Trenton Cutoff

In the late forties I lived on the road from Langhorne to Feasterville which was called Feasterville Road at that time. Our House was an early (1675) farmhouse on top of the hill. If you look at that map you will see a dotted road leading south up that hill. Our house was where the little dot is at the end of the dirt road.

I spent many a happy hour observing the traffic on that line. In that area it was referred to as the Paoli Cutoff. Traffic was long drags in either direction mostly headed by a P5A and P5B. I don't recall ever seeing a GG-1 on that line.

I took photos of the Neshaminy Stone arch bridge, the specatcular crossing of the Neshaminy Creek in 1984 but don't know where they are. There was a swimming hole just south of the road where we could swim and watch the rail traffic pounding over that huge bridge.

That was farm country then but the farmhouse has since been bull dozed and tract homes have over taken the whole area west of Langhorne.

Thanks for the memories.

drewh wrote:It could still happen ... the ROW is still there ... the poles for the catenary are still there. Would take a lot more interest from the state of PA though as well as funding commitment. I'm sure it could help reduce congestion on the turnpike which parallels most of the route.

Add a couple of large park and ride lots as well. Could really help mobility in this area. But PA won't even fund Septa properly let alone better roads for Eastern PA - seems everyting always goes to the west part of the state.

No.

Everything goes to Harrisburg. You obviously have never driven around Pittsburgh.[/i]

Another reason Conrail ditched the former PRR freight electrification was that control of the Reading gave it access to a well-maintained freight route serving Metro New York directly from Harrisburg, bypassing congestion in Philadelphia. Had Reading, Erie-Lackawanna and Jersey Central been assigned to Chessie System, as was planned until the unions vetoed the deal, things might have turned out differently.

along the same lines, when were the wires taken down from the "high line" going through center city?

besides the special army-navy trains to municipal stadium, was there any passenger traffic up there?

where there NYP-WAS express trains that bypassed 30th street?

cheers

nittany4 wrote:where there NYP-WAS express trains that bypassed 30th street?

If there were such trains, they could have used the 32nd Street Subway, which formerly had platforms for trains that bypassed Broad St. Station. (These were the lower level of 32nd St. or West Phila. Sta.)

If there were such trains, they could have used the 32nd Street Subway, which formerly had platforms for trains that bypassed Broad St. Station. (These were the lower level of 32nd St. or West Phila. Sta.)

and how long ago did the 32nd street (West Philadelphia) station disappear, I'm assuming it was history by the time 30th street opened