What to expect if you take up Garden Dance on his Sailboat up the Deleware River in Philly

Trains Magazine General Discussion
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Getting There-Take SEPTA Trenton Line to Toressdale there is very little parking at the station. Local Bus service is sporatic. You will see Three Monkees cafe which is over priced. This area of Philly was a little odd in that it was devoid of local bodegas and no sidewalks. The Yaght club is SE down Grant Street and then take left on Minor.

The Yaght Club- Is a overstament and and as far away from the Princeton Hamton Crowd as you can get. Since this is Philly which is a Hot Humid Hellhole If yiou have taken a shower at the Hotel/YMCA you will need another one after getting off of SEPTIC. The Captain will let you use the faciltys at your own risk.

The Captain- Garden Dance will provide with his cell phone on PMing him.You must have a working cell phone as well and have have it well charged. I tried being low tech and off the grid by email and that does not work. He works as a Museum Curator/Catologer. My way of decsribing his personlity is Big Bang Theory and very methodical. His wife is very nice and down to earth. As for myself I realise that even though I have Aspergers I know in hindsight that I would not want to spend 12 hours on a sailboat with another Asperger. But he is the Captain and listen to everything he tells you.

The Boat- 1980s low power sailboat. Expect to help out with sails and get a crash course in handling sails and have some swiming skills. Also learn how to use the head on a moving veihical that is ten times worse then Amtrak on class 3 track.

The Ride-Come Sober as in hanging out all night at a dive bar in the Philly Hood and getting on a moving sailboat is a Bad Idea. I expected to sail for the railroad bridge and be on the next train by mid afternoon but its not a speedboat. Bring your own booze and pick something that everyone likes like Coors Light. You get to meet a lot of the locals as Garden Dance has overcomed his disablity by having a boat and some booze means you get freinds. Sailing up and down the river and getting to see the backside of Tren

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I hate Coors Lite. Maybe that’s the root of the whole problem.

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As usual, Ray, or Ohiorivertrails, has posted several exaggerations and lies. And of course many misspellings.

I don’t know what he means by sporadic, local bus service 2 blocks from the club is 2 lines that run every 30 minutes Sat. Another line, a trackless trolley, runs every 11-15 minutes Sat, and stops less than a mile away.

I agree with him that 3 Monkees is expensive, but it does have an outdoor seating area with a great view of Amtrak’s northeast corridor.

I’m not sure why he thinks it odd that there would be no local bodegas, many parts of many of our cities have no bodegas. For what it’s worth, there is a convenience store, and 2 reasonably priced restaraunts in a strip shopping center about 5 blocks away.

And there are sidewalks in the neighborhood, just not on the last 2 blocks of the walk from the train station.

I have no idea what he means by “Princeton Hamton”.

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Patrick, if we ever return to Philadelphia, perhaps Pat and I would take you up on that cruise. I’m not sure whether our hosts have ever been on the river, but if you could accommodate four guests, we’d all go. Is there any freight railroading left to see from navigable water?

I feel compelled to point out that not everyone with Aspergers will post annoying, misspelled, grammatically-incorrect messages. Some of us are capable of rising above that from time to time.

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Since my layout is set around Philadelphila, I like to read and occasionally visit the area (no boat tours, though). Anyway, the marina you & trackrat888 left from is clearly the one by Poquessing Creek near the northeast end of the Philly waterfront (the street names do give it away some). But you landed at a Marina near the Ben Franklin bridge, and here I am confused - it looks like you’d be landing on the Philly side, a few blocks from Independance Mall, and that doesn’t seem to be a bad area anymore (certainly not according to Philiaphilia, which has covered buildings in the area from time to time). Conversely, there doesn’t seem to be any useful marinas across the river in Camden, so I wouldn’t expect you to have landed there…so the question is why the heck is trackrat888 claiming that area to be a “NO-GO” zone? Inquring minds want to know…

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CShaveRR Carl,

https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/109800441038327801875/albums/6138842195087224833

Those photos show the most passengers I ever had, a family of 6, plus me and my wife, total 8 people. The most that had been on my boat since I got it was 9, but somebody else was the skipper.

Anyway there’s plenty of room for me to take 4 guests.

As for freight visible from the river, yes. I haven’t yet taken my boat all the way to Trenton, so I can’t swear that I can get in viewing distance of Amtrak’s bridge across the Delaware.

The next place is Bordentown-Fieldsboro NJ where NJTransit’s Riverline right of way is right next to the river. I had posted a few videos of Riverline trains going by in

http://cs.trains.com/trn/f/111/p/230465/2666902.aspx#2666902

“need help photographing Delair Bridge from the river”. Take a peek and bump that old thread back into the light.

I know you said freight, but that would be after sunset. I have berths for 5 people. Are the rest of your party of 4 willing to spend the night on the boat anchored off of Bordentown to wait for a freight train? I’m willing.

There are some switching tracks at a pier in Tullytown, although I haven’t seen trains there.

Then the next freight opportunity is the Delair bridge that Ray already mentioned. Most freights go to or come from Pavonia yard in Camden, so if the trees don’t have their full foliage you might get shots of freights on the north south tracks before or after they cross the bridge.

No more freight action on the Delaware till the area opposite the Philly airport, and yet again that’s switching at the piers, this time on the Jersey side of the river, and I have seen some freight trains moving there.

And finally for the Delaware River there’s Claymont, on Amtrak’s northeast corridor. Lik

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I was going to ask if you were capable of going up other rivers.

