philly terminal in the PC years

Hi gang, im a noob here as well. There seems to be some pretty smart PC posters here, so ill let fly with a few questions. If you have any answers, much obliged.

The the PC ever apply the green paint to ARSENAL or ZOO towers, or were these left alone in brick red, etc.

How did the terminal trackage appear around the time of the bankruptcy (was this area going to hell as well-rusty rails, ties, crumbling concrete, weeds, poor ballast, etc.)

Were the turbos ever used out of 30th street in Philly? or even considered. i know the speed record was set in jersey.

Did the PC ever run freights through the 30th street terminal area, by passing the highline for whatever reasons (maintenance, etc). I was surprised to find out they ran single stack vans through Penn Station in NYC.

Any New Haven E33's stay for any period with New Haven Paint, but with NH painted out/PC worms for any length of time?

Were there ever any "penn central station" signs applied to the outside of the building itself


Thanks a bunch for any responses. as you may figure, im planning a new ho layout.

To the best of my knowledge and recollection:

ARSENAL and ZOO, being brick, were never painted and remained in the natural brick. ARSENAL acquired some paint in later years, but not from the railroad. ZOO, being harder to get to, largely escaped graffiti.

I wasn't in Philadelphia around the time of the bankruptcy, but given the state of trackage elsewhere on the railroad, plus the fact that yard trackage had been neglected for many years prior to the bankruptcy, it would be a safe bet that it was pretty bad.

I don't believe the turbos ever operated through 30th St. Station (the noise would have been intolerable); since there would have been no point in operating them in electrified territory in revenue service, it may be that they never got west of Trenton.

I never heard of freight trains being operated other than on the High Line. If they had to avoid it for maintenance work, they would probably just have detoured over the Port Road. I remember that when an office-car trip was operated for the AAR (this may have been in Conrail days) there was some question originally as to whether even the UP domes would clear 30th St.

Don't know about the E33s.

If by "building" you mean 30th St. Station, no. Now that you mention it, I don't think 30th St. ever had an identifying sign on the exterior--in fact, I can't remember ever noticing that it even said Pennsylvania Railroad. I think the feeling was that anyone in Philadelphia was supposed to know what it was. However, there are flagpoles on the roof, and i think I remember seeing a green flag with the PC logo on one or more of them.

ExCon90

The Amtrak Turbos were stored in Penn Coach Yard North of 30th St. Station for a while near 1983, between the time they had been stored along New York Ave. in Ivy City, D. C., until they were sold to Naporano in Newark, N.J. They had to be moved from Ivy City because of too many questions from influential people about why they weren't in service. My source was a Philadelphia Inquirer article published shortly after they showed up in Philadelphia.