15-12-27 PHOTOS: Keep on the Sunnyside

I can't speak for everyone, but the novelty of riding the same historic subway cars over the same route year after year has its limits. This is why my new policy is to pair my quasi-annual nostalgia train excursion with something else in the NYC metro area. Two years ago I had some success visiting some LIRR signals in Queens and this year I settled on a little walking tour of Sunnyside Yard via the Honeywell Bridge.

The weather wasn't super cooperative, but that's December for you. You can see the entire set of photos here.

The early morning fog was making things a little Erie at the Trenton Transportation Center after connecting from a RiverLINE parking shuttle. The circling murder of crows only added to the unnerving atmosphere. At least the signals were putting on a show.

R1/9 #100 sitting at Second Ave. About 5 minutes prior a surly NYCTA employee, angry I would not tell him "what I was looking at" (answer, 5 FTE's sitting around getting paid to do nothing on a Sunday morning) told me that the holiday train had been canceled. Yeah, fuck you too buddy. 

The success of the holiday Nostalgia Train program is undeniable, however the increasing popularity has pushed out the original fans in favor of yuppies and hipsters who wouldn't be able to tell an R1 from an R9 if one trapped them in the doors and dragged them along the platform. The only way to get a halfway descent ride is to show up for the first run and even then the train quickly went SRO.

To avoid the crush at the railfan window, this year I employed my GoPro to stand there for me. Videos to follow in an additional post.

#100 at Queens Plaza waiting on its Diverging Approach Restricting signal.

R1/9 #401 getting the flash treatment at 2nd Ave.

BMT Triplex #6112 was on hand as a popup Transit Museum annex.

Articulations allow subway performers and beggars to pass easily between cars. The experiment was not repeated in an effort to keep the population under control.

Workin the doors the old fashioned way at Queens Plaza. 

Unoccupied interlocking tower at Queens Plaza with a 1930's vintage GRS Model 5 interlocking machine.

Train of R188s passing through 74th St on the (7).

Evidence of the re-signaling project now under way.

Here we see the old HAROLD tower and the Sunnyside Yard car washer. The washer is actually not a new innovation, its construction dating back to the PRR. Note the ancient tank car that stores some of the wash fluid.

Actually managed to catch the arriving Amtrak Silver Meteor trainset heading through the washer with Amtrak ACS-86 #637.

I got some video of the process as well.



LIRR M7 #7457 clunking through HAROLD interlocking, currently under reconstruction for the ESA Boondoggle.

Things were all quiet in Sundayside Yard, but the lack of traffic opened up some photo angles.

ACS-86 #621 was lined to depart at the head of Train 19, the Crescent. 

Amtrak #621 departing through Q interlocking with Train 19. Note how it passes 5 Slow Approach signals in a row. This is due to the classic interlocking logic in the 1911 US&S electro-pneumatic interlocking machine still serving in Q tower.



NJT Comet V #6060 standing along side Amtrak AX power car #2016.

NJT ALP-45 #4525.

I remember those photos showing this track full of GG1's. Now it's just a trio of ACS-86's #631, 608 and 609.

R interlocking and the SSY HST maintenance facility.

Remember Amtrak #621 and the Train 19 set I caught departing Sunnyside Yard? Well I managed to beat it to Trenton using NJT :-)

Train 19 departing Trenton on a Limited Clear.



RiverLINE parking shuttle #3520B departing Bordentown.

Well that's all for the photos. Check in next week for the video segment.