SEPTA Flashback: Riding The Almond Joys

Back in 1997, with the arrival of the first new M4 cars expected within a few months, I took my camera out, and this is the result: a ride from Bridge-Pratt to 69th Street Terminal on SEPTA's Market-Frankford Line, or, to us in the region, simply known as "The El."
Enjoy this trip aboard the old Budd cars!

[@danahc4851]

Flashback to my freshman year of high school. It was a big deal if "the new El" (M4's) pulled into the stop as they were phasing them in at that point.

[@pez334]

I used to take the EL everywhere back in the 80s from school to concerts, I think the last time I rode the EL may have been around 1994 and I’ve moved out of philly in 2006 so this brings back memories, thanks a lot!

[@nonadabove]

Thank you for sharing this! I miss riding the old "Almond Joy" cars from when I was a kid. All the sounds are right in this video! The motors, the train whistle, the doors opening and closing. I miss how on the long runs between stations, it always sounded like the flux capacitor was about to engage, and you'd launch into outer space with the high pitch of the electric motors.

[@TajmirTheRandomFan]

Back then, I remember the old station style. When I was younger, they were new-York city style.

[@AjaniDGleason]

Ahhhh the original Bridge and Pratt!

[@paulculler3800]

This is the only time we get to see the curve to the Frankford Transportation center bound platform

[@ShawnmauriceJohnson-ug8bn]

i will not forget the high-pitch whistle from the old almond joys.

[@josephheston9238]

Either this is a single unit or the even-numbered half of a married pair. Definitely can hear the Westinghouse 1454A motors.

[@1stwonder788]

25:59 is where a train derailed in April 1990 killing 7 injured several people

[@dysontyronetd]

It was 1989

[@1stwonder788]

@@dysontyronetdlook it up it was ‘90

[@DonJuan-xe5pd]

@@1stwonder788 The accident happened on March 7, 1990

[@paulculler3800]

I remembered I took the Grayhound bus to Philly Back when the Greyhound Terminal was located at 17th and Market The Market-Frankford Line was 2 blocks south so I took the El yo 52nd street and Market to see my late grandmother

[@BMWDRE10]

Thank you SO much for posting this. This brought me back to my childhood riding the L from 46th to 69th everyday from school back in the 80s. Wow!!! Thank you!

[@daniel022209]

I first rode the Market-Frankford El back in 1999. I didnt get to ride the Almond Joy's. If I was five years older, I would have made it.

[@dgordine]

I was 4 years old at that time. I missed my childhood.

[@andrewtesta5944]

Video of 2020. You brought back Alot of memories!

[@mikefit3343]

Now that I look back at how the stations use too be I’m glad septa remolded the system. Pretty damn dry scenery back then lol

[@1stwonder788]

But u gotta admit navigating Frankford term is a headache

[@mikefit3343]

@@1stwonder788 For most maybe but for me? I don’t have an issue with it. The upgrade was definitely a step up from where it use to be.

[@ripjanetstrimel3312]

Definitely a flash back especially with all the old school graffiti on the roof tops man !

[@josephheston9238]

Have not rode the El since the Almond Joys were retired. Too bad a married pair was not preserved. I wish the 711/712 pair were saved.

[@wook1990]

There's only one car from the entire fleet that remained in tact. It's at the Pennsylvania Trolley Museum. #606.

[@josephheston9238]

@@wook1990 Actually 618 was also preserved and is at Seashore.

[@wook1990]

@@josephheston9238 You misread what I said. I said that #606 was the only car that remained in tact meaning that it is the only car that wasn't broken down in any way. #618 doesn't have wheels, it has graffiti on it, and it has damage done to a couple of windows on it.

[@PGHammer21A]

@@wook1990 - I never rode the El - only the Paoli Local of nearly twenty years earlier - I had graduated high school in 1980. (The later Thorndale Extension was merely *blue sky* at the time - the Blue Route was being fought tooth and nail (and PennDOT had already gone broke once!).

[@wook1990]

@@PGHammer21A Really? Wow. Well I'm 30 years old. I've rode the EL for years dating back to when I was a kid. The Budd Almond Joy M-3 trains were much more exciting to ride than the M-4 trains that are currently still in service. The EL as a whole isn't really exciting to ride these days especially when you know the line like the back of your own head.

[@ShawnmauriceJohnson-ug8bn]

i will always remember the almond joys el and I won't forget until my time is up.

[@tameek1842]

Nice video I love septa so much I love the market frankford line

[@paulculler3800]

I remember the old Greyhound terminal at 17th and Market

[@paulculler3800]

2:12 Future Arrot Transportation Center station

[@ghostengineer]

Finally!!

