History of the Broad Street Line

[askclifford]

Just looking at the accidents on the BSL in the past, in fact within the last few weeks they have had a lot of jumpers. What is the standard procedure after someone jumps in front of a train? I'd imagine it would get in all of the chassis, and would be an extremely biohazardous job. How fast can they stop? What if the person isn't run over, does the driver just call the police?

[Northeast93]

Hello all.

I know it's been over 5 years since the last post in this thread, or my last post period.
Alot has happened in my life since then.
It's still me NortheastTrainMan, I just got a new email.

Now for the matter at hand. Yesterday (May 2nd)

Yesterday on the BSL, there was a person who was struck at North Philadelphia (Broad & Lehigh) station. Around 7AM.
When I went to make my commute to catch the 9:16AM southbound express from Olney, it was a total mess down there.
I noticed 2 northbound trains stopped (1 on local track & 1 on the express track) with their lights cut out. Which seemed odd considering that it was so early in the morning to just shut trains off on live tracks.

Anyway my 9:16 express rolls in. I notice 2 odd things.
- It seemed to roll down the ramp used for the Ridge Spur, instead of rounding the curve from Fern Rock
- The lights switched from green (express) to white (local) as the train rolled in, on the express track.

There was a SEPTA employee telling everyone to board the train, I asked him about an express train, and he urged me to board the train that just rolled in. Due to "major delays".
So as we leave Olney the train switches from express to the local track. And on the way down I see numerous northbound trains (local, express & ridge) stopped. Either between stations or at platforms, all on the northbound local track.

We skip North Philadelphia station, all I see is a bunch of yellow coats and people shaking their head.
I finish my commute, and it was then I learned that a person was struck at North Philadelphia. My condolences to them.
Also there were signal issues at Fern Rock which caused the pile up at Olney.

I just had a few questions about the operations yesterday.
- If the incident occurred @ North Philadelphia, why not operate express tracks from Olney-Erie & Girard-Walnut? Instead of making everything local?
- What was the process of turning trains at Olney like? It seems like a major bottleneck considering how trains couldn't operate to Fern Rock, and that ramp has finite access. Also that ramp at least from the platform looks very short in length, like Ridge trains can barely clear the switch to change ends. Let alone a regular 5 car train.

It cleared up later in the day, I rode to Fern Rock and my northbound express took the shortcut (branching left instead of looping) at Fern Rock *yay*. I also noticed a Ridge-Spur was at Fern Rock too.

Pardon the long post & me "reviving" this thread. It's been some time, I was debating on posting this in the SEPTA delays thread, but instead opted to post it here.
Any insight would be appreciated.

I look forward to posting here more often.

[silverliner266]

My guess would be that they had to deenergize the 3rd rail on the express tracks to enter the track area and retrieve the body/body parts.

[SEPTA2461]

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.

That isn't the infamous "Heavy Weights Under Broad Street" is it?

[Northeast93]

My guess would be that they had to deenergize the 3rd rail on the express tracks to enter the track area and retrieve the body/body parts.

I don't know how the 3rd rail power works. Not sure if SEPTA can cut power between stations or if they have to cut the entire system. I mean because the express tracks were used at Olney,
It just seems that the pile up could've been alleviated if the express tracks were available Olney-Erie & Girard-Walnut.

Also unrelated to May 2nd, on occasion express trains I've been on have run on the local tracks.
Here are some instances.
- Northbound express switches from express to local track at Erie, operating express. The cause seemed to be because a Ridge train was holding up the express track at Olney. When we get to Olney there was a SEPTA operator who seemed stuck in the Ridge train, like he was locked in or something.
But why not switch the express right before Olney at the crossover? Why operate on the local track all the way from Erie?
- Southbound express pulls into Olney on the local track. Operates express to Erie where it crosses over to the express track right before the platform. There didn't seem to be any reason for this,
it's not like there was a disabled train in the tunnel or anything.
- Plus express trains operate slower on the local tracks because they can't fly past platforms at the typical 50MPH or so.

[phillyrube]

there haven't been any accidents? No one tripped on a 3rd rail or hit by a train? I can't find any articles on this. When I search Broad Street Subway Fatality on Google I just see NYC Subway fatalities.

I just find it weird that there has been a low amount of fatalities on the BSL if any have even been recorded. I mean no accidents or anything? no derailments,head-on collisons, or rear endings?

