Abandoned Reading viaduct route into the city

I was on the R-5 from Colmar the other day and as we approached the tunnel to Mkt St East station I noticed up above and right next to us for a bit what looked like abandoned trackage with bridges and signals etc... It was up above to my right and as we went down the grade toward the tunnel. Was this the original trackage or alignment to downtown? Reading Market perhaps?

You're right, that was the old route into Reading Terminal before the Center City commuter tunnel opened.

here's some nice images of what's up there

http://readingviaduct.org/

http://www.frontstudio.com/resource/reading/index.html

nittany4 wrote:here's some nice images of what's up there

http://readingviaduct.org/

http://www.frontstudio.com/resource/reading/index.html

Those photos are amazing! Thanks so much. My father was on the last train out of Reading Terminal, and look at how big the trees are already!

So what station(s) are shown in those photos?

Incidentally, I just watched the movie 12 Monkeys and it seems the airport scene was filmed in Reading Terminal!

the station in those pictures is the abandoned Spring Garden station

Reading Terminal (the convention center) does indeed play the airport in Terry Gilliam's Twelve Monkeys

and the viaduct would have been a GREAT place to shoot from in Twelve Monkeys, considering how much of abandoned Philadelphia that movie showed

Maybe Philly will do what NYC will be doing with the abandoned Hi-Line, turning it into a linear park.

JLo wrote:Maybe Philly will do what NYC will be doing with the abandoned Hi-Line, turning it into a linear park.

That has been suggested a few times in the past, in fact, Channel 29 did a couple stories on it back in the summer. I beleive that is also the intent of the grass roots Reading Viaduct organization referenced above.

The websites of the two groups are strikingly similar. Interesting, isn't it?

anyone have any ideas on the reasoning that the viaduct survives 20+ years after it has seen it's last train?

no money for demolition?

The viaduct survives today primarily for two reasons:
1) The catenary on the viaduct is still LIVE! It is used to transfer power from a substation located at 10th and Noble Streets to the lower end of the ex-RDG main between the phase break at Girard Avenue and Wayne Junction. Every so often we hear a report of a scavenger being electrocuted while trespassing and trying to steal the copper wire.
2) There is no money to remove the viaduct and replace the aformentioned power feeds.

I'm actually quite happy for 1) and 2) and hope this piece of history survives, especially as it approaches its' 100th anniversary.

thanks for the info

according to this article

http://www.pennways.com/Commuter_Tunnel.html#Overview

the tunnel was first proposed in 1958, when the Reading and PRR were still (relatively) healthy, functional railroads.

anyone know if the tunnel was built back then, maybe reading terminal would still be a station?

would the railroads have shared each others stations?

i read somewhere the original plans for the tunnel are on file in a library at the university of pennsylvania. might be an interesting read.

cheers