Jersey Mike's Rail Adventures: January 2003

Wednesday, January 8, 2003

03-01-08 CLASSIC PHOTOS: LIRR Loops

It's the holiday season and that means it is once again time for me to dig into my big bag of toys and pull out an extra special present for everyone. Between March of 2002 and July of 2003 there was a small window of opportunity where I not only had a "newfangled" digital camera, but also the means to employ it on huge epic day trips to the New York City area. In this period of time I managed to go on some some trips that, in hindsight, were quite remarkable and until now were almost completely unavailable since 10 years ago web space was at a severe premium and not only did I have to keep the web photos small, but also take down down after a few weeks.

As you might be aware, from time to time I have been posting "Classic" Photo sets where I go back and re-process the photos to modern standards and give them (hopefully) permanent hosting. In this set I feature an LIRR trip I took in the winter of 2003. This trip was enabled by fellow Subchatter American/Spider Pig and consisted of taking NJT to NYP, then the LIRR to Long Branch, Bus to Far Rockaway, LIRR train back to Jamaica, then alother train to Valley Stream, shuttle to West Hempstead, bus to Hempstead and then finally an LIRR train back to Atlantic Ave.

You can find all the photos here and let me assure you they almost all provide a fascinating blast back into the past. This is going to result in a rather long photo set, but whatever, there's just too much cool involved.

We start off with some photos taken from the front of the then-new Comet V coach which provided a fleeting railfan view on NJT. At Edison I caught a southbound 3-car Keystone train hauled by an AEM-7.

Amtrak LINCOLN tower at Metutchen. The blue tint of the window just makes everything look colder.

The un-resignaled UNION tower.

Suspended 90L signal at DOCK displaying Approach.

76L signal at DOCK displaying Medium Clear with an outbound PATH train.

Another outbound PATH train at the PRR amber PL signal bridge between HUSTON and DOCK interlockings. Visible is the 8R signal for HUDSON interlocking which is still controlled from the 1911 era manned interlocking tower.

Running on signals at HUDSON interlocking with the 12R compact type PRR Position Light showing Approach.

HUDSON's now removed 62R signal displaying Approach Medium. These signals would be removed in conjunction with the high density cab signaling project between DOCK and New York Penn.

Switching to the LIRR remember when the LIRR still had railfan windows? Oh man those were the days. Here we see HAROLD tower passing through HAROLD interlocking.