08-10-12 PHOTOS: E180th St Woodside

So on my way back from the NY Capitol Region for a fall foilage fest I decided to do a little signal documentation at two vulnerable locations in the city. The first was E 180TH interlocking in the Bronx and its associated Dyre Ave Line, which are the last remaining segments of un-resignaled IRT on the NYCS, The second was WOOD intelrocking at the Woodside LIRR station which was undergoing an "upgrade" which included the use of cheesy colour light signals.

Due to the lack of a railfan view on the IRT I could only get side shots on the Dyre line which really killed the quality. Not much more to say here so I'll just cover most things in the photo descriptions.

The full set of photos can be viewed here. I urge you all to go take a look at them.

First I rode through E180th interlocking to Bronx Parkway on the (2) Train. There I took pics of some of the E180th approach signals before getting on a southbound 2 train back to the E180th station.

Anyway, here is the 38L signal showing a Clear signal. 

Note the Green over Red and red number plate indicating these are signals displaying aspects in the old IRT system in which each route a train could take was given its own independent signal head with red being used as a placeholder in a similar style to full size Railroads. For example a clear signal on the main route would be G/R or G/R/R. An caution signal on the second slower speed route would be R/Y or R/Y/R.

In the case of the 38L signal you just saw it only had one route therefore its second head only had a red placeholder lamp (with a call-on light below that). The 40L signal slightly down the tracks has a route into the yard so its lower head gets an additional yellow light for that route.

Of course E180TH intelrocking is most well known for its unique tri-headed IRT signals, which resemble some sort of strange black cast iron cactus. The IND/BMT style signals do not allow for more than two main-line routes in this fashion and therefore intelrockings have to engineered to always give trains a simple diverging or straight message. At E180TH they could just add an extra head.

E180TH interlocking is also cool for having this double slip switch.

All of this is controlled from the big US&S Model 14 interlocking machine inside E180TH tower, which is the last major electro-mechanical tower on the mainline IRT.

08-10-10 PHOTOS: Selkirk Colours

What is fall without foilage? Well, a warmer version of winter that's what, but thanks to living in a temperate climate we get to watch the leaves turn all sorts of fancy warm shades and fall off the tree. This is especially nice in upstate NY where that period between green and brown last more than a few hours. Last Italian American Appreciation Day I took another one of my trips up to the Capitol District for a little hiking in the Catskills as well as some railfanning. I out to see if the CSX destruction of classic NYC searchlight signals on the Selkirk Branch had been completed and while the results of that search was rather disappointing, I did come away with some wonderful fall photos.

My trek went from CP-169 at Hoffmans where the Selkirk Branch meets the Hudson Line to become the Chicago Line, down past CP-SH where the Carmine Branch joins. I then continued down to the Fullers Flyover Bridge at US 20.

All of the railfan related photos can be seen here and if you are interested the Catskill photos can be seen here

Now on with the show.

We'll start out with the classic NY Central signal bridge at CP-169 where the Chicago Line begins. The signal track to the left is the Hudson Line used by Amtrak Empire and LD trains and also maintained by Amtrak. The two tracks to the right are the Selkirk Branch which was built in the 1920's along with Selkirk yard as a freight bypass of the congested Albany terminal and its steep West Albany Hill (well, not that steep, NYC steam was just wussy). Today this line is used by all CSX freight to and from Boston and the new Jersey ports. The Huston Line gets a straight shot through the interlocking so all through freight trains have to make a diverging movement here at CP-169.

I love using this picture as an example of American grade crossing protections on overseas signaling sites. I think the sign says it all.

I was lucky enough to catch this train or autoracks coming around the curve where the Selkirk Branch flies over the Hudson Line with SD40-2 #8439 in the lead and in the #2 position is a former Conrail painted C40-8W #7302.

After a little cross country trek I was rewarded with this prime and increasingly rare example of a New York Central cantilever signal mast. These used to be all over the electrified region untilthe dickheads at Metro North thought it would be a clever thing to tear them all down. This one was thankfully spared from the recently CSX re-signaling efforts on the Selkirk Branch.

The small target GRS model SA searchlights are in the offset automatic signal" position and serve as the distant signal to CP-169. The best ether can display is Approach Medium.

