Did some cars get turned?

I've noticed for a long time now that all the regional rail cars have been oriented the same direction, and in normal service patterns don't get turned.

I've seen two single cars in the last two days at Elwyn that have been turned around.
Did some consists get turned during Pope-a-palooza weekend, or is this something possibly related to the PTC testing?

So far I've seen SL-V 723 yesterday and SL-IV 276 today facing the opposite direction at Elwyn.

The cars are normally orientated in the same direction, this makes things easier to locate items on each car without having to see which way the A or B end of the car is pointing. I've heard it confuses some riders if the pans aren't pointed the same way ! We used to WYE them every year to even wheel wear, but that practice has been dropped since Railworks replaced lots of worn rails.

Wasn't there an incident recently that resulted in some trains on the PRR Side going to 30th Lower?

ex Budd man wrote:I've heard it confuses some riders if the pans aren't pointed the same way !

Ha! I was on a train that had temporarily halted due to a frozen switch. Of course, several people told the conductor to stop making excuses, because it was too warm outside.
[/whimper]

Ken S. wrote:Wasn't there an incident recently that resulted in some trains on the PRR Side going to 30th Lower?

Yeah some catenary was dragged down between university city and 30th street. Wilmington/Newark trains were sent to lower level and then through Zoo to the upper level.

Ken S. wrote:Wasn't there an incident recently that resulted in some trains on the PRR Side going to 30th Lower?

Yes, trains from the Paoli and CH West lines during Pope weekend, but that shouldn't have spun any cars.

Ken S. wrote: Wasn't there an incident recently that resulted in some trains on the PRR Side going to 30th Lower?

That would do it if the trains were sent somewhere else besides back where they came from on the Pennsy side.
Like from say, from Wilmington to Paoli.

jackintosh11 wrote: Yeah some catenary was dragged down between university city and 30th street. Wilmington/Newark trains were sent to lower level and then through Zoo to the upper level.

That would do it....

So I'm not the only one to notice a reverse orientation on 723! The 700 series 5's have a pair of facing seats just behind the cab on the Pennsy end only. But on 723' they are on the Reading end.

I was on that consist that got turned. The train was on it's way back to Norristown from Wilmington last Saturday, Amtrak was experiencing switch problems, so it bypassed University City, and went through 30th Street lower level (but did not discharge passengers), and ended up near 52nd Street on the Keystone/R5 tracks, then reversed direction to 30th Street upper level, which made the train 15 minutes late. So there are now a SL-V pair, single unit, and a SL-IV pair misoriented. The bonus was a rare opportunity to see 30th LL through the railfan window.

SL IV 279 is also facing the "wrong" way.

Will these be corrected? Are there any operational issues with having turned cars?

There's no operational issues. It's just that SEPTA likes consistency. Who knows, they may decide to turn the entire fleet and start pushing Pennsy on the push-pulls.

This morning, 723 was the rear car on train 6321. I saw this Silverliner V set coming from the opposite side. As it got closer, I noticed that the pans on the rear car were pointing the "wrong" way. Sure enough, it turned out to be 723. This topic has gotten me to notice the hardware on top. Prior to this, I'd always noticed turned cars by their seating configurations (723 and a long ago ride on SL II 90009) or the placement of the odd and even cars in a married pair (x58 and either x59 if x=3 or x57 if x=1 or 4 a year or so ago).

Heard on the radio last night that they were turning cars coming out of Overbrook Shop at Zoo.