I was on PFD in 1970, a very short stint between HS and the USN. Had a girl commit suicide at Elsworth/Federal. Left a note, and then kissed the third rail. You never forget your first fatality.

[NortheastTrainMan]

Hey guys. I'm back as NortheastTrainMan after all these years.
Thanks to the good admin folk here helping me get back into my old account, I appreciate it.

Now back to the topic.

Lately I've been riding the Broad Ridge-Spur a bit more often depending on where I'm at in Philly & where I need to go.
Last Thursday (June 1st) around 6PM or so I decided to take it from 8th & Market to Olney instead of walking to City Hall and catching an express.

If anyone could answer these questions or respond to these points and give some insight I'd appreciate it.

There were a few odd things I noticed on this trip.

1) Nearly every signal on the spur past Chinatown to Fairmount was red.

2) Numerous maintenance men were in the tunnels waving their flashlights, presumably to tell the motorman that they can pass the signals at danger & for safety reasons.

3) When the train was pulling into Olney, I noticed a southbound train on the express track. This train didn't have any colored lights on (white, blue, green ,orange, etc), plus the train was
only 3 cars long, and it was empty, Any idea what that was? Trains are typically 5 cars long (local & express) or 2 cars long (Ridge Spur), not any other length. Didn't look like the Cash N Trash train either, plus it seemed way too early to operate that train as it was towards the end of the evening rush.

4) Also not on June 1st, but I rode the Spur on a Saturday once. I notice most of the Spur trains that day, at least on the mainline after Girard were operating with the green express lights instead of their normal orange spur lights. Why is that? Doesn't really make any sense imo.

5) I rode the Spur from 8th & Market to Fern Rock on a Saturday once. Why don't Spur trains regularly operate to Fern Rock? If they terminate/begin at Olney Mon-Fri, what's the point of operating them to/from Fern Rock on Saturday?

6) Plus, if the express trains only operate Mon-Fri and they have more ridership; why does the Spur operate Mon-Sat with less ridership? I assume this is due to politics, correct me if I'm wrong.

[scotty269]

5) I rode the Spur from 8th & Market to Fern Rock on a Saturday once. Why don't Spur trains regularly operate to Fern Rock? If they terminate/begin at Olney Mon-Fri, what's the point of operating them to/from Fern Rock on Saturday?

6) Plus, if the express trains only operate Mon-Fri and they have more ridership; why does the Spur operate Mon-Sat with less ridership? I assume this is due to politics, correct me if I'm wrong.

Spur trains don't operate to Fern Rock due to track capacity/scheduling reasons M-F. Olney has an area out of the way to turn the train, so it happens there. There are no expresses on Sat and there are less locals, so the Spur can operate to Fern Rock.
Spur operates on Saturday to allow for travel down Ridge Ave. Ridership on Sundays probably isn't worth it.
Express trains operate M-F for heavy travel down Broad Street. Ridership on weekends probably isn't worth it.

[NortheastTrainMan]

5) I rode the Spur from 8th & Market to Fern Rock on a Saturday once. Why don't Spur trains regularly operate to Fern Rock? If they terminate/begin at Olney Mon-Fri, what's the point of operating them to/from Fern Rock on Saturday?

6) Plus, if the express trains only operate Mon-Fri and they have more ridership; why does the Spur operate Mon-Sat with less ridership? I assume this is due to politics, correct me if I'm wrong.

Spur trains don't operate to Fern Rock due to track capacity/scheduling reasons M-F. Olney has an area out of the way to turn the train, so it happens there. There are no expresses on Sat and there are less locals, so the Spur can operate to Fern Rock.
Spur operates on Saturday to allow for travel down Ridge Ave. Ridership on Sundays probably isn't worth it.
Express trains operate M-F for heavy travel down Broad Street. Ridership on weekends probably isn't worth it.

Good points. But aren't there more people who ride the mainline than the Spur? It seems like the city wants to keep the Spur open, operating a 2 car shuttle on Saturday to serve less people and at least perceptibly generate less revenue than a 5 car express train on Saturday. From the outside looking in it seems weird imo.

[scotty269]

5) I rode the Spur from 8th & Market to Fern Rock on a Saturday once. Why don't Spur trains regularly operate to Fern Rock? If they terminate/begin at Olney Mon-Fri, what's the point of operating them to/from Fern Rock on Saturday?

