Places to watch trains in Philadelphia and the suburbs?

I've not yet done it, but there are a ton in the Lehigh Valley near Allentown and Bethlehem.

I've sat in the parking lot of Sands Casino in Bethlehem and just watched the intermodals move back and forth.

PM me if you'd like.

Greg, the Harrisburg area is a great place to watch trains.

Some shots at Enola Yard:

And right down the road is the Rockville Bridge over the Susquehanna River.

Bald eagles nesting on branches in the river.

Also nearby is the Harrisburg intermodal yard.

While you're there, head out a little further down the line to the station in Duncannon, Pa.

58th street below Woodland ave,  CSX crosses over the Northeast corridor. Sketchy neighborhood be alert.

If you don't want to go that far, there's some nice spots in the Reading, Pa. area too.

Near the Wyomissing Jct. just of Rt. 422 at the West Reading exit: (There are even You Tube videos of action there)

A few miles north in Hamburg, Pa. is the Reading Railroad Historical Society Museum.

Alternatively, you can check out the Railfan Pennsylvania website.

Not sure what it's like these days, many years ago I visited Paoli & Downingtown and it was pretty busy. 

Another spot closer in might be Fairmount Park and Zoo interlocking. 

Just my opinion but, I think I would prefer to go to Bookbinders seafood restaurant, for the best meal in the city. I assume that the restaurant is still there.

We went there once. Thought it was overrated. Guess we were not the only ones -- closed years ago. 

Well, I must admit that I was there more than 30 years ago, when it was in its prime. The steamed Main lobster was out of this world. It was a business meal, however.

Abrams Yard in King of Prussia.

Since you specified freight:
NS; Valley Forge-Port Kennedy-Abrams Yard, x-Reading trackage northwest of city, all accessible via major highways.
Also west shore of Schuylkill River west of x-RDG FLAT ROCK Tunnel, exit off I-76 at Gladwyne exit.
CSX: Darby-Glenolden-Boothwyn area southwest of city, x-B&O trackage to Baltimore.
In city, area of 30th St. Station may be best to observe NS/CSX on former PRR "Highline" or CSX on x-B&O on east shore of Schuylkill River, may require extensive walking.
The maps or other info at: www.railfanguides.us/pa/phl/index.htm  may be useful, also recommend a detailed road atlas.
I was in Philly last Friday on company business and saw several NS freights while driving on I-76 (Schuylkill Expry.), including a westbound entering Flat Rock Tunnel.
Be aware of your surroundings at all times and avoid trespassing.

Abrams Yard is a good place to see train action, but recently the crew there has been less than hospitable.  I have gone there with a friend of mine who is a police officer and they didn't care, they told us very sternly to get out.

John,

i used to live close to 58th and Woodland.  There was a hobby shop there I used to frequent and the rail yard in your picture to check out.  I used to go to the Penn Fruit and on the way home, always look to see if there were trains moving there.

Mark

Hot Water posted:

Just my opinion but, I think I would prefer to go to Bookbinders seafood restaurant, for the best meal in the city. I assume that the restaurant is still there.

Bookbinders was closed a few years ago.  Check out Wikipedia.  The whole story is there.  I kew some electricians who worked on a renovation project at Bookbinders about 35 years ago.  Above the ceiling and behind walls were more cockroaches than they wanted to encounter.....

As for the subject of this thread, I used to go down to 30th Street Station and walk to the end of the parking lot near the locomotive servicing yard.  Here's a few pictures taken in the late seventies.  The quality is not that good as they were originally 35mm slides that had been stored in my attic.  I transferred them to to the computer only a few years ago.

Farmer_Bill posted:

Not sure what it's like these days, many years ago I visited Paoli & Downingtown and it was pretty busy. 

Another spot closer in might be Fairmount Park and Zoo interlocking. 

I use to work in Paoli at Mathews Ford and there property ( service department and Auto body ) backed up right to the Hill where the tracks where. ( I grew up in West Chester so Downingtown was another place I hanged out. 

Philly suburbs - I'd say either West Trenton, NJ or Woodbourne, PA - both accessible by SEPTA train via Center City, and both have fairly active CSX action via the Trenton Subdivision.

Trenton is not for everyone.  I recall my wife saying, "can we get out of here?!" 

I tried to briefly explore the Harrisburg Amtrak station area passing through on a trip.  The area looked totally cool..the busy reading line and some nice improvements at the station...Harris tower.  But the city didn't seem safe to me.  Is it?  The min I stopped to hop out of the car a bum had staked me out.  I read somewhere that crime there is greater than Philly?  One would love to set up and watch trains from the bridge passing right beyond the Amtrak Station but you would need a group to hang with. 

I know the OP was asking about the Philly area, but I'm impressed by Brian's pictures of Harrisburg. Now I can justify that UP unit I've always wanted.  In fact, it looks like quite a lot of RR lines seem to pass through.  I was there for a funeral in the 1970s with my mother. Our Enola hotel room was opposite a large classification? yard on the river. I thought it was a tad noisy for a hotel but my mother loved it. From Google maps it looks like the hotel might still be there. The hotel restaurant had a steam engine parked off to the left side of the parking lot.  Google maps satellite view suggests it's long gone but somewhere I have a photo of a college-age me posing in front of it in an engineer's hat  fresh from the gift shop.

Bookbinders was THE place to go for my parents and great aunts. Too bad to hear it closed.

Happy spotting on your trip whichever locations you choose.

Tomlinson Run Railroad

From the Harrisburg, Pa. Amtrak Station:

PRR GG1 #4859 is the state electric locomotive of Pennsylvania and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.  #4859 pulled the first electrically powered train from Philadelphia to Harrisburg on January 15, 1938, and it pulled the last GG1-powered freight train on November 22, 1979.