08-10-04 PHOTOS: Washington Union Station Centennial

Nothing beats having a date to date your photos! Anyway last Octobre was the 100th birthday of the Washington Union Terminal complex which opened its doors as a joint venture between the PRR, B&O and several other railroads. It also provided a wonderful opportunity to hang out at the station taking photos of whatever one wished without getting swarmed by security.

Amtrak really pulled out the stops for this celebration with private varnish and private horsepower showing up from all across the east coast to represent all of the fallen flag railroads that used to call at Union Station. These included preserved E-unit diesels from the C&O, Atlantic Coast Line, Southern RR and Pennsylvania railroad. In addition to the diesel units there was a plethora of private cars also representing the aforementioned railroads. Amtrak, MARC and the FRA also put out some of their own rolling stock (can you say freebie) for the public to traipse through.

The real star of the show was PRR GG-1 #4935 which was towed from the RR Museum of Pennsylvania in Strasbourg just for the event.

Because the celebration was taking place on a weekend I drove to Greenbelt and then took the metro into Union Station (Green line to Red Line via Ft Totten). Before the gates were opened I got some good short from the Union Station parking deck.

Anyway the whole stack of photos can be viewed at the somewhat usual location.

And now for some teaser photos that will be of surprisingly good quality (for once).

I'll start off with a video of my Green Line train departing Greenblt and crossing over to the proper track. The DC Metro is actually pretty railfan friendly with a reverse railfan view available on nearly every train.



I will skip past the pictures of B&O signals and cut right to a solid train of 1000 series cars on the Red Line at Ft. Totten. (As seen on Wikipedia)

A train of CSX autoracks snaked through QN Tower interlocking adjacent to the WMATA Red Line.

K tower and the entire terminal throat.

K-tower close up with an AEM-7 hauled regional is departing from the lower level while an HHP-8 hauled regional waits on one of the high level platforms.

Here is some video of the departing Regional. Pardon my zoom.



3 P42's lay over on the lower level next to a pair of AX trainsets in the Acela section of the high level.

Dwarf CPL's abound in front of K-Tower from track level.

Anyway, here is the only surviving E3 unit in its ACL sitting next to Bennett Levin's PRR E8's.

08-09-12 PHOTOS: CMSL at Richland

Last September the CMSL completed work at its Richland station to install a storage siding funded by the local town government. I was on hand to take some pictures on the first day of operations. Also in this set were some pictures of CSX MoW work near my place in Baltimore and some disturbing pictures of Lord Xenu's forces at 30th St station in Philadelphia.

The new Richland siding ran from a bumper block at the station on Rt 40 to new switch just east of the railroad crossing south of town. The siding switch was attached to a radio base that would announce on the road channel when the switch was opened.

Not much more to it than that so I'll just dive into the pictures. You can find the whole set here

Here M410 crosses the Rt 552 crossing several miles south of Richland on its northbound trip from Tuckahoe. 

The standard CMSL trainset was being pushed by PRR #7000.

The 25mph track speed made the train easy to catch as it entered the new siding. Here is M410 again.

08-08-30 PHOTOS: Schenectady Station

Last Labour Day I took another trip to visit my friend who was living in Schenectady, NY. On this trip I did a few non-railfanning activities like climbing to the top of Buck Mountain next to Lake George in the Adirondacks and also spending an afternoon at Saratoga Racetrack. And why I do have photos of Mountain scenery and non-Iron horses, most people reading this would be more interested in the walk I took around the Schenectady Amtrak Station

The station is situated on Amtrak's Hudson Line between the busy Albany station terminal complex and where CSX takes over MoW duties at CP-169. It consists of an island platform with interlockings on each end. CP-160 is the west end of a controlled siding that continues to CP-157 and also provides a link to the former Delaware and Hudson trackage currently used by the Adirondack, Ethan Allen and Saratoga terminating Empire trains. On the east end of the station is CP-159 which allows trains to continue on the main track past CP-157 yet still access the north side of the island platform and the D&H connector.

The Schenectady station is situated on the former 4-track right of way of the New York Central Main line and you can see the remains of the other island platform and bridge truss that served the other pair of tracks. Today the line is mostly single track between LAB tower in Albany and where the Selkirk freight bypass track joins the line at CP-169 in Hoffmans.

