Hi, again. Reflecting a bit more on the thread, especially as to the proposed turning loop alternate that is mentioned, it’s interesting to speculate on the possibilities that might have existed 70 or more years ago had the present tunnel connection between the former Reading Terminal and Suburban Station existed back then using the present-day east-west-facing former Reading access instead of the former Reading Terminal northward-facing stub tracks. What if there had existed an enlarged version of today’s SEPTA subterranean stop at that location, and if both old Broad Street and Reading Terminal had been replaced by a new, beautiful Center-City above-ground Philadelphia Union Station, serving both the Reading and PRR services? It would have been accessed from the north as it is today by SEPTA, but with the added trackage needed to tie the former PRR and Reading lines together near where they crossed in No. Phila. PRR traffic to/from the north would have used this combined trackage.
The PRR would have run to the south and west as SEPTA does today, westward out of the present Suburban Station trackage and on present SEPTA routes in those directions. There would have been no need to build 30th Street, and Zoo would probably have existed for freight interlocking purposes only, without need for the Pittsburgh Subway or the river line. PRR east-west trains would have had an easy through shot with no reverse moves and minimal extra time to cover the slightly longer move through Philly Center City, and Philly patrons would not have had to go up to No. Phila. to access the Blue Ribon fleet. Main advantage today would have been the operational ease of not having the No. Phila. stop, which was not nearly as dangerous a locale in PRR Blue Ribbon days as it is today. But the biggest obstacle that I see would have been to construct the massive underground l
From what I understood from a CalTrain employee, it was not used it as a self-powered vehicle, but only behind a locomotive (but I could be wrong, since I only saw it in the old 7th Street yard, not on the road).
By the way, does anyone have any insigts as to why the SPV was such a dud, when the RDCs (built by the same manufacturer!) was such a great product?
We’ve had threads with this specific topic recently.
Essentially longer, heavier, designed for much higher speed … by automotive engineers. All the physical systems (and there were comparatively many compared to RDCs) run off unreliable APUs to save traction horsepower. Needed to have all wheels driven, but that put them in a different weight class for union operation, so all wheels weren’t driven leading to SERIOUS power control issues. Etc.
A buddy of mine, who worked with them on MetroNorth, told me that “Budd forgot everything it knew about RDCs” when designing the SPV2000. Apparently, it was hard to get at things to service them.
I read somewhere that, at one time, the PRR was thinking of extending the Suburban Station tunnel eastward under the Delaware and connecting to the Broadway Station in Camden.
When I rode #38, The Clevelander, in ’55, our sleeper was dropped in Harrisburg and picked up an hour later by #36, Philadelphia Night Express, as a way for patrons to head to 30th St. It was also a way to detrain in Lancaster, which wasn’t a stop for #38. The timetable still listed that routing as The Clevelander, and gave it’s number as #38-36. I would imagine there were similar arrangements with other combinations.