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Delaware Valley Rails Railroads & Rail transit lines Philadelphia Area by Pawson
Delaware Valley Rails By John Pawson The railroads & Rail transit lines of the Philadelphia area
Soft Cover
Copyright 1979
192 pages
Introduction
THERE IS A FASCINATION about trains and cars which operate on rails. This is especially the case in a populous and industrialized region like the Delaware Valley where there is a great variety of rail operations.
Nearly a dozen railroad companies and public agencies operate or sponsor operation of freight- or passenger-carrying rail lines. In addition, many non-transportation private industries have their own large or small rail facilities. These varied systems operate by diesel, electric, and even steam and gasoline motive power.
"Delaware Valley Rails" is a guide to these present-day operations. In addition, it relates them to the metropolitan region which they serve and tells something of their history and current problems. As far as this book is concerned, the Delaware Valley Region comprises the five southeastern counties of Pennsylvania, the southwestern half of New Jersey, and that part of Delaware north of the Chesapeake & Delaware Canal. Included are metropolitan Philadelphia, Trenton, Wilmington, Atlantic City and nearby rural areas.
This book is intended to meet the needs and expectations of different persons: railfans, photographers, modellers, and other rail-oriented hobbyists; commuters and other users of rail transportation; and all those who are concerned about the region's rail transport systems. The arrangement of chapters and interior headings allows the reader to skip over material not of immediate interest to reach the desired information. The book's small format allows it to be carried in a camera bag or car's glove compartment Interests in rail transport are usually oriented toward either a system or a location. For this reason, "Delaware Valley Rails" is organized both functionally and geographically.
First, each freight and passenger railroad company and each rail transit network is described. Sequence of topics includes current importance, historical background, corporate organization, summary of facilities, traffic, operations, maintenance, motive power and rolling stock, fare systems, timetables and how to obtain them, suggestions for railfans riding and photographing the systems, etc. The more important operations are shown on individual maps. Most include a locomotive or car roster which includes equipment likely to be seen here.
The second major part of the book, "Places of Interest", concern specific facilities and locations. It includes descriptions of important or unusual stations, yards, signal towers, junctions, offices, shops, terminals, bridges, tunnels, etc. Also included are industries which operate their own motive power and trackage or which manufacture rail vehicles, restaurants which have a railroad motif, historical monuments related to railways, libraries with many books on railroad and rail transit subjects, outdoor publicly accessible miniature railways and amusement park railways. Abandoned facilities are described only where related to existing ones.
All places are arranged according to county of their location; then alphabetically by corporate, locational, or other descriptive name. Because of the large number of places in Philadelphia, the chapter on that city has been divided into four parts. Where applicable, map coordinates on one of the SEPTA transit maps (see p186) are given at the right of each heading.
The appendix gives specialized information such as radio frequencies used by the various rail operations and maps which show rail lines. For those seeking further information, references are given of books and articles in periodicals which pertain to the region's rail systems.
Maps on the covers and elsewhere should be consulted while reading. The railroads are shown by a series of route maps, each successive one drawn to show more details of complex areas. There is a track map in the text for each rail transit system. Some of them show nearby cross- and parallel streets to help those who want to follow them by automobile. Symbols used on the maps are defined on p S.
Railfans and photographers will use this book to help find good picture-taking locations. Of course, access to private property is legally restricted. Owners or employees may object to entry unless permission has been obtained previously. Such permission may be obtainable only during business hours and from a particular person at another location.
Photography from public property is legally limited, too. One must not endanger himself or others or restrict the rights of others. There are some federal installations where photography (even from outside the property) is forbidden; and in known cases, these are so indicated.
All pictures are of the actual item. If this is a railroad item, this material is obsolete and no longer in use by the railroad. Please email with questions. Publishers of Train Shed Cyclopedias and Stephans Railroad Directories. Large inventory of railroad books and magazines. Thank you for buying from us.
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