17-02-16 PHOTOS: Hudson Line

In recent years I have had paid a number of visits to the former New York Central Hudson Line both on the ground and on Amtrak Empire Service trains. A good number of them have enabled me to take video and shoot survey photos, but so far those efforts have been hampered by poor light, weather conditions or both. For this year's trip I tried to do better by booking and earlier train and bringing a DSLR camera. I also got lucky with implied verbal concert to ride in the rear vestibule and I took advantage of the opportunity to survey the Metro North portion of the line, something I had not done until now. You can view the full set of photos covering everything on the Hudson Line from the West Side through to Albany here.

Crossing the Harlem River via the Inwood movable bridge, my Empire Service train enters Metro North territory at the old DV interlocking.

MNRR P32AC-DM #205 was doing some extreme wrong railing all the way over on track #1 to avoid delaying our movement.

Passing an inbound MNRR M7 trainset at Ludlow and an M3 trainset at Hastings-on-Hudson as my train proceeds north on Track 2.

 

Outbound push-pull train led by MNRR P32AC-DM #224 making a stop at Dobbs Ferry.

 Surviving New York Central signal gantry just north of Ardsley.

Old OW tower under the new Tappen Zee bridge.

MoW work at CP-26 through Philipse Manor. 

Inbound push-pull train led by MNRR P32AC-DM #219 stopped at Ossining.

 Sing Sing trench.

M7 trainset sitting north of Croton-Harmon.

Surviving CD Tower north of the MNRR Harmon shoppe complex.

MNRR Oscawana Tunnel, a favourite location for photographers.

Bear Mountain Bridge and tunnel.

MNRR P32AC-DM #211 pushing a Poughkeepsie Shoreliner train north of Bear Mountain.

Outside of Poughkeepsie we were stopped for about 15 minutes because of a lack of platform space. This is not an uncommon occurrence and I have wondered why MNRR does not reactivate Track 5 or store trainsets somewhere else. Eventually southbound Amtrak train #290 pulled out ahead of another MNRR push-pull train with P32AC-DM #225.

New Haven painted P32AC-DM #231 and it's attached trainset were taking up track 3. The old track 5 is visible between #231 and the station.

With only one track available Poughkeepsie, southbound Amtrak empire Train #238 had to wait north of CP-75 for my train to clear up.

Amtrak Rhinecliff Station with snow. Above Poughkeepsie the amount of snow still on the ground rapidly increased. 

Southbound Empire Train #284 at Catskill.

CSX SD60I #8763 hanging out with another unit at Hudson, NY. CSX typically maintains a pair of engines at the Hudson, NY yard to handle local freight deliveries dropped off by trains bound for New York City. 

The General Railway Signal supplied Traffic Control System allows intermediate signals to "float" in both directions after a train has passed. Here the milepost 181 Conrail style automatic signals deliver up side-by-side Y/*G* Approach Limited indications. 

At CP-125 the Schodak Branch diverges to make the climb up to the level of the former Conrail Boston Line. which crosses the Hudson River via the Alfred H Smith bridge. Note the classic NY Central small target searchlit cantilever. 

I'll leave you with this view of the NY Thurway Castleton Bridge standing directly upstream of the NYC Alfred H. Smith Bridge.

Next week we'll do this all again, just with video ;-)