Hello everyone,
I want to build a layout in a layout design program based on the railroads in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in the 1950s. What type of power (steam, diesel, electric) would have been used on freight trains going through Philadelphia, as while the mainline was electrified, the line to the Greenwich is not (I think[^o)]). Also, what would be used by the Pennsy to preform switching along the Delaware riverfront? Thanks for the help.
sfb
The 50’s have a great mix. There’s plenty of steam, Hundreds of diesel switchers, and also electric including the GG1. Here’s a link to a video of some PRR stuff in the 50’s
Kewl.
P5’s. Electric 4-6-4’s.
Baldwin switchers, lots and lots of Baldwin switchers with a few EMD’s and a scattering of ALCO’s.
The Delaware Extension was electrified into Greenwich by the 1950s. Google “prr calendar 1955”. The 1955 PRR Calendar had a Griff Teller painting of the GG1s lined up at the Army-Navy Game. The receiving and departure tracks of Greenwich yard were used for the passenger trains bringing people to the game at Municipal Stadium. I don’t know just when the wire was put into Greenwich, but it lasted to the end of electric freight operations in the Conrail era IIRC.
Also if IIRC the Reading was pretty much dieselized around 1953, the B&O in the Phila area around 1955, and the PRR around 1955 or 1956, but I might be off a year or two.
PRR Baldwins have already been mentioned, the B&O and the RDG also used Baldwins.
Does that mean that the “West Philadelphia Elevated Line” aka the High Line would have been electrified as well? Also, what tracks in Greewich were electrified?
sfb
Yes, the West Phila. Elevated was wired. Both legs of the wye at ARSENAL were wired and the double tracks on the concrete structure down 25th St. were wired to STADIUM.
IIRC from North to South at Greenwich, there was an industrial lead (no wire), then two wired tracks whose name escapes me, and then an unwired B&O track. Next were the departure tracks, wired for a couple carlengths at the west ends. Then came the receiving tracks, which were wired all the way up to the hump ends. There was some wire in the engine service area.
The ore yard lead had some wire. The two northernmost tracks in the coal receiving yard (1 and 2?) wre wired for their whole lengths. Wish my memory was a little better, but that’s getting to be quite a few years ago now.
Quick edit: If you’re wondering how they ran all those GG1-powered passenger specials into the yard on Army-Navy Game Day, They dropped pantographs coming through STADIUM interlocking and coasted into the yard tracks. Just in case, they had a diesel at the east end to reach in and grab anybody that didn’t make it all the way into the clear,
I am late to this discussion as I have been out of town for four months. The last steam on the PRR was a B6sb 0-6-0 switcher that last ran in 1956. Most mainline steam was long gone with an exception. E6s 4-42 , 4-6-0 G5s and K4 4-6-2 engines ran out of 30th street on the PRSL to seashore points and commuter service in New Jersey nearly as long. Mainline traffic was handled primarily by GG1 and P5A electrics. The PRR did not really dieselize until they bought hundreds of GP9s. These were the through freight engines of choice. GP7s were used for locals. Baldwin Centipedes ran out their last days as pushers from greenwich yard to Thorn on iron ore trains, Fa’s were used on these also. Transfer runs to Pavonia yard in Camden drew GG1s, PAs, or anything that was running out its life before trade in although early 50’s are a little early for that. Nearly any diesel switcher could be found from any manufacturer but two Baldwins for each other switcher would not be unreasonable. Deleware Ave used 0-4-0 A5s switchers for the tight turns into the docks and they were as big as road power from the front!. Every year I can remember some drunk would come out of a bar there and get mad at the idiot on the motorcycle who wouldn;t dim his light and decide to run him off the road, They always lost. They were also used on the Fairhill branch about a mile east of North Philly station to switch the numerous publishers in that area as the branch ran in the streets there, A B6sb at Margie yard just west of North Philly was one of the last to go. E44s didn;t come along until the early 60’s. Most freight from the west took the Trenton cutoff that ran from Thorn to Morrisville bypassing Philly. Only locals and north south to Potomac yard ran through town on the highline which was electrified. I used to work summers accross the schulkill river and would hide behins a cooling tower on the roof of an eight story building to watch t
Keep in mind, the City of Philadelphia owned the Delaware Avenue trackage and three railroads shared this right of way. Pennsy, Reading Company, and B&O. Each railroad had their own facilities ajacent to this line like the Pennsy Shackamaxon Street Yard and frieght house, the Reading Willow and Noble Streets Yard. Several of the piers were owned by the railroads and accessed off of this line.
The PRRTHS has done several articals on this line, they date maybe from the early 2000’s. They describe this operation very well.
I did a lot of railfanning in this area in the early 70’s. Penn Central operated many Baldwin switchers and Alcos. Reading used promarily Alco and EMD in this area. The Reading Baldwins did show up from time to time. This was pretty much a line for switchers. Having said this you could see the occasional Road Frieght with Baldwin road switchers on the head end move frieghts from Port Richmond Yard south to a hairpin turn at Willow and Noble Street Yard than go north up American Street. This was the beginning of the Bethlehem Branch.
I have photos of B&O and C&O GP 7 and GP 9 locomotives on Delaware Avenue.
The PRR tried to replace the 0-4-0 A5s switchers with GE 44 Tonners because of the tight turns, but they needed two of the 44 Tonners to equal one of the 0-4-0’s for tractive power.
Rick J [2c]
Why not check out the PRRT&HS homepage and used it to contact the Philadelphia Chapter? The publish their own magazine called The High Line which covers a lot of useful information including track plans, rosters and operations. I’m sure back issues are available.
Actually, from the research I have already done on the Delaware Ave. trackage, it belonged, and still does, to the Philadelphia Belt Line Railroad, which owned the track but did not operate it. Like you said, that was done by the Pennsy, B&O, and Reading.
Can you post the photos of the GP 7s and 9s?
sfb
I really hesitate to respond to your request for pictures. I sense from you name you are young so I will be as gentle as possible. You are asking someone who has taken the time to research or accumulate information from books primarily to hand it over with no effort on your part. Your generation does not appreciate the wealth of information available on line alone. My generation had to schlep tp a good library to even find information and then dig it out manually. Sure someone could do the interent search and post the pictures but so can you. An amazing result is when you do the work you retain the information for much longer then if someone hands it to you. Since no one has posted any pictures I suspect that I am expressing a common feeling. among those in the know. For what it is worth a Google search for PRR GP7 turned up 18 pages of pictures and the search for PRR GP9 turned up 20 pages of pictures.