page_title: GE Silverliner IV
section_title: Modifications
hierarchical_section_title: GE Silverliner IV / Modifications
caption_attribution_description: This four car SEPTA Philadelphia Regional Rail GE Silverliner IV consist had just ended an afternoon westbound "Bryn Mawr Local" run over the Paoli/Thorndale line (formerly R5) as SEPTA TR#9543 on track #4 of the Amtrak "Keystone Corridor" (the former Pennsylvania Railroad "Main Line"). It is seen here led by SPAX#313 as it reversed direction at the Bryn Mawr electro-pneumatic interlocking (MP 10.20) being relocated from westbound track #4 to eastbound track #2 to head back east to the University City station to begin its run as SEPTA TR#444 to Warminster, PA on the Warminster line. The two story building in the background is the now shuttered 1895 vintage Bryn Mawr Interlocking Control Tower adjacent to the Bryn Mawr station that was closed after a fire in 1994. The Bryn Mawr interlocking is now operated remotely from Paoli.
context_page_description: The Silverliner IV is an electric railcar designed and built by General Electric. This was the fourth generation railcar in the Silverliner family of single level EMUs and it is currently used by Philadelphia's SEPTA Regional Rail.
  The 232 car order of Silverliner IV cars, delivered between 1973 and 1976, represented the largest order of the Silverliner series to date and allowed for the retirement of most of the Reading 'Blueliner' and PRR MP54 MU cars, dating from at least the 1930s, that were still running on their respective Reading and Pennsylvania Railroad systems. Three times the size of the previous Silverliner orders put together, the Silverliner IVs became SEPTA's standard passenger rail vehicle from 1976 on. Like the Silverliner IIs and IIIs before them, the IVs were owned by SEPTA and provided to the private railroads for use in their state supported commuter rail operations until SEPTA took over direct operation in 1983.
context_section_description: The Silverliner IVs have never been officially rebuilt, but there have been a number of modifications to the class.  The propulsion system was initially upgraded from the original mercury arc–based Ignitron rectifiers to more reliable solid state silicon controlled rectifiers and later the main transformers had their coolant replaced with one that did not contain PCBs.  As this change was carried out in the early 1990s, all of the 9000 series Reading cars and some of the Penn Central cars were renumbered into the series 400 through 460 to help keep track of which units had undergone the modification.  When the Center City Commuter Connection opened in 1984, the Reading cars were converted to full train automatic door operation to take advantage of the high level platforms at the new Market East Station (now Jefferson Station) and others on the former PRR "side" of the system.  In the late 1990s the fleet received its most noticeable upgrade with the original "ketchup and mustard" colored interior replaced with a softer gray motif as well as softer seating.  Around 2004 SEPTA began to replace the cowcatcher pilots equipped on the original Reading cars with a bar type pilot to match those on the PRR cars.  Starting in 2009 SEPTA began to replace the original Faiveley pantographs with more modern Schunk type units.
caption: SEPTA GE Silverliner IV at Bryn Mawr, PA, interlocking
exif: {"Image ImageWidth": "6016", "Image ImageLength": "4000", "Image BitsPerSample": "[8, 8, 8]", "Image PhotometricInterpretation": "2", "Image Make": "NIKON CORPORATION", "Image Model": "NIKON D3200", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image SamplesPerPixel": "3", "Image XResolution": "150", "Image YResolution": "150", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CS5 Macintosh", "Image DateTime": "2017:04:05 23:07:19", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "308", "GPS GPSVersionID": "[2, 3, 0, 0]", "Image GPSInfo": "1036", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "1150", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "8820", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/125", "EXIF FNumber": "13", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Aperture Priority", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "140", "EXIF SensitivityType": "Recommended Exposure Index", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0230", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2017:04:05 15:55:46", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2017:04:05 15:55:46", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "4", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "870723/125000", "EXIF ApertureValue": "7400879/1000000", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "21/5", "EXIF SubjectDistance": "4294967295", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire", "EXIF FocalLength": "85", "EXIF SubSecTime": "60", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "60", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "60", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "2840", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1838", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "1004", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CVAPattern": "[0, 2, 0, 2, 0, 1, 1, 2]", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "127", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF GainControl": "None", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "0"}