Light (rail) thoughts in Philadelphia

An eastbound SEPTA trolley car nears its stop at Philadelphia's 30th Street station earlier this week.

A CSX Transportation mixed freight runs north next to a former Pennsylvania Railroad right-of-way that is now a popular recreation trail.

A glimpse down one row of the Reading Terminal Market in downtown Philadelphia. The Reading Co.'s trains used to depart the train shed above the market. The trainshed is now part of the city's convention center.

A fountain along the Schuylkill River Trail just north and a little downhill of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. It happens to be on a former Pennsylvania Railroad right-of-way.

Would you believe it? In Philadelphia, streetcars run ... like streetcars: often and quickly.

I treated a few of you to my quick pics from the Nos. 11 and 13 lines from Monday on Facebook. And as good as the action above ground is, 30th Street Station underground is where you can see dozens of trolley and elevated vehicles an hour on four side-by-side tracks separated only by an open platform and what appear to be two wrought iron fences — sorry, I didn't cross the tracks to find out for sure. Action does not stop down there, but it is hot and humid.

To escape the penetrating from the subway, I walk a few blocks to the Schuylkill River and the Schuylkill River Trail where I see a CSX Transportation mixed freight moving north with hundreds of joggers, bicyclists, and walkers enjoying the trail on what (I'm told) was a former Pennsylvania Railroad branch. If they're not going to run double-headed Pennsy decapods anyway, you might as well take a stroll and imagine what it must have been like. It is worth your time to see this.

Which reminds me of lunch. It took hours to walk off the bona fide Philly Cheesesteak I ate at the Reading Terminal Market in Center City, or downtown Philadelphia. The Reading Co. consolidated it's Philadelphia-area terminals into one in 1892 and agreed to build a new public market underneath the main floor of its train shed. What remains today is a clean, bright, and shop-filled marketplace offering downtown customers shrimp to sausage, salami to strawberries, cheesesteaks and more. If you can dream it up, they have Philadelphia's version of it.

After lunch, the subway, and the CSX train, I lingered around 30th Street Station and the river trail long enough to find the blue hour on the north side of the Philadelphia Museum of Art (and of Rocky fame) and the fountain in behind. Near as I can tell, the fountain is also on the Pennsy right-of-way as well, making this a legitimate rail archaeology pic.

Philadelphia, in-a-phrase, is railroad fun.