stony creek branch

The one between lansdale and norristown...

When was the last time it ran a train for freight and ditto for passengers?

Is this part of the line that Specter wants to restore (if he stays in office)?

LAUNCHman wrote:The one between lansdale and norristown...

When was the last time it ran a train for freight and ditto for passengers?

Freight probably ran yesterday, as the line is still in use. It was re-opened in the early 1990's in order to handle tall cars that don't find under the wires of the Bethlehem Branch. It was also supposed to speed up delivery times to some cold warehouses.

Is this part of the line that Specter wants to restore (if he stays in office)?

Possibly.

One idea is to restore passenger service to just past Quakertown, and utilize the Stony Creek Branch to go South of Lansdale, possibly taking some funky routing all the way to 30th street station.

There would need to be a lot of rebuilding done to accomodate passenger traffic, but the potential is there. Merck in particular sits between the Stony Creek and the existing Pennbrook stop on the R5 and could draw employees commuting from Quakertown or Norristown. When Tropical Storm Allison washed out the R5 bridge in Fort Washington a few years ago, SEPTA used the branch as an "escape route" to bring equipment from the north end of the line down to Wayne Junction for servicing. The Silverliners were towed over the Stony Creek branch at 10mph. While the bridge was being rebuilt, R5 service operated Doylestown to Ambler only, then utilized the crossovers in Ambler to make the return trip on the outbound track. Passengers continuing to Center City were bussed to Jenkintown to connect with the R1, R2, or R3, and there was local bus service to Fort Washington, Oreland, North Hills and Glenside. I believe the reason this branch did not suffer the fate of the Plymouth Branch and disappear was that it was a national defense priority to have a backup route for trains to reach Bethlehem Steel in case the East Penn were to be disrupted.

Very interesting. I've always had a fondness for this li'l branch, tho I've yet to see a train on it. Yeh, speed is definitely restricted to either 10 or 15mph and there indeed would have to be some SERIOUS work to get it up to passenger specs. Not to mention that it's not electrified. So add a million bucks per mile for catenary or shuttle diesel between Quakertown and Norristown.

There's a crossing at Germantown Pike and I keep meaning to get out there on a weekday in late afternoon, when I've heard there's at least a chance of seeing a train come thru. Still on my "to do" list tho.

go to the last sation in Norristown on the septa route. Often locomotives are parked there in the AM. Good pix next to an old factory.

I can attest to the late afternoon - when I worked over in that area I would occasionally hear them blowing for grade crossings. Never did see anything moving, although one morning around 7am I was surprised when my reflexive left-right check as I crossed the track on Township Line Road revealed a CSX unit sitting just short of the crossing, idling with its lights on low beam. BTW, you can often spot the CSX units just north (timetable west :D ) of the station in Lansdale, as they lay over there most of the day when they're not working up the line to Telford.