1960 Budd Cars Farewell - 1999 Fantrip in Philadelphia

Farewell fantrip 7-4-99 for the Market-Frankford Subway Elevated cars SEPTA (ex PTC) chartered by the NYD ERA. These BUDD Company of Philadelphia cars had the nickname Almond Joy due to the 4 humps on the roof that housed the ventilation fan motors. They were the cars that replaced the original el cars from the teens and twenties. The had lightweight trucks, and the first application of stainless steel for rapid transit car bodies. Fast, comfortable and colorful inside with picture windows, the el cars were ahead of their time and provided reliable service for 39 years. As modern as they were, the doors were air operated, there was no air-conditioning and the end door windows were drop sash, much like school bus windows. This made for some very exciting rides for rail fans. Notice the rare use of under running thiid raiI (600 VDC). I am very surprised that no other videos of these beloved cars exist on YouTube. If you have additional information about the performance and history of the Almond Joys, please post them in the section.

Category:

Travel & Events

Tags:

• SEPTA
• rapid
• transit
• subway
• heavy
• rail
• railfans
• u-bahn
• metro
• stainless
• steel
• body
• under
• running
• third
• upper
• darby
• market
• street
• air
• horn
• tunnel

[ghostengineer]

I was on this trip as well. Enjoy it very much other then sweating my you know whats off. Me and a friend made those signs on the side of the train.

[trainluvr]

Then you would know fi this was a NYD ERA trip?

[BUSMAN6000]

@Jeffbear1 dumbasses

[Jeffbear1]

And not one of these cars was saved by our friends at SEPTA, let alone a train of them for fan trips or special events. SEPTA could care less about things like that !! They don't even care about the money that could be made with charters, movie shoots, commercials, etc.

[SUPERDAVIDLEVINE]

its hard to believe it was overr50 years ago coming back from NY area I got offPHilly to ride the Franford line to ride the high speed tran tonorristown was it neet when I was 18 I foundout that day thee was a fatal acident like afew years ago driving a cab I said wll ark tains are very safe weell at that moment there was a colision that killed 12I did not get this calll I might have been onit Igota new Camcorder to take to Isleal Iwas goinh to test would iI have been on that car never

[thedarkchild86]

RAISED UP ON THE MARKET-FKD LINE .....AS A KID ..THERE WAS NO BETTER FUN THAN RIDING FROM BRIDGE &PRATT TO 69TH STREET AND BACK ... ALTHOUGHT I OWN A CAR ....I STILL USE IT TO GO DOWN TOWN ...ITS CHEAPER THAN CENTER CITY PARKING .......

[PHILLY2727]

@MaBooTA37 Routes 59,66 and 75....29 and 79 are diesel buses but supposed to go back to trackless soon.

[PLACEPEARL]

Ron Carson has remastered his "Ride on the El" to DVD from 1998.

It has been enhanced for the format and it available on eBay at a

very reasonable price along with several other of his videos. Please

check out his listings if you like the 'Almond Joy Cars' and related

Phila transit experiences. Thanks, Ron.

[howardkevinm]

@adam917 i dont mean when they rebuilt Frankford. i think the original frankford side had a ballast on the tracks. also i know the M/O isnt the original station cuz there is a plaque on the side of it saying 1987 (ish?)

[adam917]

@howardkevinm If you mean the restructuring around the area of FTC (including making the new terminal), then it was the early 2000s, roughly 2000 to 2004 IIRC.

[Milas19962002]

@wook1990 The Budd Cars don't have a PA system or air conditioning. SEPTA had no choice but to upgrade.

[EMDSD14R]

i sure miss those cars they were great...i grew up riding them....i have a light from one of the cars someone else brought the other one otherwise i would have had both...i think atleast 2 complete sets are still used for worktrain service..great vid!!