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Showing posts with the label Philadelphia

Station Review #57: Chestnut Hill East (SEPTA)

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Chestnut Hill East is the terminus station on SEPTA's Chestnut Hill East line, located along Bethlehem Pike in Philadelphia's Chestnut Hill neighborhood. History   Chestnut Hill East was built as the terminus for the Chestnut Hill Railroad,  which itself was leased by the Philadelphia, Germantown, and Norristown railroad in 1854. The Chestnut Hill branch was extended 4 miles (6.4 km) from the Germantown Branch (which ironically enough later on was demolished). Chestnut Hill was the terminus station for this branch.  The Philadelphia, Germantown and Norristown became the Reading Company in 1870 and thus so did the line. Not long afterwards, the original building shown above was demolished and another building, this one made of stone instead of brick, was built in its place. This arrangement lasted six decades. In 1932, the Reading Railroad decided to finally electrify and grade-separate all of the Chestnut Hill East branch. Doing so required all of the st

Station Review #56: 34th Street (SEPTA)

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34th Street is a station on SEPTA's Market-Frankford Line located at 34th Street and Market Street in the University City neighborhood of Philadelphia, PA.  Tour The station from outside 34th Street is one of the stations on the underground portion of the L, which are all known for having very old parts. You can see its roots in the Paris solution entrance, which all used the same general types of weird metal fencing also used in places like NYC. This is the entrance near the 34th Street Wawa.  Stairs The stairs lead to the station itself, nothing special here. There are no other ways in besides these stairs. 34th Street is one of three stations on the line that are still inaccessible, the other two being 11th and Spring Garden.  I go in and am immediately greeted by this sight: Already, this feels incredibly dated.  Old signboard This is an old signboard that was just left there for decades, most likely.  Bus

Station Review #48: Fern Rock Transportation Center (SEPTA)

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Fern Rock Transportation Center is a station that serves multiple SEPTA services located in the Fern Rock neighborhood of Philadelphia, PA.  History The old Tabor station, 1972 The history of Fern Rock Transportation Center is really the history of three different places becoming one: Fern Rock Station, Fern Rock Yard, and Tabor Station. In order to understand the history of Fern Rock Transportation Center, one must understand the history of both of these places. Tabor Station Platforms Tabor station was a train station along the Reading Railroad's Bethlehem Branch, immediately after the famed Wayne Junction station. It was built sometime in the early 1900s, near the now (mostly) nonexistent Tabor Junction. This was the intersection between the Reading Railroad's Tabor Branch and the North Penn Railroad. This junction is located at the nearby Tabor Road, hence the name of the junction and by extension the station. At some point between 1893 a