob1
Nov 18 2009, 07:39 PM
Neoei3318
Nov 18 2009, 07:06 PM
Thanks for the replies!

So there is a cross over on the upper level ramps North of Erie. It's a lot bigger than I thought. Any guess as to how far it goes North before stub ending? I would imagine it stub ends near Pike St.

Quote:
 
Why wouldn't the Bucks/Montco riders catch the express (or local) further north? When Railworks was in effect, before Fern Rock RR was completed (and the old station was just north of the current one), the old Reading side trains terminated at the now-gone Logan station and riders had to walk down from there to the Logan subway stop and vice versa to get to Center City. Is this what you're noting?


Didn't know there was a Logan Station on the RDG. I was Speed-reading a pamplet from the closure of the Reading Terminal, and I didn't catch the paragraph above the North Broad related info.

One thing for sure, as much as people complain about SEPTA, we take the current operations of the Broad Street Line for granted.
Logan was right at Broad St where the old Reading crosses it (which is why I believe the Broad St subway stop wasn't named 'Lindley' or 'Windrim' like the others (except for North Phila which was named that for the same reason - near the train station). I believe Logan was closed and removed right after the new Fern Rock station opened.

Not sure how far the upper level at Erie extends. This was intended to be the junction/connection for the Blvd line.
The upper level at erie goes about 3 block north above the main line i have it on tape the ride starts at the upper level and works its way back to the main line at erie then the tape covers the lower level at pattison and the ridge spur line oh and the train ride was taped on the old 1928 cars
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philabob1
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Mark
Nov 19 2009, 07:48 PM
philabob1
Nov 17 2009, 08:21 PM



Not sure of this sentence - "At this time (1984) only Local Trains terminated at Fern Rock, Express Trains terminated at Olney, and Bucks/Montco suburbanites had to ride down to North Broad and catch a BSL at Lehigh-Glenwood to get downtown." Why wouldn't the Bucks/Montco riders catch the express (or local) further north? When Railworks was in effect, before Fern Rock RR was completed (and the old station was just north of the current one), the old Reading side trains terminated at the now-gone Logan station and riders had to walk down from there to the Logan subway stop and vice versa to get to Center City. Is this what you're noting?
During the October 1984 forced shutdown of the Reading side when they had to make those emergency repairs at 9th and Columbia, Reading side trains [R2 Warminster, R1 West Trenton, and R5 Doylestown] were terminated at Logan Station [actually trains picked up and discharged their passengers at Logan, the trains actually went to Wayne Junction to turn back.]. Passengers then transferred to the BSS at Logan station [express trains made a stop at Logan]. For passengers going outbound, SEPTA parked several buses in the lot behind the station [brand new Neoplans] and used them as waiting rooms for the trains [naturally that neighborhood wasn't that great even back in the day]. When the trains arrived that particular group of buses were emptied onto the train.
The R6 Norristown and the R7 Chestnut Hill East had to transfer at North Broad./North Philly subway station.

It took about 35 days to put up that temporary bridge at 9th and Columbia [an idea from then-mayor Wilson Goode] and full Reading service was restored in early November just in time for holiday shopping.
A couple of clarifications.

The shutdown happened in the latter part of November, right around Thanksgiving, and work was done in mid-December. It occurred about 2 weeks after the Tunnel opened (11/10/84) - don't recall the exact dates.

R8 Fox Chase was included in the lines turning at Logan.

Yes, it was R1 West Trenton. Operationally it was linked with R3 Media/Elwyn. The Airport half was added when that opened for service in May '85. Don't recall when R3 became West Trenton-Elwyn but seem to think it was the early 90's.

The same operation at Logan was in effect for the '92 and '93 seasons of Railworks as I recall. In '94 the Fern Rock station was ready and the operation moved to it, and Logan was closed and demolished. During Railworks R6 and R7 Reading side shut down entirely and riders were advised to use other routes (and somewhere I have the guide that showed the suggested alternates). I seem to recall an express bus R6 that made a trip in and out in the peak direction from Norristown via the Schuylkill. The only other bus I recall is from East Falls to Hunting Park BSS which passed R8 Queen Lane.
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Forgot to add that this was NOT a Wilson Goode idea. SEPTA came to him to see if the City's bridge engineers had a solution. They did and they presented it. Goode opposed it since he thought SEPTA should solve the problem. After some thought I think he got smart (something he wasn't all that good at) and realized he could pick up some credit on this. He tends to take credit for many things that he had little or nothing to do with - at least some politicians will say 'we' did it and by implication give credit to those who really made it happen. Goode was one who used the first person singular quite a bit.
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