Washington to Philadelphia and NYC -Information question.

[rdgrailfan]

Interesting to read postings on the Royal Blue,
I lived in the 50’s and 60’s on the Reading Company at Oak Lane, PA station and on an exception would see a B&O passenger train headed up or down the line.

Did any B&O trains run on the Wayne Junction to Jenkintown on a regular schedule? Always an exception to see a B&O freight fighting up the Fern Rock grade, common for a Reading Company freight.

Any information about the line operations would be appreciated

I have plenty of box camera shots of the CNJ afternoon from Jersey City but never managed to get any shots of a B&O on that line.

Also - Always liked their Pass cars, anybody willing to start a thread that would help us get a better understanding of the Pass cars, particularly the Tail cars, and the chair cars!
Just would be nice to see a thread of information

[hutton_switch]

I'm not an expert on B&O passenger cars, particularly those on the Royal Blue. There are numerous posts on modeling B&O passenger cars, and occasional ones on the real thing over at the B&O Yahoo! forum at http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/B ... e_and_Ohio. Also, you can get information on the Royal Blue in Herb Harwood's Royal Blue Line book, now back in print in paperback from Johns Hopkins University Press.

[kevikens]

Rdg: as you can see by my posting on the Royal Blue I have very fond memories of it going through Cheltenham Jct on the New York Shortline. As a kid I never thought to take photos of trains there or anywhere else until much later. If you have shots of CNJ nesr Oak Lane/Melrose Park would you care to part with one ? I would really like to have one to remind me of those days. Thanks

[RDG467]

I believe that all B&O freights to NYC were routed up the Low Grade Freight Line from the Richmond Branch at Wayne Jct. and then up the NY Short Line from Newtown Jct. to Neshaminy Falls. There may have been an occaisional detour move, but nothing regular that I am aware of.

The Reading freights through Jenkintown were headed for Bethlehem, and I believe that all of their NYC-bound freights also used the NY Short Line.

There were two connecting tracks at Wayne Jct, the 'Blue Line' track for passenger service and the 'Low Grade' for freight service. I don't think there was a crossover to allow freights from the Low Grade to get to the Beth Branch at Newtown Jct., only to head north on the NYSL. I also think the Blue Line track was taken out of service as a through route after the B&O dropped passenger svc to NYC, but I could be wrong about that.

[kevikens]

For all the train watching I did as a youngster at Cheltenham Junction the only freights I can recall are those that had the Reading F-3's and F-7's or Alco RS 3's locomotives out front. I cannot seem to recall any of them with B&O or CNJ motive power. I knew the B&O blue-gray livery quite well but only from the E-8's in front of the Royal Blue.

[RDG467]

At home I have a Reading Frieght 'schedule' book from the mid-50's that lists the freight trains, their starting and end points and any spots where they were scheduled to pick up or set out cars. I'll have to look for it over the weekend and see if it lists the times for the B&O freights. They may have run at mostly at night.

Since the CNJ and B&O paint schemes were pretty plain, so they may not stand out in your memory like the passenger blue & grey.

Your school must have been a great place to railfan. I used to hang out a little farther south near the Olney station. My grandparents lived nearby, so I was able to watch the switchers serving the old Heintz Manufacturing plant when I was visiting them. My Dad and I even got some cab rides and caboose rides. This happened between 73-76 and also into the CR era, although not as frequently.

On a related note, I posted some info on your questions about the American St. line on the PA Railfan forum. I tried doing it last week while I was traveling, but I had connectivity problems and couldn't do it until earlier this week.

[kevikens]

RDG: I saw your posting on the American St trackage, thanks. Many a time I rode through the Olney Station on the Newtown Local out of Reading Terminal to my stop at Cheltenahm. Yes, going to Presentation School from 1949-1956 was a great opportunity for rail fanning. The Reading was still using steam up to 1952 on that route and almost anytime of day you could find an Alco burbling away as it awaited clearance to go go onto the main New York Shortline at Cheltenham Junction. There was a never ending parade of Reading freights and as I mentioned ealrier on I saw a grimy T-1 about 1954 pulling a work train with a very large crane. For the life of me I still don't know why the other kids played tag or stick ball during recess when they could go over to the railing and watch trains. My only regret was that I never thought to take my Kodak Fuzzamatic to that railing to take some pictures. The school is still there, the wooden station was torched about 12 years ago, a real beauty, too and the plastic bus shelter and wooden trailer are an eyesore but Septa MU's still go to Fox Chase and the CSX Trenton Line is still quite active. I've been back a few times in recent years on school days and even watched the kids at their recess but I've never seen any of the kids go over to that railing to watch. Well next I am going to try to find out more info on the Tioga Marine Terminal on delaware Ave. and try to find out why trains are not servicing that expanding facility.