09-02-17 PHOTOS: San diego clouds

Last year about this time I shipped off to San Diego for an executive conference on Cloud Computing. It was a pretty swank event with most expenses paid and I was lucky to have the attendance ball drop in my lap, but I was not going to be contented with fillet minion dinners and open bars, so I set off with my camera to document a transit system that gets a relative lack of coverage at least by the folks on the forums I frequent.

San Diego's two major attractions are its trolley and the Coaster commuter rail network. It also sees some Amtrak service in the form of the Pacific Surfliner, but no other long distance trains.

The San Diego Trolley (operating under the Metropolitan Transportation System brand), is widely held to be the first modern light rail transit system in North America using Siemens articulated LRV's. It also made extensive use of having freight trains run on its system before the FRA stopped giving out waivers for that sort of thing. The Trolley pioneered several innovations now common in North American light rail systems such as in-street reservations in the downtown, proof of payment and multiple unit operation.

The SDT consists of three lines, Orange, Blue and Green. The Blue Line was built first in 1981 and is the light rail line in the country that can take you to an international border crossing. This was followed in 1986 by the Orange Line, which used an old ATSF commuter RoW to travel inland. Both of these lines use classic style The new Green Line was opened in 2005 on the I-8 alignment serving the Chargers stadium and a UC San Diego.

Coaster is exactly what it says on the tin and runs up the coast almost to Camp Pendleton. The line is partly equipped with the Automatic Train Stop system which allows for speed of up to 90mph.

I had plenty of opportunity to take pictures around the old ATSF Union Station downtown where the Coaster and Surfliner terminate and Blue and Orange line trolleys also stop. I took a Blue/Green/Orange circle route on the Trolley and also took pictures around the combined Trolley/Coaster yard near the 12th and Imperial transportation center.

You can view all of the photos I took by clicking this link right here or just see the small fraction that I post below.

I will start with the old ATSF depot downtown which has kept most of its original detailing. (Specifically the ATSF tilework on the domes). Here we see the depot with a blue line trolley going past.

The inside was no different. I am sure there is some sort of interesting preservation story associated with this place.

The depot has a total of 6 tracks, 2 trolley and 4 for Amtrak/Coaster. There are two islands and two side platforms. Here we are at the north end of the platforms looking back as a Blue Line trolley departs at night.

Amtrak trainsets are based out of LA so when they arrive in San Diego they don't tend to stay very long. Here is Amtrak F59PHI #455 painted in Operation Lifesaver colors shortly before its departure northbound.

And here it is departing.



Of course the main tenant of the station are the Coaster trains. Coaster uses MPI/M-K built F40PH-2's and those Bombardier octagonal bi-level coaches that don't do so well in crashes. The Coaster trainsets hang out in large yard complex south of the downtown area and have to navigate a long single track segment with lots of grade crossings to get to the station. This track is also used by BNSF freight trains to reach the San Diego freight yards.

Here we have Coaster F40 #2103 waiting at the end of the lead track waiting to proceed across Broadway and platform at Union Station. The light rail tracks are on the left. Uh Oh, do I see bi-lingual warning signs? Someone better call Lou Dobbs!

The south end of the station is non-interlocked so Coaster employs a switchtender to line the routes by hand during the peak periods. Here the tender unlocks the hand throw points while Coaster cab car #2301 passes by.

Here that same trainset trailed by #2301 sits at the depot.

09-01-16 PHOTOS: Schenectady Interlockings

Up until a year ago I had a friend residing in the Capitol District of New York and when I visited I would usually end up forcing him to take me around to various locations to railfan. You have seen some of these photo sets before, but when I learned that he was going to be moving I stepped up my efforts to cover some of the historically interesting signaling locations in his area. The fact that this mission came right after a healthy snow storm only made things better from a photographic point of view.

During this trip over MLK Day a year ago, I managed to cover two interlockings on Amtrak's Hudson Line, CP-156 where the old NYC Carman Branch diverges and CP-159, which is at the east end of Schenectady station, and CPF-483, formerly known as GE interlocking, at the southern end of the D&H Mohawk Yard.

In addition we took a little trip along the Selkirk Branch looking for any surviving searchlight signals as well as the notable railfan location at French's Hollow.

So yeah, these photos are mostly all signals so I'll assume most of you will tune out at this point, but for those of you who are interested the full set of pictures is here.

