SEPTA closes front seats on Silverliner V

Yesterday (a Saturday), I took the train to West Trenton. It happened to be made up of Silverliner V cars. I went into the front car and then went all the way to the front, to the second row of seats. The seats in the front row were folded up, as expected.

At Langhorne, a man and two kids (boys, of course) got on and asked the train crew if they could sit in the very front seat. This was set up for them.

Now why didn't I think of doing this when I got on the train?

rslitman wrote:Yesterday (a Saturday), I took the train to West Trenton. It happened to be made up of Silverliner V cars. I went into the front car and then went all the way to the front, to the second row of seats. The seats in the front row were folded up, as expected.

At Langhorne, a man and two kids (boys, of course) got on and asked the train crew if they could sit in the very front seat. This was set up for them.

Now why didn't I think of doing this when I got on the train?

Make sure to wear your "I like trainz!" hat, and ask the conductor!

A railfan friendly conductor. Very cool!

Head-end View wrote:A railfan friendly conductor. Very cool!

Or perhaps kid friendly. There are crew members out there who recognize that if the kids enjoy riding the train, they and their parents will be more likely to take the train again.

If anyone saw pics of the westbound CHW train that had a rock thrown at the cab windshield at 45mph, or the tree at Wallingford that hit the cab window, they wouldn't want a seat in the first 5 rows.

The only thing that DOESN'T crack those flimsy type 1 windows, are bird strikes at 100mph on Amtrak territory.

Anybody see train 809 at CHW yesterday? Low speed impact into the bumper crumpled the front-end parlor door on a SL-V trapping the engineer in the cab.

No I didn't see the train, but I'd appreciate more, and clarified info. What's the font end parlor door? Do you mean the cab door, leading to the passenger area, or do you mean the trainline door leading from the passenger area to the outside?

How did the engineer get out of the cab?

Are there pictures?

jackintosh11 wrote:Are there pictures?

Yes there are pics. I was sworn under oath to not share them. Sorry.

How did it happen? Was it a brake failure, or human error?

Or, was it wet and icy rails?

JimBoylan wrote:Or, was it wet and icy rails?

I can't believe I didn't think of that. That's probably the reason.

Parlor door, from my understanding, is the door that is opened to allow people to pass between cars, and closed on the fore and aft ends of the consist. An impact might bend the door, or the frame post, causing the door to intrude into the passenger compartment oddly, or be stuck unable to move in some position.


I dunno how that would affect the cab door though.... The overlap of the door sweeps is very small and any damage would not be in a way that would jam the cab door shut. If the front right frame post was pushed in enough, it might cause the door to jam against the floor, or ceiling, but it'd need to be a pretty major collision for that to happen.

Look again, the overlap from the cab door to the end door is huge, someone sitting on the end of the three seat can prevent the cab door being opened and at the same time stop the end door being opened all the way, look in some picture and look where the hinge for the cab door is, that is as far as an object needs to go the prevent the door working properly

What car number was it, and how long until it returns to service, if it's still out of service?