[@trainman1971]

Lol! :D

[@kenmills4739]

I remember riding these subway cars 'M3 units' from 1989-1996, and then from 1998-2005 I've ridden in the next generation subway cars 'M4 units'; besides family trips in 1976 (family reunion) and 1987 (toy/doll/train show), I was always curious about the entire Philadelphia Transit System thanks also in part to the film "Rocky" where in the scene he's running along Delaware Avenue (now Columbus Boulevard) loaded with staging areas for the future completion of I-95, with diverted traffic in tow, AND to my delight, the el coming up from behind; as a kid in Intermediate School, I was under the impression trains ran from Market Street to Frankford Avenue, and due to the fact the line runs along Front Street and Kensington Avenue when I assumed the route would travel immediately along Frankford Avenue to compliment the name of the line (note Market Street is completely covered by name and the route); in later years I was always fascinated by the former tunnel portal where I-95 sits today, and the signal lights remind me of the ones here in New York-slowly being replaced, but still extant elsewhere in town; politically they realigned the el the wrong way, if you know what I mean, but at least the same neighborhood is still served despite changes coming, even with the historical pictures I came across about the el's real history along lower Delaware Avenue (today's Penn's Landing), I got the impression the el ran along Front Street, then Elfreth's Alley, then along Delaware Avenue into the tunnel for Market Street and points westward as I explained to a local historian who'd sent myself photos of the original el; I'm glad to have seen the Bridge-Pratt Terminal, even with the renaming to Frankford later, before being swung onto the new infrastructure, and again the same neighborhood is served, but with intermodal purposes (all of this in my favorite year, for transit expansion reasons, 2003), and the Broad Street Subway express trains runs slightly faster than the express trains here in town; because of terminology, I thought the Broad Street Subway was being extended to the airport at the time the Mid City rail tunnel was being built (early 1980s). . .the terminology used was 'high speed', and once again I traced the history of the line's plans for building branch routes elsewhere, but politricks and reality rapes everything in endeavorland, and all we have are memories. . . I love mass transit!

[@RedArrow73]

The sighing of the Wabtec Cineston Electro-Pneumatic controller in the cab can easily be heard.

[@timosha21]

I'm a train and I approve this video!!!

[@earlbrown1803]

😂😂😂😂

[@ShawnmauriceJohnson-ug8bn]

also i will always miss the almond joys m4 el train horn.

[@BottomLin3Op]

They sounded like the R38s

[@GeneralHawk505]

The motors sound so decimating at 26:35 the way they howl and echo through the station.

[@elirosen1391]

When did you do this trip?

[@trainman1971]

Sometime in 1997.

[@paulculler3800]

21:24 Pre-Jefferson Station

[@blue9multimediagroup]

Jefferson is Regional Rail. This is 11th on the MFL. Still looks like this today.

[@thor-elfalcon3057]

Premium accoustics between 46th and 60th Sts.

[@kevinhoward9593]

why did Allegheny need two signals 5 feet apart?

[@trainman1971]

That, I do not know.

[@blue9multimediagroup]

One for the crossover, one for the station even though the crossover signal would suffice.

[@ShawnmauriceJohnson-ug8bn]

also i will always miss the almond joys m4 el train horn, but when the train comes out of the tunnel changes horn sounds?

[@BigRob-FormerlyMrSlim]

Did they have two-toned horns? Cuz one sounds like a whistle, and then it sounds like a regular horn.

[@trainman1971]

There were two bells on the horn, and originally, they all were like the regular horn. But most of them quit working properly and only the higher-pitched bell kept working, with the lower pitch intermittently in their later years.

[@BigRob-FormerlyMrSlim]

@@trainman1971 Wow didn’t know that. Btw, do you know what kind of horn the current EL cars have? Or no. Cuz I’ve tried to look it up but no luck.

[@trainman1971]

@@BigRob-FormerlyMrSlim I don't know what the current El cars have for horn, but I'm sure it's an electronic horn, and not air.

[@blue9multimediagroup]

The whistle might also be the conductor's whistle to signal that the doors were being closed since everything was manual and the motorman only operated the train back then.

[@blue9multimediagroup]

@@trainman1971 it's a whistle. It's not even a horn lol

[@dysontyronetd]

28:33 I miss that old horn, kinda sounds like a whale and 28:58

[@andrewkawasaki9477]

What if the MFL used MTA NYCT trains?

[@TheMansfieldBusGuy]

Diffrent Gauges and Diffrent Electrical Systems

[@RedArrow73]

Think of an R62A with wheelsets gauged to 5' 2-1/2", and Metro-North third rail.

[@angelhernandez9462]

6:47