Alright, I am going to kick things off at CP-156, which, as I mentioned, is the junction of the Hudson Line with the Carman Branch. I have already been to the other end of the Carman Branch at CP-SH back in my fall photo set. The Carman Branch serves as a connection between the Selkirk Branch (which is the Albany freight bypass route) and the Hudson Line, which is Amtrak's high speed passenger line between Albany and CP-169. It is currently used by local freight trains running from Selkirk yard to the West Albany bulk loading facility. CP-156 is also the east end of a controlled siding that runs between here and the Schenectady station. So looking west one would see from left to right, main track, controlled siding, Carman Branch.

Looking back the other way we see the interlocking with the stacked dwarf searchlights for movements coming of the siding and carman Branch. If you notice in the foreground there are vehicle tracks over the rails. This is from persons unknown bypassing the locked gate to the RoW access road.

The 6E stacked searchlight dwarf is in need of a new paint job as it governs movements off the controlled siding. These dwarf arrangements are surprisingly large when you get right up next to them.

The 6W signal governs movements off of a stub track that used to be a second mainline track and now turns into the controlled siding. All the other signals at CP-156 are approach lit, which means that they will only illuminate when a train is approaching, but because the stub track is not track circuited the 6W dwarf must be continuously illuminated.

There was an old building at CP-156. I don't know if it used to be an interlocking cabin or what.

The westbound mast signal at CP-156 has three heads because on the Carman Branch there are no intermediate signals between here and CP-SH so this signal must be capable of displaying Medium Approach Medium.

Zoom shot of the interlocking's ladder arrangement showing the #1 and #3 turnouts to the controlled siding and Carman Branch with the eastbound mast on the left.

Moving onto CP-159 the weather was sunnier, but was much, much colder, probably around 10 or 15 degrees with a wind chill. CP-159 was special for having a surviving New York Central signal gantry for westbound movements.

09-01-15 VIDEO: Let's Ride NYC Subway: Episode 3 - 8th Ave Express

When someone thinks of the quintessential express train they undoubtedly think of the A Train, and where do most people interact with the A Train but on the IND 8th Ave Line. For decades if one was patient and waited enough headways they could eventually catch one of the Railfan Window equipped R38 sets running on the A, but for a brief window in 2008, just before all of the cool R's were scrapped the A came alive with Budds, Slants and even the odd R42.

We now begin our ride on the day after Christmas, 2008, on an R "Slant" 40 departing the 42nd St station on its trip northbound under Central Park West.

Between 42nd and 59th St we traverse the junction with the IND Queens Boulevard Line now used by the E, D and B trains. There is a little problem with some Stop signals around 50th St station, but that soon clears up.



At 59th St we begin perhaps the longest express dash on the NYC Subway System as our train runs 66 street blocks without a stop to 125th St station. Total trip time is six and a half minutes.

Shortly after leaving 125th St the 8th Ave line assumes a double stack configuration with the northbound tracks running on top of the southbound tracks. Later our tunnel has to make some crazy gyrations to get things sorted out to the regular configuration between 103rd and 110th St.



Next we travel express from 125th St to 145th St. This time there are only 2 local stops skipped, but 145th St is a two level station and the junction with the IND Concourse Line where the current B and D services split off. The interlocking north of 125th are just some basic crossovers, but the one south of 145th is much more complicated with ramps for trains heading to the lower "Concourse" level.



Our last video on the Northbound segment of our Ride takes us from 145th to 168th St station, which marks the terminus of the (C) train and the end of the express portion of the A. We pass two local stops, but cannot see them because our tunnel has ducked under the local tracks to then cross us over to the outside track at 168th so that C trains can more easily relay on the center tracks.

08-12-29 PHOTOS: SEPTA Mid-Winter Trip VIII

Ha! I managed to slide it in before the boom lowered. Yes here is the extensive set of photos from last year's SEPTA Mid-Winter trip. Last year the photos were a bit more extensive than years prior due to the extraordinarily good weather. When it's gray and rainy I tend not to care too much about taking pictures of the local scene, but in 2008 there was nary a cloud in the sky for the entire trip allowing for close to ideal photographic conditions.

The itinerary last year consisted of a Southwestern double triangle trip. We started out with a trip on the R2 to Wilmington and Back. Then a walking transfer to the Rt 102 at Sharon Hill, which we rode to 69th St for lunch and then caught a Rt 100 to Norristown for another connection with the R6, which took us to North Broad for a connection to the BSS, up and around the Fern Rock loop and back down to the Rt 15 which was taken to the Westmoreland loop.

So any of you who have thought about attending one of these trips, bur never pulled the trigger CHECK OUT THESE PHOTOS and see what you are missing.

