Passenger Trains > SEPTA farewell to the AEM7s

Adding my photos and video in follow-up to posts from yesterday: https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?4,4680765  & https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?4,4680971 

Yesterday, SEPTA ran a "farewell" trip on the ex-PRR Main Line.  I don't ride SEPTA a lot, but when I do, it's always been either the Silverliner IV or Silverliner V cars.  My son was intrigued by this trip as well, so we headed out to photo the trip.  Another thing I wanted to do was photo the train at a location where it would pass a station that has former PRR signals near it.  With NS removing the former PRR signals on their Pittsburgh Line, that gave me a little more motivation.  (I don't know what Amtrak's plans are for the signals.)  

We started at Narberth, with the MP 6.9 signal bridge a bit west of the station.  I though it would be a good spot for an eastbound train.  The first three photos are from Narberth.  From what I was told, SEPTA added two coaches to the consist and changed from push-pull to pull-pull.  Their ALP44 lead eastbound.  

More to follow.  

 

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Continuing the photos...

The fourth photo is a going away photo of the train and AEM7 2301 as it enters the curve

After catching a few more SEPTA and two Amtrak Keystone trains at Narberth, we headed to the Villanova station.  The westbound platform is much longer than the eastbound platform, so that worked for catching the train passing under the 11.8 signal bridge that is east of the station.  The next two photos are of the westbound special passing under the signal bridge and approaching the station.  

One more photo and two videos to follow. 
 

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The last photo is of the train passing though the Villanova station on the outer track.  

The first video is of the eastbound trip at Narberth.  The train was going nice and slow for photo and video opportunities.  I know it was to keep it's distance from the trains ahead of it using the same track and making station stops.  

The second video is of the westbound trip at Villanova.  Full disclosure on the video.  There was a small group of us seeing the trian there.  The train was on the outer track while we were hoping it was on the inner track.  In addition, the train was running much faster than it was going east.  I had the zoom on my video camera to get some of the signal bridge so I was not at as close to the track as the video may seem.  We were all back from the yellow line.  The passing train caused the tripods to lift up, so I decided to keep the few extra seconds after the train passed and the tripod's legs all returned to the ground.  

I want to say thanks to SEPTA for running this train.  From my perspective, it was much appreciated.  Hope you enjoy the photos and video!
 

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First thank you to all who posted their coverage of this train.

Now a quick question.  It appears that #2308 has 2 strobes above the cab.  #2301 however does not have these but one large "headlight"  berween the numberboards. 

Do they do the same job?

Can anyone explain the difference?

Many thanks in advance.

4489 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> First thank you to all who posted their coverage
> of this train.
>
> Now a quick question.  It appears that #2308 has
> 2 strobes above the cab.  #2301 however does not
> have these but one large "headlight"  berween the
> numberboards. 
>
> Do they do the same job?
>
> Can anyone explain the difference?
>
> Many thanks in advance.

I think the differences are in the design of two different models.  2301 being the earlier AEM-7 and 2308 being an ALP-44.  Strobes and large headlight probably just for warning purposes.

Thanks for the photos and videos, especially for video #2.  I didn't realize how much I miss hearing those AEM-7 whistles.

Thanks for posting video and photo. Much appreciated.

Clif

SEPTA's AEM-7s were outwardly identical to Amtrak's with the white strobes above the cab and the red strobe between the numberboards.
The red strobe was supposed to be used in 'emergnecies' (dumping of air), but as with all Amtrak units of the era, sometime the switch was set to "red" instead of "white." The 2301 appears to have had the lens swapped out for a clear one, as has happened on a few F40s.

It appears once they were outfited with ditch lights, the strobes were removed. Apparently, the one-off ALP didn't have them removed, and this unit also appears identical to the NJT ALP specs (with strobe placement).


4489 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> First thank you to all who posted their coverage
> of this train.
>
> Now a quick question.  It appears that #2308 has
> 2 strobes above the cab.  #2301 however does not
> have these but one large "headlight"  berween the
> numberboards. 
>
> Do they do the same job?
>
> Can anyone explain the difference?
>
> Many thanks in advance.