Report SEPTA Delays Here:

zebrasepta wrote:Apparently Amtrak misrouted the train to the track with no catenary wires.
https://www.cbsnews.com/philadelphia/ne ... wark-line/

SEPTA says Amtrak redirected a Regional Rail train to a dead track in Philadelphia

Sort of reminds of when a Amtrak train went onto the Cynwyd Line years ago.

Based on my admittedly cursory examination of Google Maps and OpenRailwayMap, this unintentional reroute probably occurred just north of PHIL Interlocking. The video showed the dead train on an outer track with wooden ties and signal boxes in the background. The track just north of PHIL is the only track that falls into that category. Not only that, the connection at PHIL from the NEC to the former High Line is pretty much the only non-powered track that could be reached by a Philadelphia-bound SEPTA train. If a SEPTA train doesn’t crossover from that outer track to the opposite side of the NEC, it won’t reach 30th Street Upper.

Mike: After being able to view video on YouTube - the news reports along with a S5 head-end view ride -
https://youtube.com/watch?v=XOicBcw48IU (Posted by "Retired Railfan" NRK-30th St - 3/15/2021)
I agree with your thoughts about where this misroute occurred - I believe the train was stopped just north
of the 54th Street overpass and the rowhomes on Glenmore Avenue were the ones visible in news reports.

In this video I specifically was interested in the PHIL Interlocking area - I did notice an AC MOTOR STOP sign
in the wire (black lettering on yellow background - older PRR types that are still in use have small cut round
holes shaping the letters on a gray background) to the right of the train during the crossover moves...

What is still inconclusive is where the overhead wire ends over the track in question: Right after the AC MOTOR
STOP sign or is there an extra length of wire before the segment actually ends?

The SEPTA Engineer most likely noticed this misroute right away and dropped the pantographs reaching the
segment of track without wire...Pans in this type of situation will reach upward to their maximum height in
the event that they come off catenary leading to possible damage if they strike a structure or object above...

ZS - The Amtrak/Cynwyd Line misroute problem occurred on November 13, 2013:
From reading the overview this was a Keystone Service train #644 HAR-NYP that had a problem with cab car
9639 and was wyeing the equipment to allow AEM7 904 to run PHL-NYP...The Amtrak crew instead of turning
near 52nd Street and pulling east ran the full length of the Cynwyd Branch - not being qualified on the route
meant that SEPTA had to send out a pilot to help the Amtrak T&E crew get the train back out of Cynwyd...

There is further description in this discussion: viewtopic.php?f=46&t=153499
(3 pages - 31 posts - November 19, 2013 to July 16, 2014)...MACTRAXX

That misrouting puzzles me: in the middle of the morning rush hour, with SEPTA trains one after another crossing over from 1 to 2 to 3 to 4 to get to 30th St. Upper Level, how could the route NOT have been lined for the crossover move from 1 to 2? I thought at first that maybe the previous move was for an NS freight going to the High Line, but surely not in the morning commuter rush. This may be another example of inexplicable actions which occur from time to time -- bizarre happenings which "can't happen" but do.

From what I could hear on the scanner feed, train 2500 was routed from 1 to 2 to 4 at Phil. Normally a routine move from the NEC's West Chester Line. Apparently SEPTA TK 4 was de-energized that morning for repairs. All subsequent
northbounds routed via TK 5.
Andy