Even tho the route is dispatched by CSX, Amtrak maintains the line and is the priority user. The route is cab signaled all the way to CP-169 which keeps a lot of casual CSX through freight off of it. Strains stopping daily at the SDY station include 3 Empire round trips to Niagara Falls, the Maple Leaf to Tornoto, the Lake Shore Limited to Chicago, the Ethan Allen express to Rutland, the Adirondack to Montreal and possibly another Empire train to Saratoga although I think this train was cut back to Albany.

Alrighty, enough with the chit-chat and onto the photos.

Those who prefer self-guided tours can view the entire set here.

Let's start off with this picture I took of the now closed HUDSON tower at the old Manhattan Transfer location on Amtrak's NEC just past Newark Penn Station. Note the millage sign denoting the change in Millage from New York Sunnyside to Jersey City as a basis point. 

The station building consists of an Amshack (not pictures) at street level with stairs leading up to a correctly labeled low level island platform shown here. You can see some people waiting for the next Empire train.

The train soon arrived pulled by P32DM #719. it is interesting seeing Amtrak using its scarce dual mode locos to haul empire trains all the way out to Buffalo and back when it might be better to do a power change and put two P32's on the heavy LSL.

The train served to light up the signals at CP-160 before departing.

08-08-01 PHOTOS: San Jose VTA

I apologize for going nearly two months without a photo update, but my web hosting provider went down for about the last month and before that I was getting ready for my big Chicago trip. Anyway, my primary website is back online and its time for me to bite the bullet and do the write-up for my big trip to the 17th annual USENIX Security Symposium in San Jose, CA last August.

I used this trip to explore the VTA light rail system and the San Jose Amtrak/Caltrain station. Over the course of the week I rode 3 of the 4 legs of the VTA Light rail and also took a CalTrain trip to/from San Carlos and also inbound from Mt View after an outbound VTA trip.

It's fascinating how nice everyone is out in CA. When employees came up to me it was always to ask if I wanted to take pictures of something or where I could go to get a cab ride pass. For a moment I thought I had accidentally wound up in Canada!!

Might as well cut to the photos. You can see the entire set here. You can also keep reading to enjoy the cream that came off the top.

Starting off at the Diridon Station we see an Altamont Commuter Express train laying over next to a Caltrain set both headed by F40s (#911 and #3101). ACE trains have been running into congestion problems as they run through the Altamont pass with UP freight traffic.

Here is a closer view of F40PH-2C #3101.

At the south end of the station complex is CP-CAHILL where the line condenses down to a single track for the trip to Gillroy (Caltrain) and beyond (Coast Starlight). To the right an Amtrak California trainset headed by Am-Cal #2004 used in Capitol Corridor service is the only resident of the nearly empty Diridon Station yard which has been deprecated in favor of the new Caltrain Maintenance Facility about a mile up the tracks.

Here we have Caltrain F40PH-2CAT #901 departing under a clear signal at CP-JULIAN as it begins its trip north to San Francisco.

Check out this video of CP-JULIAN from the rear of an arriving CalTrain.



Caltrain uses fairly new gallery car equipment on most of its trains. Here is #4021 preparing to depart North with train #73.

08-07-12 PHOTOS: Trains, Planes and Streetcars

On a Saturday last July I decided to go pick up a friend from the airport by way of the Baltimore Streetcar Museum. As that did not kill enough time I then went and waited with a friend on the glidepath of BWI Runway 10, just where it crosses the NEC to watch her plane land. By the end of the day I was able to fan light rail, heavy rail and aircraft. A fine example of sort of coordinated multimodel fanning that is possible in th 21st century.

 All of the photos can be found on this page. The most interesting of those and additional Youtube clips can be found below. 

Starting with the BSM they had most of the fleet out and running presenting a very colorful show that was very heavy on the yellow. Here we have PCC 7303, rebuilt single truck trolley #4533 and 1930's car #6119. (Dan Lawrence can fill in the details ;-) ) 
 

Recently puchased Philly PCC car #2168 has been re-guaged and is sitting on the new yard track in front of the museum. 

 The BSM's snow sweeper was also out on display.

  #4533 returns from a run passing under the CSX Philly line overpass. 

 Cab of #4533 at the end of the line with the old M&P roundhouse visible out th window. 

 
 BSM #4533 passes ex-PTC #2728 still on the Philly guage track in the BSM storage area. 

 Here's a video documenting the complete trip from the 28th St loop back to the carbarn.