I don’t need to see moving freight trains; just freight cars sitting somewhere is fine. Odds are there might be something I haven’t seen before, and that wouldn’t take too much away from the rest of the sights for the rest of the people. Note to self…binoculars!

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Arrrr, that’s some fine lookin’ fam-lies there Skipper, but how’s about a picture of that vessel o’ yours?

(Didn’t know I could imitate Robert Newton, did 'ye?)

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“No Go Zones”- Having to Walk under the Ben Franklin Bridge away from the hustle bustle of the Philly Waterfront Tourist District I had a number of preying eyes of would be predators in there scopes. Every major city is like this that has a “Yuppie Entertainment District” They are waiting just on the edges of these districts waiting for some druken suit and tie man or college student to eat them alive for a midnight snack. Baltimore has its Inner Harbor which is right next to “Da Projects” Buffalo has “Chippawa Street” which is next to “Da West Side” Cleveland has the Flats and the Gundarena which is on Prospect Ave which is well known for transgender hookers who are “Prospecting” Ignorant oversexed college boys into back alleys in order to roll them. Having a good subway system to that runs late on bar night is a good way to get everyone hone safely.I had a little trouble finding the Subway station because I tried followed the Ben Franklin Bridge back to the PATCO Line. Changing Trains @ 69th for the Norristown Speedline to KOP and leaving the station for a coffee and snack at 1130pm is never a good idea.

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T.R.:

I could be mistaken, but it seems like you’re the only one who has mentioned roaming around Philadelphia drunk or hung over. This might be relevant to you, but it seems irrelevant to the subject of going on a boat ride with G.D. I kind of wish you’d keep it to yourself. Thanks.

Tom

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CShaveRR, I can go on any body of water that’s at least 4 feet deep, but generally my fellow sailors watch where I sail, and when my boat stops suddenly they know where the shallows are. I hold the yacht club’s Columbus award, given to the skipper who discovers land.

If you’re talking about static freight cars, just a few miles south of my club is and industrial area which I’m sure had its train tracks severed, yet still has what sure looks to me to be a tank car. I’ve long meant to take a photo of it, and will do so shortly after I get the boat in the water, which should be in about 3 weeks.

Firelock76, I think it’s sad that most pirates dropped out of grade school before learning the entire alphabet and discovering the wonderful letters S T U V W X Y and Z.

I have problems getting photos of the boat itself, since I or my cameraperson are usually aboard, but maybe these will sassify you for now

https://plus.google.com/photos/102801537445304393658/albums/5930068611389900449

Trackrat, you obviously must have been so drunk from drinking my and my friends’ beer on the boat that you forgot the numerous times I pointed out to you the Market-Frankford elevated’s Spring Garden St station before I put you off the boat. I have no idea why you walked south AWAY from Spring Garden St.

And to anyone else who might think of sailing with me, I’ve given up alcohol. I just got tired of lying to my doctor every exam when he’d ask how many drinks I had each week, it’s a lot easier just to say none.

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To me, that’s a poor reason for giving up something as important as alcohol. Doctors are trained to say you’re supposed to give up or cut down on alcohol or tobacco. Doesn’t mean they know what’s best, that you have to do what they say or even that you owe them the truth.

If we can’t reach our age and be our own man, when can we? And how long do we want to live, anyhow?

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Pot meet kettle. Predators? Takes one to know one.

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Wonderful…just great. Now in addition to No-Go zones I have to model she-male prostitutes on my layout.
I wonder if Presier sells a ladyboy figure set.

Garden Dance, about that tankcar - you weren’t thinking either of Advance Technology Specialities at State & Imperial Ct, which seems to doing OK with numbers of tankcars on its sidings and a working website, or the Sewage plant a little south of that which used to get Chlorine tankers but I don’t has done so since the turn of the century, were you?

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For a fleeting moment I wondered how you determined they were transgender, but I don’t think I’ll ask. TMI already.

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I have on at least one layout seen a desolate area with a sign “On this site to be built an urban slum”.

I can’t figure where Imperial Ct or Advance Technology Specialities is, but anything on State Rd itself at ground level would be too far from the river to see through intervening trees and buildings, although one can often glimpse Amtrak’s northeast corridor, which runs on a fill on the land side of interstate 95 for a few miles.

The perhaps tank car I’m thinking of is either somewhere in the water treatment plant between Linden Ave and Pennypack St, or a mile or so further south around Cottman Ave. For some reason I’ve never bothered to photograph it before, I guess because I thought any photo close enough that one could think it looked like a railroad car probably wouldn’t have enough room left to show any identifying landmarks. Give me a chance to fix that and post the results.

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I dunno, ACY, it sounds like Track leads a more various life than most of us, and I rather enjoy reading about it. He does get around.

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Next time I am in Philly I will drop off a case of cheap local beer like Yningling at the dock for Garden Dance in exchange for a ferry ride over the Deleware to NJ Riverline. I enjoyed my ride but I was not in best moods after a Oil Train ride from Port Deposit and a SEPTIC ride with a layover in Philly Penn Station. I prefer Big Boats like http://www.boatnerd.com/pictures/fleet/amfortitude.htm

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[+o(][:D]

Oh now come on who has not zig zaged around a major city from the bar back to the train station or hotel. This is a daily occurance for retrobates commuters in Boston or DC. Thats why I like DC Union—The Liquor Store is in the station!!

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Amen Amen!