Trolley Car Diner Sign

A few weeks ago, after checking out the Morris Arboretum (located as far northwest as you can go in Philly without actually leaving the city), Craftyangie and I decided to check out the Chestnut Hill/Mount Airy sections of Philly. We also had in mind the idea of going to have dinner and ice cream at the Trolley Car Diner (warning, egregious use of Flash on the website) on Germantown Avenue.

Trolley Car Diner

We actually had tried to do the exact same thing a week earlier, but were completely foiled at our attempts to do by a) getting distracted by the Allen Lane train station, which delayed getting to the Arboretum; b) torrential thunderstorms which closed the arboretum just as we arrived; c) construction on Germantown Avenue itself to repave the street and restore the Septa Route 23 trolley tracks, which made the Trolley Car Diner very difficult to find. (Especially in the crazy rain.)

Wait… back that train up… trolley track construction? I am so there!

Completed section of trolley tracks and street

Well, on our second attempt, we did get to the Trolley Car Diner. It is located next to the most recently completed stretch of street and track; the next section is currently in progress just down the street. After a most satisfying dinner of a Reuben Sandwich (for me) and Cheeseburger (Craftyangie) washed down by a delicious malted vanilla-chocolate shake (shared, awww!), we poked around the construction.

Track with Flangeway

The construction is actually a little bit non-traditional. I’m used to seeing rails with built-in flangeways (as seen in the photo on the right, even if that is a former freight line, not a trolley line). But they are using conventional rail here, and simply molding a space for the trolley wheel flange to go out of the concrete. I’m sure this is cheaper, but who knows if it’s better?

Historic photo of New York trolley tracks

They’re also using metal ties, spaced one every several feet, rather than wooden ties, as shown in this very old photo of trolley track (re)construction in New York City. (I have no idea where I downloaded this picture from, probably nearly a decade ago.) Interestingly, they’re using rail with flangeways in the foreground, but when the rail straightens out, they stopped and used regular rail instead. So I guess you could say what they’re doing on Germantown Ave is not without precedent…

Anyway, that’s enough chit-chat. From here, I’ll just show some pictures of the progress, along with my “best educated guess” caption describing what’s going on. If you know for sure what’s going on in these photos, please feel free to comment here!

Metal trolley ties. This is probably a really really easy way to ensure that the track is laid in gauge. No guessing: just put the rails in the slots provided.

The next section of track in line for concrete. It's interesting how they've gone around the manhole with the concrete pouring form here.

The view around the bend. This section looks like it was ready for concrete to be poured next, with all the re-bar and forms in place.

A view of the track supports and jacks. It looks like the ties are adjustable vertically on the ends. When the concrete is poured and sets, that carries the all the weight. Also see the jacks that make the track bend around the curve. Looks like they have a steel spike that is driven into the asphalt; then the spike is jacked up to make the rail bend the way you want it. (I wonder at what point the jack can be removed before pouring concrete?)

A view beyond the concrete forms. The track is simply laying on the asphalt, waiting for ties, re-bar, concrete forms, etc.

The rails sure look flexible running down the street like this. What amazes me is how incredibly heavy and strong that steel is, yet it can look like all you'd need to do is just kick it to bend it out of shape. (Yeah, right!)

Let's get a good look at that digging machine!

There are more pictures of the whole thing on my Flickr photo stream…

It so happens that among all my other totally geeky interests, I really like pipe organs. (I even used to own one back in college.) And the Macy’s contains the Wanamaker Organ, claimed to be the world’s largest operational pipe organ. I took some pictures, which you see here. No concert today, but I like looking at it, and just knowing it’s there is nice.

Craftyangie wrapped up her shopping, and we started our long walk home. We decided to come home via Reading Terminal Market, and followed the abandoned Reading Railroad viaduct towards home, through the Loft District. Enter some more of my favorites: trains, architecture, photography and abandoned urban infrastructure (which is probably just a subset of architecture, in a sense). We stepped inside one building that promised some sort of art exhibition, but was apparently closed. Not all was lost, since I got to take some pictures inside.

The abandoned Reading Railroad viaduct just fascinates me. All the old equipment: signals, bridges, a station (at Spring Garden Street), tracks, electrical power stations, rust… all awesome. We took some photos with our Canon, and also with my fully manual Pentax K1000 35mm film SLR (which I will write more about soon; probably later this week after I get some film back from the developer).

Finally, on our way back, we stopped at Provenance, an architectural salvage company not too far from where we live. We’d been there once before, at least a year ago. Talk about your interesting stores! Most recently, they have been involved in the deconstruction (in advance of redevelopment) of the greate Divine Lorraine Hotel at Broad and Fairmount; and the careful deconstruction of the Varick Memorial AME Zion Church at S. 19th and Catherine streets.

I got to talk about their business with Bob, who coincidentally also has a garden plot in The Spring Gardens, and Brian. (Very interesting…) After he saw me showing Craftyangie some pipe organ parts (some linear pneumatic motors responsible for stop action, a wind chest and a pedalboard, in case you were curious), Brian showed me to a box full of metal pipe organ pipes. Awww yeaaahhh… Back to the pipe organs, second time today! These all happened to be from the Varick Memorial Church. Some were pretty incredibly beaten up, but I found four worth bringing home with us. From left to right, two small open flute pipes of some sort (maybe from the same rank, maybe not… I can’t tell); a Horn (reed) pipe; and two Tuba (reed) pipes (just one pictured). They’re all about a foot long, plus or minus, including the foot (bottom part).

I got to add these to my one wooden flute pipe I bought via eBay several years ago. Different kinds of organ pipes use different methods to tune and voice them. A wooden flue pipe, like my old flute pipe, might use a piece of lead, which can be rolled or unrolled to raise or lower the pitch. (See the right picture).

And then there’s my new reed pipes, the Horn and the Tuba. If you remove the feet from the pipes to reveal the reeds (like I did in the photo on the right), you can see how they are tuned. A little bit of wire sticks out of the bottom of the foot, which you can move up and down to adjust how long the reed is that vibrates. This allows you to change the pitch of the pipe– a lot more drastically than I’d originally thought. I suspect that maybe in practice, organ builders use the same reed, and reed foot, for a whole bunch of pipes in a single organ rank, just changing the size of the resonator (pipe) and adjusting the reed with the tuner for each pipe.

In these closeup photos, you can also see how very different the reeds are in the Tuba versus the Horn. The Tuba’s reed is long and wide, maybe three inches long and 3/4″ wide at its widest point. The Horn’s reed is under an inch long, much more narrow, and doesn’t flare out anywhere near as much as that of the Tuba. Also, the resonators (the obvious top part of the pipe) are totally different. The Horn flares out conically with that big gaping hole on the side, and the Tuba is just a short length of pipe, almost cylindrical. All of this contributes to their drastically different sounds.

Did I say sounds? Yes, I’m just maniacal enough to make recordings of each pipe for you to hear! I just blew through each of them to play them… enjoy… and let me know what you think in the comments!

Tuba Reed

Horn Reed

Low metal flute pipe

High metal flute pipe

Low wooden flute pipe