""My dad use to tell me stories of the runaway box car that smashed thru the wall of the giant warehouse that sits between Griscom and Penn street. I never believed him even though you can clearly see then new brick where the car came out. I did manage to find a picture a few years ago of it. Wish I could see it again.""
I remember seeing that boxcar hanging over Griscom Street -- that was the Unity-Frankford Stores co-op warehouse, if I recall. One, maybe two, tracks went into it. I recall those old-style high switch stands in the yard across the street.
I want to say that this accident happened in 1974 or so? I always got the impression that this accident put an end to the branch past the Blvd. I never recall seeing anything after that and it seemed like the line was severed under the Boulevard overpass soon after. The old main was now a tail track to swich back into two sidings just north of Sommerdale Avenue near Sears.
By the early 1980's I knew the branch was gone except for Sears when they eventually cut the line at two siding switches north of Sommerdale such that getting into the sidings was impossible and the Sommerdale crossing was removed. They didn't waste much time removing everything else once Sears was imploded. If memory serves me right, all of CP-Crescent was removed at the same time, including the old Philadelphia, Newtown, and New York railway trackage down towards Erie Avenue that more or less paralleled Mascher Street and Rising Sun Avenue.