Catenary between Hunter Interlocking and CP NK on the Lehigh Line

In watching this video from circa. 2000, there is a catenary wire running from Hunter Interlocking all the way to CP NK on the Lehigh Line. I know that an engine change was done there in the days of Lehigh Valley Passenger service, but why is it still there today? Is it ever used?

Many years ago when riding that section NJ Transit parked an EMU layover train on one track of the 2 tracks with CAT. Noticed it was built for constant tension 25 kV the whole way from leaving the NEC. That was during the time of building the EWR airport station. What was a curiosity was that the 6 (?) tracks thru EWR station the CAT was built to the old PRR specification variable tension 12 kV system.

west point wrote: ↑Thu Mar 25, 2021 1:04 am Many years ago when riding that section NJ Transit parked an EMU layover train on one track of the 2 tracks with CAT. Noticed it was built for constant tension 25 kV the whole way from leaving the NEC. That was during the time of building the EWR airport station. What was a curiosity was that the 6 (?) tracks thru EWR station the CAT was built to the old PRR specification variable tension 12 kV system.

I don't have a definitive answer, but do have a pure guess. Back around the time that the constant tension replacement was built on that short section of the connection, NJT requested utility PSE&G to prepare an electrical supply capacity study for a potential electrification of the Raritan Valley Line west to Raritan and also on the ex-Reading line to West Trenton from the RVL. It may be that the constant tension was built in case the electrification project west was implemented.

One version I heard is the wired portion of the Lehigh Valley (RVL) was done in case an electric train took the
wrong switch and ended up on the Lehigh Valley Line, allow ample distance for the engineer to slow down
and stop without running out of power.

That's a very likely explanation. Several decades ago a westbound New Brunswick or South Amboy local of MP54s accepted a signal at Hunter which put it on a running track or something which had no wire. Imagine what it took to rescue it, with a load of commuters on board, by moving it that short distance necessary to get it back under wire. The designers of that catenary probably remembered it.

ExCon90 wrote: ↑Fri Jul 16, 2021 9:53 pm That's a very likely explanation. Several decades ago a westbound New Brunswick or South Amboy local of MP54s accepted a signal at Hunter which put it on a running track or something which had no wire. Imagine what it took to rescue it, with a load of commuters on board, by moving it that short distance necessary to get it back under wire. The designers of that catenary probably remembered it.

Wow! How would something like that happen? It sounds like an extreme miscommunication.

I'd love to see the trouble report on that incident; those reports almost never get archived, but they'd make interesting reading today if you could get through the (hurriedly written) typos and misspellings (and assuming you weren't reading the bottom carbon, which was pretty fuzzy and almost illegible in any case). The train had to have gotten a Restricting indication on the home signal which would have told the engineer (engineman on the PRR) that his train was incorrectly routed, but standing instructions may have been to accept the signal and keep moving rather than stop the train, get down, and phone Hunter tower from the wayside phone (no radio in those days, and no trainphone in electrified territory). I'm going to assume that they put it all on the block operator at Hunter.

I was watching the video in the first post the other night and occasionally nodding off. I would play it again because I must have dozed off and missed Union station. Finally after about 3 times I caught on. There was no Union station yet when the video was made. ...

An inadvertent switching error happened to an Amtrak Metroliner on which I was a passenger, enroute home to NJ, ticketed to Newark Penn Station from a business meeting at Washington, DC, in the mid to late 1970's. The conductor had announced that my train would be arriving at 30th Street Philadelphia in approximately three minutes. As is my preference I was seated at a window seat on the right side of the train, and shortly after the announcement I noticed that I could see the entire set of tracks that lead to 30th Street Station as my train was diverging to the left. The engineer brought the train to a controlled stop, and a few minutes later, presumably after an, ummm, interesting conversation with the dispatcher, etc. my train proceeded to back up into the interlocking where the misrouting error occurred, and then proceeded forward on the correct tracks to 30th Street Station.

Just when you wish you had your scanner with you ...

