23-11-04 PHOTOS: Grand Central Madison

In 2023 the opening of East Side Access, partly rebranded as the name of its new terminus Grand Central Madison, was all the rage. While the excitement would soon turn to disappointment as the LIRR completely botched the resulting service changes, the new GCM remained a must see, so myself and a friend arranged a day trip to NYC with plans to visit PORT interlocking and tower in Freeport, Long Island, traveling into GCM and getting some clean up photos at the M Cabin drawbridge in Long Island City. On the day of the trip I even achieved an unanticipated bonus goal of getting an extended amount of rear facing NEC photos from the back of my NJT train into Penn Station. You can see the full set of photos here ( mirror ).

First up we have an NJT NEC line train comprised of single level stock and a leading Comet V cab car, stopped at MENLO interlocking to wait for my train to pass by and platform at Metropark while a southbound Amtrak Regional train led by ACS-86 #637 pulls away on track #4..

Westbound signals at UNION interlocking with an NJT ALP-46 just visible at the Rahway platform on Track #B.

The DOCK drawbridges, tower and PATH ramps.

Amtrak MoW MP15D at Manhattan Transfer.

PORTAL bridge with the new bridge construction to the right.

NJT ALP-45 #4516 at ALLIED interlocking.

Video from the rear window of the entire North River tunnel from BERGEN interlocking to Penn Station.



Arriving New York Penn Station.

Heritage painted Amtrak P32AC-DM #713 waiting to depart with an Empire corridor train.

LIRR M7's #7692 and #7448 adjacent to Pennsylvania Tunnel and Terminal Railroad milepost zero.

LIRR Babylon Branch M7 #7565 passing the 2E position light mast signal at PORT interlocking. PORT was re-signaled around 2005, just before the LIRR stopped installing new position light type signals.

An inbound Babylon Branch train bracketed by M7's #7739 and #7188 arrives at Freeport.