Steam & Excursion > Lansdale Day Special

If you're an ALCOholic, this is the event for you! Attached is a photo of the GenSet.

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News
All aboard! Historic train coming for Lansdale Day

Thursday, March 17, 2011
By Dan Sokil
Staff Writer

LANSDALE – If you’ve ever wanted to know what the good old days of railroading between Lansdale and Philadelphia felt like, keep your calendar free on June 4.

This summer’s Landale Day festivities on June 4 will bring a unique attraction downtown, right to the Lansdale train station: a 'Lansdale Day Special' historic train run by the West Chester Railroad and sponsored by the Rotary Club of North Penn.

“The Rotary Club has been trying to get a special train to come into Lansdale for years now, and we’ve finally pulled it off,” said Lansdale Mayor and Rotary Club President Andy Szekely.

The train will feature five authentic Reading Railroad “Blueliner” passenger cars, built in the 1930s and pulled by two vintage Alco diesel engines and a more modern SEPTA engine, according to Derek Slifer, the railroad’s Director of Passenger Operations.

“The cool thing about this trip is that these rail cars that people will be riding in are the ones that would have served the Lansdale station,” Slifer said.

Passengers will hear the “All Aboard” call at 9 a.m. at West Chester’s Market Street station, arrive at 30th Street Station in Philadelphia around 11 a.m., pull in to Lansdale around 12:30 p.m. and leave on a return trip around 3:30 p.m.

“We’ll make a stop right at the Lansdale station, right on Main Street, pull the train off to a siding and sit there for about two an d a half hours to give everybody a chance to get off and enjoy the festivities,” Slifer said.

The railroad is an all volunteer nonprofit that has run scenic trains between West Chester and Glen Mills since 1997, and has run trains as far as Center City Philadelphia but never as far as Lansdale.

“This will be the first time a Reading car has been on the Reading line, of SEPTA’s system for carrying passengers, for about 25 years or so since they stopped running these cars in the late 80s,” said Slifer.

The train will run rain or shine, and be manned by a volunteer crew between West Chester’s Market Street station and the Glen Mills station and by SEPTA crews for the rest of the route.

“It’ll be a nostalgic trip for people who used to see these cars every day on the Reading Railroad, and this train really turns heads when people see it go by because they’re not used to seeing two diesels pulling five vintage cars,” Slifer said.

SEPTA requires that all passengers get on and leave the train at West Chester, so a $50 round trip ticket means you’ll have to ride the whole route, but stops will be made all along the way for photo opportunities.

Tickets for the ride are already on sale, and Szekely announced the upcoming train appearance at Lansdale Borough Council’s meeting Wednesday night.

“This event is going to be huge for Lansdale, because it’s the first of its kind, and we hope that it will bring even more attention and people to the borough,” Szekely said.

For more information on the train or to purchase tickets, visit www.WestChesterRR.com, and for information on Lansdale Day visit www.RotaryClubOfNorthPenn.org.


URL: http://www.thereporteronline.com/articles/2011/03/17/news/doc4d812c4080886568436561.prt

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Sounds great - glad to see such events being successfully pulled off here in the NE.
For a time, it was starting to seem that the small towns around Philly were had become too big for such an event.

Kudos to the West Chester Railroad! I'm surprised SEPTA is allowing the Blueliners back on it's tracks. I would've figured there was something too out of date to allow it.

Now... as cool as this all sounds - imagine the Reading F's pulling it!

/Mitch

Mgoldman Wrote:
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> Now... as cool as this all sounds - imagine the Reading F's pulling it!

Could be a P42.

That was the last time a passenger excursion ran out of Lansdale, when it was pulled by the FP7s.

Be grateful that they are running excursions at all.

PennRailVideos Wrote:
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> Could be a P42.

A P42 is not an Alco!, nor does SEPTA own any.

> Be grateful that they are running excursions at
> all.

I am, I am!
(But if I was bringing baseball back, I wouldn't be
serving almonds and cheddar popcorn, lol.)

/Mitch