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| PHOTOS: COLUMBIA AVE (1643353) | |||
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PHOTOS: COLUMBIA AVE |
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Posted by Jersey Mike on Wed Aug 20 21:07:24 2025 When Amtrak re-signaled the Connecting Railway between ZOO and NORTH PHILADELPHIA interlockings around 2005, the short block distances resulted in a split signal arrangement with brand new 4-track gantries erected at Columbia Ave (eastbound) and Susquehanna Ave (westbound). The Milepost 86.8 signal bridge at Columbia Ave in particular was less than a half mile away from MANTUA interlocking's westbound signal bridge creating a high quality viewing location from the Oxford Ave road bridge that sat between the two signal locations. It was this area that I set out to explore ( mirror ) in August of 2024. First one has to get to Philly, which in this case involved catching an Amtrak Regional at BWI and then the SEPTA connection to suburban. Locomotives encountered include MARC SC44 #87, the class leading Acela trainset with power car #2000, Amtrak ACS-86 #634 and SEPTA Silverliner IV #435.    The Connecting Railway portion of the NEC hosts the standard list of Amtrak trains plus SEPTA R7 Trenton and R8 Chestnut Hill West service, NJT Atlantic City Line trains and Conrail freight trains to Frankford Jct and Pavonia Yard. Here an eastbound SEPTA R7 with Silverliner V equipment rolls by taking the Clear signal indication on track #1.  This was followed by northbound Regional with Veterans ACS-86 #642 and a northbound Silver Meteor Train 98 with ACS-86 #628. Track #1 is also used for the Atlantic City trains like this southbound example with Comet V cab car #6019 and GP40PH-2B #4204.  A southbound Acela showed up with power cars #2024 and #2021.   As freight traffic on the NEC's center tracks was replaced by high speed passenger trains in the 1970's, Amtrak had to essentially undo many of the PRR era infrastructure optimizations that separated freight and passenger traffic. One of these was at ZOO interlocking where the center tracks would lead to the freight only High Line forcing high speed passenger trains on track #3 to make a 30mph diverging movement to track #4. Amtrak remedied this situation by re-aligning the track to make track #3 take a straight route towards 30th St station and the "local" track #4 the diverging route. This sort of realignment is known as a "poor man's high speed turnout".  The Acela action resulted in this southbound Amtrak Regional with ACS-86 #640 to run on track #4.  Up next was on track #3 was ACS-86 #611 at the head of another long southbound Regional.  This was followed by a northbound Acela with power cars #2019 and #2012.   As the Acela rolled past what I believe was CSX manifest freight Q418 showed up with ES44AH #728, ES44AH #957 and SD40-2 #8881.     Amtrak tends to run SEPTA R8 Hill West trains out on track #2 to reduce the number of route conflicts. Here SEPTA Silverliners IV #313 and #12 take the Approach Slow indication for the slow speed diverging route onto the Chestnut Hill West Line at LEHIGH interlocking.  The SEPTA R8 move forced an eastbound Keystone with ACS-86 #632 over to track #1 while the CSX manifest freight waited for a signal at CP-PARK.   I waited around a bit, but Q418 was stuck fast and I ended up needing to wrap things up.  I did have a friend with me on this trip and they were able to get video of most of the train movements which I have compiled into a short montage. Heading home to New Jersey my eastbound PATCO train made an unscheduled employee stop at the yet-to-be-opened Franklin Square station. I'll close things out with this cool reflection of 1 Liberty Place across from the old PRR Suburban Station building.  Make sure you tune in next week as we fire up Reading #2102 for a round trip ramble to the Pittston Tomatoe Festival. |
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