ExCon90 wrote: ↑Sat Jul 24, 2021 9:07 pm I'd love to see the trouble report on that incident; those reports almost never get archived, but they'd make interesting reading today if you could get through the (hurriedly written) typos and misspellings (and assuming you weren't reading the bottom carbon, which was pretty fuzzy and almost illegible in any case). The train had to have gotten a Restricting indication on the home signal which would have told the engineer (engineman on the PRR) that his train was incorrectly routed, but standing instructions may have been to accept the signal and keep moving rather than stop the train, get down, and phone Hunter tower from the wayside phone (no radio in those days, and no trainphone in electrified territory). I'm going to assume that they put it all on the block operator at Hunter.

Oh wow, that's crazy! I didn't even consider how at that time certain trains didn't have radios and had to rely on wayside telephones. I could see why they operator at Hunter would get blamed for that. I'm not too privy to exactly how tower / block operators worked, but I imagine trains being misrouted wasn't a pleasant day for them.

Ken W2KB wrote: ↑Wed Jul 28, 2021 9:10 am An inadvertent switching error happened to an Amtrak Metroliner on which I was a passenger, enroute home to NJ, ticketed to Newark Penn Station from a business meeting at Washington, DC, in the mid to late 1970's. The conductor had announced that my train would be arriving at 30th Street Philadelphia in approximately three minutes. As is my preference I was seated at a window seat on the right side of the train, and shortly after the announcement I noticed that I could see the entire set of tracks that lead to 30th Street Station as my train was diverging to the left. The engineer brought the train to a controlled stop, and a few minutes later, presumably after an, ummm, interesting conversation with the dispatcher, etc. my train proceeded to back up into the interlocking where the misrouting error occurred, and then proceeded forward on the correct tracks to 30th Street Station.

So was your train being inadvertently routed to the upper level of 30th Street from the south? I'm sure that conversation between the dispatch and the engineer was quite "interesting" too

My Philadelphia knowledge is not so good (and from the 1970's not at all), but coming up from Washington (heading timetable East), I think the Septa tracks diverge away from what is now Amtrak (heading to 30th St) around the Arsenal bridge, with the Septa tracks going left as noted. to go through U. Penn. But at least today, south of the Arsenal bridge area for a ways, looking at aerial photos, Septa has the 2 westmost tracks and Amtrak has the 2 closest to the Schuylkill (I don't know the last track numbers), and the actual switch to go between them looks to be about 2 miles further down just before the Septa airport tracks cross over.

Once you "stay right" at that switch by the airport overpass, you are going through lower level 30th St, and if you diverge left, upper level it is.

Do I have it right? What was it like back in the 70's?

Jim S

Back in the 70's BRILL Interlocking (armstrong for many years, and I think right up to the end, named for the streetcar manufacturer; a wall of one of their buildings still stands nearby on the west side of the tracks) was where the four tracks became two double-track lines, the easternmost becoming freight tracks leading to the High Line and the westernmost becoming passenger tracks as far as ARSENAL Interlocking (named for an arsenal that was there during the Civil War), where the tracks to the Lower Level went straight and trains for the Upper Level crossed over to the Octoraro Branch (coming in from Media and heading for the Upper level); so it's easy to imagine that the operator at ARSENAL thought the train for the Lower Level was ahead of Amtrak instead of behind it. Today, BRILL is no more (straight-railed, as they say), and ARSENAL on Amtrak is no longer an interlocking but simply automatic signals. Sometime during the 1970's -- certainly after 1971 -- PHIL Interlocking was built, bit by bit, north of ARSENAL while a full schedule of Amtrak and SEPTA trains was being operated (sort of like a restaurant installing a new kitchen floor while preparing and serving a full lunch and dinner menu every day); it separates the flow from essentially Amtrak on the inside tracks and SEPTA on the outside to (from east to west) Track 1, NS to the High Line; 2 and 3, Amtrak to and from Lower Level; 4 and 5, SEPTA to and from Upper Level. The Airport Line is a single track crossing overhead from east to west just south of PHIL and becomes track 5 at PHIL. Tracks 4 and 5 swing over to join the double-track line from Media at ARSENAL, still a Controlled Point on SEPTA.

Yes, you have it right, except that the timetable direction from Washington to Zoo is northbound; Zoo to New York is eastbound, and Zoo to Harrisburg is westbound. As it was in the beginning on the PRR, and apparently ever shall be, world without end ...

Of course I found a mistake right after I hit submit: the operator at ARSENAL thought the Amtrak train was in the lead, as it should have been, but it would seem that BRILL let SEPTA go ahead.