I have had several requests for location info on this video, so I am uploading a version with location captions. All locations confirmed on Google Earth. Thanks again to Railroad Video (Walt Berko) and George Legler for the footage.
I rode both types of trains in the early 70s on both the Reading and Bethlehem branches . Very comfortable cars . They would have even been better on welded rail. Thanks for posting.
Those Budd RDCs - interesting creatures indeed. We had 5 in Australia too, but they demotored them in the early 80s and loco hauled them. One was actually a buffet trailer, too, but alas, all are now knives and forks. Nice set of catches with those push-pull passengers too.
I think Budd built about 400 RDCs total. They were common in the northeastern U.S. in the 50s, 60s and 70s. They were great riding cars at 120,000 lbs. The drive train was more like a city bus with separate dual engines and drive trains that could be operated independently in case one engine failed. This redundancy with an extra engine meant very few breakdowns.
Greetings from Lebanon County Pennsylvania. What great old movies!! Thanks a lot. I used to occasionally commute to Bethlehem from Reading Terminal on the RDCs. And of course the giant freights grinding through the endless grade crossings in Lebanon off the old Alphabet Route, this same line is now the NS mainline between the NY City area to the west. And I almost forgot, I often rode the Wall Street or Crusader, the Reading Company’s fine trains from Jersey City to Reading Terminal, if I’d been to the NY City on business, always a nice change to the cattle cars on the Pennsy! Thanks again for the memories. CAS
This brought back some good memories of riding the train to Reading and Philly. I loved riding the Push/Pull, ride it on the trips from Reading to Philly. In high school in the summer we’d head to Pottsville and take the train to Reading, usually just a passenger car. At 5th Street Station we’d get the train to Philly, that’s where we rode the Push/Pull. It was a real treat when that would pull up. I remember a few of the passenger cars had a different horn. I remember the 9164 and 9165 sounded different and depending on the engineer he could make the horn fade in at the start and fade out at the end. Those were fun times riding the rails.
Thank you for the upload. Can't stop watching the video, because this is the Reading in its last days, and I remember seeing those trains and those places in philly, when I was child, especially 16th Street junction and I saw freight cars at that location too.
Great video, so nice to see some footage from the Reading area. It's sad that passenger service declined over the years till it wasn't used anymore, now everyone is crying the blues that there should be passenger service between Reading and Philadelphia due to all the traffic congestion but Norfolk Southern now own the lines and they don't want to be bothered with passenger service.
Liked it the first time around, even better with locations! Sad to see so many areas where tracks are now long gone. I had no idea Birdsboro had a station under the 345 bridge. At @11:40 heading around Neversink Mountain, there are tracks in the foreground. Where did they serve?
Love this, even though some of the sound seemed dubbed, it was done well. Was that last shot (with the units running A - A back to back, as they always should have been) of the farewell to the Reading trip to Port Reading from 1976? I actually rode that trip, will never forget it. Rode the front vestibule from about Valley Forge out to Reading on the return trip, and can vividly recall those 567s winding up and that Nathan M-5 blowing for crossings.
Wow, what wonderful footage! Filthydelphia is evident at 0:28, but nevertheless a magnificent video. It's a shame that the renewal project to have a passenger service line between Reading and Philly fell through. With the horrible traffic that exists today, it would have been a welcomed rail line. Well, maybe it can be a reality someday.
The Reading was the first in the USA to run MU cables through the train so both ends could be under power. Other railroads had control cabs (DVTs) but not this setup. If you look carefully at the overhead shots you can see the MU running down the center line of the coach roofs.
Reading had push pull units on their commuter services? Wow! Amtrak does it with their Hiawatha Service between Chicago and Milwaukee, but Reading had powered units on each end of their trains. Sorry Amtrak but your unpowered units don't work.
The Reading was the first railroad to have powered units on both ends. They needed both under power to make the schedule with only 1500 HP available per unit.
fmnut where are the F7’s now? Are they scrapped, preserved, repainted into another railroad? I want to imagine a protest against scrapping locomotives.
@@agrady7216 First, they are FP7s not F7s. 900 is at Hamburg PA in the Reading RR Museum. 902/03 are at Steamtown in Scranton PA. Both are serviceable but need new wheels before they can move in interchange or run trips.
fmnut I don’t really know the difference between F7’s and FP7’s, some different types of locomotives look the same, but do they still have M5’s? And are the numbers of locomotives supposed to be different identities. And what type of locomotive is the electric trains in this video?
@@agrady7216 FP7 was four feet longer than a standard F7. This gave space for a larger steam generator for train heat and more water capacity for steam generation. F9/FP9 had the same difference. Currently all 3 locomotives are in storage and have no horns to prevent theft. Not sure what you mean by locomotive numbers being different identities. The stainless electric MU cars in this video are Budd Silverliner II's based on the Budd Pioneer III coach. The painted steel MU's are unique to the Reading and were built for the suburban electrification in the 1930's. They were based on the then-standard Reading passenger coach.
Whoever did the sound dubbing for this, can we please stop throwing in Subway train sounds. Especially from trains that are clearly modern making loud AC propulsion noises. It really takes away from the old aesthetic that the video is trying to bring. I much rather a silent movie or swing music over the movie then modern-day subway train sounds from Post-2000s built trains. It's a GREAT video otherwise! (I love anything old Philadelphia)
There are NO subway sounds on this video. The MU sounds are from the appropriate model MUs. The Budd RDC sounds are from actual Reading/SEPTA RDC's. The Push Pull sounds are admittedly a blend of EMD diesel and passenger train passing sounds, but no subway/light rail sounds were used. I personally hate old films accompanied by 40's music, it just sounds hokey to me. I'd rather do my best to approximate a soundtrack instead. Sorry if you felt my efforts were inauthentic.
