Trains on this day in the past:

[Charlie B]

A chilly morning on the Southern Railroad for the first trip of this Royal Hudson. It was lettered for the Southern on the rest of her trips.  She was a good looking locomotive. March 3, 1979    

Charlie

[bdw9535]

At the interchange track with the Southern RR of NJ, Winslow, NJ

Bruce

[Charlie B]

March 4, 1978 Amtrak 41 running late again. 78 was a brutal winter. I was hoping these were the worst I would see, but this winter officially has it beat for snow and cold in our area. We set 2 low temperature records in a row here yesterday and today. I woke up to a balmy 4 below F    

[Charlie B]

A helper set pushes an eastbound train through East Palestine and sunshine March 6, 1977.    
Charlie

[Green_Elite_Cab]

Cool, a U25C, not to many of them around. The only ones on Conrail would be 20 ex PRR units.

[Green_Elite_Cab]

I just found these, and I hope its okay we time travel to March 5, rather than wait 363 days.

This was in 2010.

Here is a CSX train travelling over the ex PRR High-line through Philadelphia. At one time this was a swing bridge, and the infrastructure to lift the catenary still remains, even though the wire has been taken down.





What is really interesting is the interim CSX paint job on this SD40-2.







In the shadow of the High-Line, Silverliner IVs pause on the Media-Elwyn line. I don't remember the name of this station.

[Charlie B]

An eastbound train under the signal bridge at Alliance, Ohio. March of '79    

[ngauger]

I Didn't know about the swing bridge on the High Line... Why was it there???? I always wondered what the "structures" were there for... Cool!!!!!

[Green_Elite_Cab]

I Didn't know about the swing bridge on the High Line... Why was it there???? I always wondered what the "structures" were there for... Cool!!!!!

Yup, the catenary would be lifted and pulled to the side (and probably sag on the bridge a little), allowing the span to swing. You can see a ladder at the middle of the span down the side to where the swing mechanism must have been.

Your question seemed like a simple question, but you have thrown me down quite a path of research!

First a correction, Technically this bridge is on the Delaware Extension, travelling over the Schuylkill River. This might explain why you didn't know about it, my mistake! . I probably could be forgiven for mistaking it, however, since I saw the rear of this train on the High line shortly before I too this photo, and due to the separation of passenger and freight lines, it looked to me like a continuation of the High Line to me.

At first I figured there must have been an Arsenal near Arsenal interlocking, but it turns out there was no such arsenal at the time the line was built. Apparently (though I might read about this further), much earlier in the 1800s, there WAS an arsenal on the east side of the bridge across the river from Arsenal Interlocking, from which Lewis and Clark took on supplies for their journey west. The PRR felt that was an appropriate name.

It seems that the answer is a lot less exciting, since 1950 aerial views show lots of barges tied up just north of the Delaware Extension. My guess is that there was some small marine traffic. Considering that there was a Reading line going up the east side of the Schuylkill river, and the Northeast corridor moving up the west side soon after Arsenal, My guess was that marine traffic was drying up, I'm not sure where else a commercial boat could go.


For those unfamiliar with this part of Philadelphia, Arsenal was once the place where freight trains would diverge of the Northeast Corridor onto the "High Line Branch", which allowed trains travelling between Baltimore and points North to literally pass over 30th Street station. The High Line would rejoin the Northeast Corridor at Zoo interlocking. The Delaware Extension also connected with the High Line at Arsenal, and this line went for 3.9 Miles to Greenwich yard, (which is very visible from 95 south of the Walt Whitman Bridge and the Philadelphia Stadiums). At one time, massive ore and mineral trains were handled here, as well as food and produce and freight bound for the ports on the Delaware River. Interestingly, this is also the freight yard that became a passenger terminal for the Army Navy Games. Since only part of the yard was under wire, GG1s would coast into the yard, and switchers would pull the motors back to the wire and set them off again. As many as 38 passenger trains were handled with high efficiency on this small branch, and the operation was a point of pride on the PRR.

Today, Arsenal tower controls SEPTA's R3 line. The High Line no longer connects to the Northeast corridor, and instead links with the former Reading near Zoo, and goes directly onto the Delaware Extension.

[ngauger]

Wow!!! That actually makes sense to me

That's my "Learn something new everyday" item for today

Thanks for doing all that research too!!!!

[bdw9535]

WPCA-51 at Winslow, NJ March 1993

Bruce

[Charlie B]

It is hard for me to comprehend these were taken 36 years ago. I was still a young man. Now I am twice as old.
This was the only F7 that received blue paint, and I only saw it this one time.  
New Galilee, Pa. March 9, 1978
       
Charlie

[Green_Elite_Cab]

That F7 is a good catch, as is the leased BAR GP38! I have a model of 1648, but the MRC put the full Conrail logos on it, instead of just the patches. I will definitely need to fix that sometime!

That F7 was an Ex NYC, and that was its original number from the NYC days. It was renumbered from 1648 to 1792 in anticipation of the GP15-1s, which filled in the 1600 series. However, it and all the other F7s were all retired a few months before the first GP15-1s began to arrive.

[Charlie B]

Brand new SP 7828 B 30-7 leads a westbound through East Palestine in March 1979.     Charlie

[bdw9535]

Millville, NJ March 1990

Bruce