Ranya's Ramblings

Norristown - Main Street is a station on SEPTA's Manayunk-Norristown line. The station is located on Main and Markley Streets in downtown Norristown.  History Norristown-Main Street was originally built by the North Penn Railroad in 1872 as part of their Stony Creek Railroad branch. This was a railway line that linked the North Penn Railroad main line to Norristown at Lansdale. This station was their Norristown station. Seven years after completion, the NPRR was bought out by the Reading Railroad. Immediately afterwards, a link was created between Norristown Main Street station and the new Reading main line at Norristown, completed in 1882. The station depot shown above most likely was built sometime around the turn of the 20th century, since it looks similar to other Reading Railroad stations of this era.  In 1912 when the Lehigh Valley Transit Company's Liberty Bell Line also started stopping at the station. This was an interurban that went between 69...

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...

Ah yes, part two of my ongoing series on the North Philadelphia Station Complex  North Philadelphia CHW is a station on the Chestnut Hill West line, located in North Philadelphia (hence the name), near 16th and Indiana. Much like most of the other North Philadelphia stations, this station is absolutely awful, and it's not hard to see why.  History  I can't find any old photos of this area directly, but it was always an extra area just off of the main station, as seen from the only aerial photo I found of the station. The station used to at least have a station house and shelters. Those are all gone, and replaced by... Nothing. Concrete Platform Tour Chestnut Hill West Train There isn't much of anything here. There are two bus stop type shelters, and nothing else.  Everything To add insult to injury, the shelters are in very bad condition. The Center City shelter has all of its glass broken, and papers are taped to the pillars of th...