by reldnahkram
The Chicago cars are back on the storage track at 69th St. Can anyone share some information on when and how and why they were used on the P&W?
Thanks
Thanks
Railroad Forums
Moderator: AlexC
Septaman113 wrote:It would be nice if Septa would rehab them and run fan trips,but my chances of getting struck by lightning are better then the odds of Septa doing that.When you have an operations budget deficit in excess of $60M, there are more important things to do...
JeffK wrote:The CTA's were essentially a purchase of both opportunity and desperation. So many Bullets and Strafford cars had failed that the line was shut down for a while. Without new rolling stock it might have been closed permanently or converted to a paved busway like the Ardmore line (gackkk!). The CTA's could be adapted to the P&W without a lot of extra work. Plus, the price was right - SEPTA essentially paid scrap value for them. Supposedly the haulage costs from Chicago were more than the purchase price.Actually, SEPTA preferred the CTA 5-50 series cars because the cars could be operated with one-man [the doors were at the end of the cars, and they had on-board fare collection]. At the time CTA wasn't willing to part with them as they were used on the Skokie Swift and Evanston lines. If the situation with the Norristown Line wasn't so desperate, SEPTA could have waited another year or two to get the cars.
Yes, they were not appropriate to the line and more than a few of us have no particular fondness for them, but some part of me is willing to acknowledge that they managed to keep some form of service running.