Holmesburg Junction
Torresdale is the most northern station in the City of Philadelphia on the SEPTA Trenton Line. The very suburban nature of the area the station is located in doesn't make this very obvious since it is still nearly 15 miles to Center City. The station is a non-accessible, grade-separated stop with two low-level, almost track-level side platforms. These platforms have sets of wooden steps in other places to reduce the large step up to the train doors on the main local tracks.
The station has a total of 331 parking spaces in two parking lots of similar sizes along each platform. These aren't SEPTA owned but are Philadelphia Parking Authority Municipal Parking Lots. The two platforms are connected by the sidewalk along underpass of Grant Avenue, that crosses under the Northeast Corridor just north of the station platforms that run south.
The City Center-bound platform lot is tucked between the Northeast Corridor and I-95 and is at the same elevation as the platform, extending south of the platform about 250 feet. At the northern end of the parking lot, is the stations white with gabled roof station house. This building contains a ticket office still open as of 2024 for one weekday shift during the morning. A small porch extends from the station house to provide two benches under cover but there are no other amenities for waiting passengers. The platform ends 100 feet beyond the north end of the depot. In this area the station's driveway dips down significantly to reach the underpass of Grant Avenue that crosses under both the railroad and I-95. In this area there is both a staircase directly alongside the railroad down to Grant Avenue (the services as the pedestrian underpass between the two platforms) and an intermediate staircase down the grassy knoll to the driveway.
The Trenton-bound platform has just a single black with a white domed bus shelter for waiting passengers. It is at a higher elevation than the parking lot below, and contains a concrete wall with some Keystones embedded in it from the Pennsylvanian Railroad Days. This parking lot is triangular (ending with just a single one-way driveway exit only driveway at its southern end), along with a single entrance roadway towards the middle of the parking lot from James Street that is parallel to the railroad line. A total of three sets of steps lead down to exit the Trenton-bound platform, the number of steps needed to reach the parking lot becoming fewer farther from the underpass of Grant Avenue. The most northern set of steps is at the northern end of the platform. It leads to an intermediate landing along the corner of the parking lot, before continuing down to the Grant Street underpass to provide the pedestrian connection to the City Center-bound platform.
Along the edge of the parking lot, by this staircase's intermediate landing is a mural. The mural is part of the City of Philadelphia MuralArtsProgram and is Welcome to East Torresdale by Jared Bader. It consists of a pastoral screen modeled after postcards that were common at the turn of the twentieth century. Text says Welcome to East Torresdale at the top of the mural before showing a horse and buggy going under the railroad line with a much larger station house across the tracks. The bottom of the mural says "Tunnel and Station, Torresdale, Pa."
Photos 1-53: March 27, 2013;
