History of the Broad Street Line

I dont know if anyone has posted this before....

But I was digging around PhillyHistory.org

I found track plans for the Broad Street line's junction at Erie / Germantown Ave. The drawing shows a line up Germantown Ave to the northwest, and a line to the east a block north of Erie @ Butler. Also shown is a PRT car barn on Luzerne Street.

The website shows the date as June 1919, which seems too early to me. Unfortunately, the pic is low res, it's not terrible readable.

http://www.phillyhistory.org/PhotoArchi ... etId=41821

The grade-separated interlocking at Erie is still there. Ramps at the north end of the station lead to what are now 4 stub end tracks.

any idea where the missing staircase and ledge on the north end of the city hall platforms led to?

Suburban Station wrote:any idea where the missing staircase and ledge on the north end of the city hall platforms led to?

When the concourses were changed in the late 70's. As an example, look at the east end of the platforms at Suburban, and you'll see the end of an escallator. You used to be able take the concourse from 12th & market past city hall and directly down to the SS platforms prior to the CCCT

Clearfield wrote:

Suburban Station wrote:any idea where the missing staircase and ledge on the north end of the city hall platforms led to?

When the concourses were changed in the late 70's. As an example, look at the east end of the platforms at Suburban, and you'll see the end of an escallator. You used to be able take the concourse from 12th & market past city hall and directly down to the SS platforms prior to the CCCT

so this led to the north broad concourse and had separate faregates?

Clearfield wrote:

Suburban Station wrote:any idea where the missing staircase and ledge on the north end of the city hall platforms led to?

When the concourses were changed in the late 70's. As an example, look at the east end of the platforms at Suburban, and you'll see the end of an escallator. You used to be able take the concourse from 12th & market past city hall and directly down to the SS platforms prior to the CCCT

Actually, at least into the 1960's, you could "walk the concourse" all the way from 8th & Market to the underground Greyhound Terminal which was then located at 18th & JFK Blvd, just west of Suburban Station. In that era, at 8th Street, the Ridge-Broad trains and the Bridge Line trains ( this was "pre PATCO) shared the lower level Locust Street Subway's 8th Street platform, leaving the space now used by the Ridge-Broad trains on the upper level at 8th Street open for pedestrians.

There is a concourse on North Broad that is now closed. I had to go there a couple of times. I was told it was closed when they either built or re-did Dilworth Plaza. There was nothing remarkable about it; there is a concourse and some bricked up exits. They ran some pipes across some of the stairways. The cashier booths, turnstiles and rotogates are all gone. It's full of graffiti and filth.

They have a locked door that bars entrance to it. Again, it makes the rest of the station seem sparkling clean in comparison.

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There is another concourse down there that was closed and turned into a repair shop. One of its entrances is on the south side of city hall and resembles a headhouse for an old escalator.

I guess what I was getting at was if this staircase allowed access from north of JFK blvd at one point? that would have been a convenient exit. yeah, the concourse itself isn't a terrible loss (though it would be nice if you could enter the subway from race and not just vine, of course it would also be nice if south penn still had fare booths as well as locust)

what's the building at logan station (BSL) at broad and windrim? it's almost hidden by trees. NW Corner adjacent to the RRD tracks

Are there any cabride videos of the Broad Street Line?

Yes, albeit not with 100% coverage of the line. To the best of my knowledge, the sole commercial video produced which included BSL underground cabride footage was shot during a BVTA-sponsored railfan charter trip operated in September 1991. The video included various segments of video shot out of the front of some old North Broad cars being run on that charter trip.

The best I can tell you is this. The whole system was built around 1920 to '28, and service was extened from Oregon to Pattison the year the Vets Stadium was built from what I was told from older guys from South Philly. Hope this can help you

Budd9001 wrote:The best I can tell you is this. The whole system was built around 1920 to '28, and service was extened from Oregon to Pattison the year the Vets Stadium was built from what I was told from older guys from South Philly.

Mr Budd9001,
The southern terminus was at Snyder ave; the extension to Pattison included the new stop at Oregon Ave.

Budd9001, welcome to the forum. You're not too far off with the 1920-1928 for most of the system, although I'd put it more towards 1925-1932. And I don't think the Snyder to Pattison extension opened the same year as Veteran's stadium, I think the stadium came first and the subway extension came a year or maybe even two years after.

Franklin Gowen wrote:a BVTA-sponsored railfan charter trip operated in September 1991.

Was it really that long ago?? I remember that trip.