6) Plus, if the express trains only operate Mon-Fri and they have more ridership; why does the Spur operate Mon-Sat with less ridership? I assume this is due to politics, correct me if I'm wrong.

Spur trains don't operate to Fern Rock due to track capacity/scheduling reasons M-F. Olney has an area out of the way to turn the train, so it happens there. There are no expresses on Sat and there are less locals, so the Spur can operate to Fern Rock.
Spur operates on Saturday to allow for travel down Ridge Ave. Ridership on Sundays probably isn't worth it.
Express trains operate M-F for heavy travel down Broad Street. Ridership on weekends probably isn't worth it.

Good points. But aren't there more people who ride the mainline than the Spur? It seems like the city wants to keep the Spur open, operating a 2 car shuttle on Saturday to serve less people and at least perceptibly generate less revenue than a 5 car express train on Saturday. From the outside looking in it seems weird imo.

More likely that there is more local traffic along Broad Street on a weekend, rather then people needing to get from Olney to City hall in the x minutes faster that an express vs local does.

[NortheastTrainMan]

Also on my way home today I waited at Walnut-Locust for the 4:11PM northbound Fern Rock express.
However I noticed the train was taking a long time to pull to the platform, and it seemed like a SEPTA worker entered the lead car from the track. Like the worker climbed into the cab and opened the front center door to access the cab.

Then around 4:17PM the train's headlights finally came on, but no colored route lights.
It pulled slowly into the station, stopped, and then just continued on without passengers & with the interior lights off. I managed to snap a picture as it rolled by.

Here's the picture: http://imgur.com/a/HmNYr" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; *I tried coding & inserting the image to no avail, so there's the URL*

As this was happening the southbound express which became the northbound 4:22PM express to Fern Rock pulled into the station. Then used the other turnaround track as this was happening.

Any idea what that train was? It was super weird, because that was supposed to be a revenue run but there seemed to be issues and it was cancelled w/o announcement.

Also on the 4:22PM northbound express, when it reached Olney it had a yellow signal. Yet the motorman said he had to wait for the train in front of us to move.

Why couldn't he proceed pass the yellow signal?

Plus we were riding the yellows from Spring Garden all the way to Fern Rock, I assume because of the aforementioned cancelled train and possibly a Ridge-Spur were in front of us.

[NortheastTrainMan]

On my way to the city today I went to board the 9:15 AM southbound express.

However instead of arriving on the express track, it arrived on the local track. Any idea why?

Here's a picture: http://imgur.com/a/Pnqr0" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

It operated on the local track until right before Erie, when it switched on the express track.

Seemed odd considering there wasn't any apparent reason for this. I didn't see maintenance men, or any disabled trains on the southbound express track.

This is the 2nd time this happened to me in the past few months, pretty weird.
Plus the express trains operate noticeably slower when they're on a local track, I assume for safety reasons. A 50MPH train barreling down on a local track might be a bit much.

[ekt8750]

Plus the express trains operate noticeably slower when they're on a local track, I assume for safety reasons. A 50MPH train barreling down on a local track might be a bit much.

This is correct and actually track speed on the express tracks is 70. Trains will slow when they approach stations they are to bypass as a safety for passengers on the platform.

[R36 Combine Coach]

Plus the express trains operate noticeably slower when they're on a local track, I assume for safety reasons. A 50MPH train barreling down on a local track might be a bit much.

This is correct and actually track speed on the express tracks is 70. Trains will slow when they approach stations they are to bypass as a safety for passengers on the platform.

When NYCT operates express on the local tracks, trains usually sound the horn to indicate they are no stopping. Often they will pass through local stops at slower speeds, especially if they are sharing the track with regularly scheduled locals as well.

I'm surprised the BSL express is rated at 70 mph. Even BART in the Transbay Tube (with an max 80 speed limit) is electronically limited to 65 mph.

[NortheastTrainMan]

I never realized the MAS was 70.
I always imagined it was 50, I don't remember seeing a train's speedometer hit 70MPH anytime recently.

I will say 50MPH underground in the tunnel w/concrete beams seems much faster than it is, considering all the noise it creates in the tunnel.

Even when express trains roll through North Philadelphia station at 35MPH it's very loud even without the WABCO AA-2 horn sounding.