75th Anniversary of Reading Company Electrification

On SEPTA's July transpass/trailpasses, there are various vintage photos of Reading's original MU's commemorating the 75 years since the electricification was completed. These passes would be great collectors items as they have really awesome pictures on them. Each type of pass has a different picture as well (transpass weekly, transpass monthly, Zone 1...etc.).

If anyone cares to open up this thread to discussions regarding the Reading's electrification, I'd love to learn some history behind their efforts and acheivements. We all know the Reading's extent of electrification was small compared to the PRR, and the Reading's operations were limited to MU use only.

Its interesting to note that a good portion of the Reading's electric infrastructure remains in place today, such as the Callowhill substation, which still feeds the wires over the defunct Reading Terminal viaduct, but also the smaller substations along the line, such as the one in Hatboro. Last I read somewhere in the SEPTA forum, the substation in Doylestown was out of service, and prevents the use of AEM-7's past Lansdale. I'm sure a good portion of Reading catenary still exists today as well, although is slowly being replaced.

The Reading seemed to put substations at or near the terminus of each of their electrified lines, plus other strategic locations along the way. Ones that I can think of off the top of my head are:

Mainline - Callowhill, Wayne Junction (frequency converter), Jenkintown
R2 - Hatboro (original terminus)
R3 - Bethayres, Neshaminy, Yardley
R5 - Lansdale, Doylestown
R6 - Norristown (Main St)
R7 - Chestnut Hill
R8 - ???

I probably missed a couple in case anyone wants to fill in the blanks.

Half the R8 line is on PRR tracks, but the Fox Chase/Newtown line is on Reading. I'd think that the Reading substation would have had to hvae been near Fox Chase since that was the end of the electrified line, correct me if I am wrong anyone.

My "R" references were for the Reading side only since that was the topic and the sites are the locations of the substations, not the line designations. I don't believe there is a sub on the Fox Chase line due to the relatively short length of the branch. Obviously a substation would have to be constructed if the rest of the branch to Newtown is ever reopened and electrified.

I can't picture off the top of my head if or where the substation at Fox Chase is. I know the one at Hatboro, and they're certainly much, much smaller than what the PRR built.

why didn't the Reading electrify to Newtown anyway?

rrbluesman wrote:why didn't the Reading electrify to Newtown anyway?

The Fox Chase line was not part of the original 1931 electrification, presumably due to the relatively low traffic volume on the line. It was finally electrified in 1967, with the project financed by the City of Philadelphia, thus the electrification ended at the city line just above the Pine Road overpass. It has been further truncated to just north of the Rhawn Street grade crossing and short of the switch by Septa within the last two months.

glennk419 wrote: I probably missed a couple in case anyone wants to fill in the blanks.

Ambler

I remember seeing some drawings and studies about the Reading's use of electric locomotives. Since there was nothing "off the shelf" available, the locomotive designs were rather bizarre. One of the biggest factors in electrification is COST, including erection and maintenance of all that wire and substations, not to mention utility minimum usage charges.

There was some provision in the "supervisory" building at Wayne Junction for a larger system, possibly towards Jersey City.

You would think back in the day, if the city paid to electrify to Fox Chase, Reading or the counties could have chipped in to go all the way to Newtown. Would their have been any benefit for a shared substation at Ayers?

jfrey40535 wrote:You would think back in the day, if the city paid to electrify to Fox Chase, Reading or the counties could have chipped in to go all the way to Newtown. Would their have been any benefit for a shared substation at Ayers?

I assume that the counties saw no benefit to electrifying the outer reaches of the line back in the 60's as ridership was declining and the mass residential development of Southampton, Northampton and Newtown Townships had not yet begun. If the electrification had taken place, a shared substation at Ayres would certainly have made sense altough they would have needed to add some capacity (another transformer?). I would also think that an additional sub would have been needed further out on the line.

I assume that the counties saw no benefit to electrifying the outer reaches of the line back in the 60's as ridership was declining and the mass residential development of Southampton, Northampton and Newtown Townships had not yet begun.

True. In doing research for my future Newtown Branch-themed layout, I discovered that the station in Newtown was torn down because the borough was converting from septic to sewer service. The station was served by an octagonal outhouse, and the Reading felt it was too expensive to convert the station to indoor plumbing, so they closed it and tore it down (but not before offering it for free to the fledgling New Hope & Ivyland, who tried to move it to Buckingham Valley before deciding it was too expensive). That was around 1966, and an employee timetable from 3 years before shows three daily trains to Reading Terminal. I believe Lucius Kwok posted a map somewhere on the SEPTA forum showing rail lines and population density today, and the Newtown branch runs through the scenic but relatively empty valley of the Pennypack, and Churchville and Holland are pretty thinly settled compared to an Ardsley, a Forest Hills or an Oreland.

RDGAndrew wrote:I discovered that the station in Newtown was torn down. Reading felt it was too expensive to convert the station to indoor plumbing.

The present station, without facilities, came from Fairless Jct. on the West Trenton branch. That location is now almost under the Pa. Rte. 213 bridge.
We residents of Penndel do wish that the Newtown passenger service would be restored, so its commuters stop hoggging "our" parking spaces at Langhorne station. The Southampton and County Line commuters seem to drive to Warminster and Hatboro.

We need lots of noise and political pressure for that to happen. I'm still waiting to hear if they are going to move forward with Phase II of that BRT study. Either way, if anything were to happen, its still years and years away.

Anyone know what happened to that station in Newtown? It was removed not too long ago, I don't know if it was part of SEPTA's scrap the Newtown line project or if someone else had something to do with it.