It’s not every day that the New York Daily News has a story about something that happened at Cynwyd Station. Yes, that’s our Cynwyd Station, where the trains come and go about four times a day – weekdays only. Then again, it’s not every day when an Amtrak Train supposedly on its way to New York, winds up anywhere it doesn’t belong, much less at Cynwyd Station.
Amtrak’s Snafu occurred on November 13, 2013. The following day on Trainweb.org under the heading of “Railfan Pictures of the Day,” John Almeida posted several photos of a hapless Amtrak train stranded at Cynwyd Station, along with this report:
“Amtrak Keystone Train 644 made an unscheduled stop on its way from Harrisburg to New York via Philadelphia. Apparently they were have some issues with the cab car 9639 so after departing Philadelphia 32 minutes late, it was decided that they should run west up to 52nd Street on SEPTA’s Cynwyd Line, switch ends and run through the subway at Zoo back onto the NEC with AEM-7AC 904 leading east. Well at least that was the plan. But instead of stopping just west of the signal at 52nd Street, the train continued on two miles to the end of the line, stopping a car length short of the bumper post at Cynwyd Station in Bala Cynwyd PA.”
The story stayed on “the down-low” until CBS-3 picked it up almost a week later on November 19. The following day, newspapers and websites across the country reported on the freak occurence at Cynwyd Station.