Ranya's Ramblings

Sign for Somerton Station Somerton Station is a train station on SEPTA's West Trenton Line. This train station is at the intersection of Bustleton Avenue and Philmont avenue in the Somerton neighborhood of Far Northeast Philadelphia.  Tour Station House Somerton is a station with a building, a very old building. The platforms are low but there are mini highs at the station.  Silverliner V train going towards West Trenton at Somerton Station Amenities The station has basic amenities, such as benches, platforms, a crossing light, map, schedule, and newspaper stand Basic amenities  The station also has a ticket office, inside the building. Speaking of the building: Empty This building has issues with being incredibly empty, I wonder why. There should be benches here, yet there are none. The sheer amount of empty space in this building is almost surreal.  More empty space Every piece of f...

Fortuna is a station on SEPTA's Lansdale - Doylestown line, one of three stations located in Hatfield Township (along with Colmar and Link Belt). This specific station is for the small village of Fortuna, located at the intersection of Cowpath road and Broad Street within Hatfield township, and named after the station. Fortuna Station often trades places with Angora for least used station on SEPTA's Regional Rail system. History Fortuna Station before it was rebuilt According to an old newspaper article from the Philadelphia Inquirer , Fortuna station was named after Fortuna, a cow that was named after Fortuna, the Roman god of fortune. The road it was on, Cowpath road, used to be an actual cowpath.  Sometime around the late 1880s, a Reading Railroad train struck and killed Fortuna, who was using the cow path. Fortuna had no chance to get away from the train. Cows of the time were unsurprisingly much slower than trains. The owner of Fortuna understood th...

Chinatown is a station on SEPTA's Broad Ridge Spur Line, the only station that's completely unique to the Broad-Ridge Spur, especially since the closing of Spring Garden (BRS). Tour I tried, okay? There's not much here. The station has what you'd expect of a Broad Ridge Spur station. Two tracks, platforms, a lack of seating, tiles, etc. The platforms are way too long for the trains that use them, though. That might be an issue... Another look at the platforms Much unlike some BSL stations, Chinatown has no interesting mosaic patterns on the walls, or really much at all, besides the station name being written in English and Mandarin Chinese (please correct me if I'm wrong on that). For some reason, the station feels off though, like something is wrong with it... Rusty stairs Something is  in fact wrong with Chinatown station. Many somethings, actually. It's unfortunate how much this station is actively deteriorating...

Parkview is a station on SEPTA's Norristown High Speed Line, located in the Parkview neighborhood of Upper Darby. I ended up here by accident. I was trying to get to Township Line Road station, one stop north of this, but a weird predicament led to me having to get off here instead.  What's Even Here?  Very little, actually.  Path To get to the station itsef, you have to take a really long path from Parkview Road, which is very easy to miss, even with the small sign for it.  More Path Path but not accessible Alas, you eventually reach the station, and it's a mess.  Sign near the walkway, graffitied  The platforms are not very good either, as shown below:  Southbound platform They didn't even put a bench there!  Northbound Platform At least the southbound platform has somewhere to stand and be sheltered from the rain.  Bus Connections Bu...