Finally, the Silverliner V will be displayed to the public on track 0 at Suburban Station from October 2nd to October 16th, 11AM to 6PM.  The showing will start with a special ceremony with General Manager Joe Casey tomorrow at noon.

Over the past week, 15 hybrid buses (8134-8149) were placed into revenue service at Callowhill.  Thus, this forced Callowhill to send their older NABI fleet to other depots.  These NABIS include: 5002-5003, 5005, and 5009 which were transferred to Midvale, 5011 is now at Southern, and Victory now has 5014 and 5016.  It’s quite possible more Callowhill and Comly NABIS will be reassigned to other depots as more hybrids are coming in.

From SEPTA news page:

Combining community spirit and a celebration of 150 years of trolley service between Delaware County and Philadelphia, SEPTA is proud to support the annual OcTrolleyFest, this Saturday, October 18 at Powell Park on New Walnut Street in Darby. From 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. enjoy a delightful mix of food, fun and live music along with the opportunity to hop a ride aboard one of SEPTA’s rebuilt PCC trolley cars for a tour of the Darby, Yeadon, Colwyn and Southwest Philadelphia neighborhoods. Events are free and open to the public. Learn more by visiting www.octrolleyfest.org

According to Darryl Bulls of SEPTATransitVehicleNewsNetwork (A yahoo group), the current assignments of the New Hybrids are as follows:

Callowhill: 8120-8164
Comly: 8165-8199
Victory: 8200-8209
Fronter: 8210-8219

Hybrid 8120 (like 8000 back in 2005) is the pilot bus of the fleet.  More then likely it will be one of the last units placed into service.  The order as it stands now is 40% completed with the highest units to entered service is 8153 at Callowhill and 8174 at Comly, respectively.

((Photo to the right: New Shipment of Hybrids at Germantown Depot - Courtasy of Jayayess1190))

Engineers are training on the Comet I cars in-around Frazier.  There have been reports that these units was not able to coexist with the current AEM-7 cars because of HEP issues, they may operate as a single consist with a ALP-44 unit. These cars are currently slated to enter service beginning on October 26th 2008 (next schedule change on the Regional Rail lines). These cars were recently purchased from NJT to address the current overcrowded situation.

boomer, a member on the Railroad.net forums has several shots of these Comet Is at the Frazier Shops.

http://www.railroad.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=72&t=54926&st=0&sk=t&sd=a&start=30#p587610

For Photos

http://s485.photobucket.com/albums/rr220/rrbum/SEPTA%20Comet%201/

((Photo to the right: EX-NJT 5121: Courtasy of railroad.net's member Boomer))

Brandon S., over the weekend has uploaded a recording the hybrid #8133.

Check it out!

http://www.philadelphiatransitvehicles.info/multimedia/displayimage-148-26.html

[[Photo:right - Courtasy of Jayayess1190]]