I was in Philly for less than 48 hours this past week, my transitfanning focused on finding sSilverliner IIs and Silverliner IIIs, and while I'll post the photos from that successful endeavor shortly, I did get these bus photos as well.
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(http://www.orenstransitpage.com/misc/philly2012/bus2.jpg)
So, while I posted a pair of bus photos in the previous post, my main transit fanning goal during my trip to Philadelphia was tophotograph and ride the Silverliner IIs and IIIs, since I figured this would be my last chance to do so. I met up with "Chuchubob" from Subchat (he was on one of the Subtalk DC fan trips back in the day). The weather and company were guaranteed to be great, but would the railfanning be just as good?
Here we go...
A few disabled trains caused some delays and track changes while we were waiting at 30th Street, but it also made for some great photo opportunities as trains entered the station slowly or were forced to wait outside the station.
This Silverliner II/III set came into the station, then backed up after sitting for a bit, and then ultimately returned.
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Meanwhile, a 4 car Silverliner II set went through on Track 1, we didn't see it until it had pulled out and was heading off towards Suburban Station. Missing it wasn't a huge deal, we came across it again later on and figured based on where it was then, it was going to Roberts Yard when we missed it.
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The first Silverliner II/III set that we had seen came back into the station (as seen above) and was announced for Fox Chase, so we crossed over to its platform and hopped on. Along the way, we passed another Silverliner II set. Here we are at the end of the line. Due to the delays at 30th Street, this train was about 25 minutes late leaving 30th Street, and had a short turn around at Fox Chase, however we had enough time to get some photos.
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We then got back on for the return trip and alighted at Temple University. I'll post the photos from that stop in the next post.
As mentioned in the previous post, we detrained from the Silverliner II/III set that we had taken out to Fox Chase and back at Temple University and let it continue on its way to Chestnut Hill West (it is seen departing in the first photo of htis post). It was now just a few minutes before 5 PM and we began to observe the rush hour parade of Silverliner IVs and Vs that were going to be coming through for the next little while.
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After awhile, we noticed a Silverliner II set coming from Center City. I ran to the outbound platform to photograph it from there and got there just in time, Bob stayed on the inbound platform which had been our vantage point up until that point.
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I then returned to the inbound platform, and after looking at the timetables that Bob was carrying to determine when the Silverliner II set that had just gone through would return from Fox Chase, proposed that we move up one stop to North Broad, just so we would get a different vantage point for when the trainset returned, and we could then return to Center City on the Broad Street Line from there. Bob agreed to the plan. Here are my last Temple U shots:
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(http://www.orenstransitpage.com/misc/philly2012/31.jpg)
Figuring out which trains stopped at North Broad and making sure the trains that were arriving were in fact the ones listed as stopping at North Broad on the timetables was a challenge, we missed one train because it took us a moment to realize it was an R6, when the next next R5 signed as a local came through, there was no trainman visible to confirm that the train would stop at North Broad. Finally, we were able to confirm with the trainman on the next R6 that it would stop at North Broad and got on. The photos from there are in the next and final post.
Once at North Broad, we had about 5 to 10 minutes before the Silverliner IIs were due to come through on their way back from Fox Chase. Bob expressed some concerns that North Broad wasn't the best afternoon photo spot for photographing inbound trains, but I decided I thought I could manage with the lighting conditions and just hope for the best. Fortunately, few Silverliner IV sets passed in each direction, allowing me "practice" shots such as this one before the Silverliner II came through.
(http://www.orenstransitpage.com/misc/philly2012/32.jpg)
Then, coming up from behind us on an outbound run, we saw a 4 car Silverliner II/III set heading out to Lansdale.
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About a minute later, the Silverliner II/III set that we had taken from 30th Street to Fox Chase and back to Temple University came through, heading back to Fox Chase yet again.
(http://www.orenstransitpage.com/misc/philly2012/36.jpg)
(http://www.orenstransitpage.com/misc/philly2012/37.jpg)
Seconds later, the inbound train from Fox Chase came through, you can see the outbound R8 in the background of one of the photos of the inbound.
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After that came through, Bob and I met at the center of the platform (I had set up at the outbound end, he was closer to the mini-high platform at the inbound end), figuring that we had probably just made our last Silverliner II/III sighting of the day, and had just started chatting with a man who was waiting for a train and was wondering what we were doing and why we enjoyed taking photos of the trains going by, when a FOURTH Silverliner II consist, this time bound for West Trenton, came through.
(http://www.orenstransitpage.com/misc/philly2012/41.jpg)
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It turns out that this was the 4 car set we had earlier seen and missed at 30th Street. Based on the timetables, it had gone into Roberts Yard, made a run to Elwyn, and was now on its way back when we saw it at North Broad. So we saw FOUR Silverliner II/III consists in about FOUR minutes, and if we had stayed at Temple University, with a higher fence between the tracks and a less favorable configuration for photographing trains on both the inbound and outbound sides from a single vantage point, we wouldn't have really been able to take advantage of our good luck with getting the four trains we were looking for all at once. And personally, I think the shadows and low sun made for some great photos at North Broad.
Here are my last two shots of the afternoon:
(http://www.orenstransitpage.com/misc/philly2012/43.jpg)
(http://www.orenstransitpage.com/misc/philly2012/44.jpg)
We then walked to the North Philadelphia BSS station and rode back into Center City before going our separate ways.
All in all, it was a great 4 hours of railfanning. The weather was perfect, the company was very much enjoyed, and we got to ride and photograph everything we were looking for, and had already considered it a successful outing even before our run of luck at North Broad. (No, we didn't buy lottery tickets afterwards, but maybe we should have.)
Hope you enjoyed the photos, thanks, in advance, for checking them out.