On our trip to Wilmington our R2 local train was stopped at HOLLY interlocking so that we could be overtaken by an ACELA express, just before being passed by one coming in the opposite direction.

Following the ACELA we got a Medium Approach signal pulled up. As we proceeded through the interlocking I noticed that flank protection was applied when trains were routed from the local onto the main. This means that the switch to the freight track was set to divert any train violating the Stop signal out of the way of a colision.



At Wilmington station most of the trip participants confined themselves to the new high level wooden platform which was installed because NS no longer runs freight trains through the station. I got this well lit shot of BRANDY interlocking at the south end of the platform.

On the north end was WINE interlocking, here displaying the signal pulled up for our departing R2 train.

The trip disembarked from SEPTA S-IV #444 at Sharon Hill before making the trek to the Sharon Hill Rt 102 station.

The routes 101 and 102 are currently undergoing a rebuilt, but that project had not yet started in December of 2008. Here are Trolley, #105, ducks under the CSX Philly Sub bridge before arriving at the Sharon Hill station.

We had time to take some pictures of #105 before boarding.

08-11-25 VIDEOS: Let's Ride NYC Subway: Episode 2 - (A) Train Fulton Street

Welcome back to another episode of Let's Ride New York City Subway. In today's episode we are going to ride the Fulton Street Line in Brooklyn between Hoyt Street and 72nd St Grant Ave. We will be riding this line in an R40M made by the St. Louis Car Company (a division of General Steel Industries).

Not allowing myself to be deterred by that cap in the first Episode we begin at Lafayette Ave on the express run to Nostrand Ave. Nothing special about the routing, I was just a little late out of the gate with the video. Despite being a local station Lafayette Ave has an interlocking tower just visible on the right. Also note passing an R38 on the C at Franklyn Ave.



Next up, Nostrand ave to Utica Ave. We are slowed down a little bit into Utica due to workers on the tracks.



Next stop after Utica Ave is Broadway ENY. There is a tower at Utica, but it is only open as needed. Note the A train of R44 charging into the station on the opposite platform as we depart.



Moving right along we now express to the former end of express/local service at Euclid Ave. During this run we are passed by 2 R44 trains on the northbound A.

08-11-25 VIDEO: Let's Ride NYC Subway: Episode 1 - E Train Queens Boulevard

Well, the Railfan Window Era in New York is almost at an end. If you want to experience the thrill of standing at the front of a subway train as it barrels through the tunnel you'll either have to shell out $50 for a Museum Train ticket or an equal amount for a set of Rich Green's Railfan DVD's...or will you?

That's right, as the cool cars were slowly thrown to the bottom of the ocean I stepped into the breach to preserve a video record of the best runs in the city and they are all available for free on the You Tube. So sit back for the first Episode of Let's ride New York City Subway. Today we ride the E Train in an Budd R32.

We begin at Times Square 42nd Street where the E splits off on its trip to Queens taking the diverging route from the local track and descending to the lower level 50th St station.



Skipping ahead a bit to the Lexington Ave station there our train journeys under the East River to 23rd and Ely. Note the crossover interlockings on either side of the tunnel.



It's a short local hop from 23rd Ely to Queens Plaza where we are joined by the G Train. The Queens Plaza area has been re-signaled under the Queensboro Master tower with new US&S signals replacing the old GRS units.



Now we're turning up the heat as the E train goes express between Queens Plaza and Roosevelt Ave. This takes us through the new 63rd St junction and under the separate 2-track express tunnel under Northern Boulevard. We re-join the local tracks and then finish up at Roosevelt Ave. We also pass a G or R train and meet an F train at Roosevelt. The interlocking around Roosevelt Ave is controlled by the local interlocking tower.

08-11-25 PHOTOS: (A) Train Lefferts Time Warp

Remember when the NYC Subway used to be cool? Well I do because a year ago when the MTA's plan to take out a City Equity Loan to finance $1 billion dollars worth of new rolling stock was going into full swing I embarked on a concerted effort to visit the city more and document what was soon to be lost.

Now because most of the RFW equipped cars ran underground most of my documentation efforts came in video form, but when the trains would emerge from their subterranean lairs I could take some pictures the old fashioned way. One of these occasions was on the Liberty Ave el between Grant Ave and Lefferts Ave in Queens. In an ironic twist of fate things got cooler before they got lame with all sorts of fun R trains appearing on the A.

You can see ALL of the photos at by CLICKING THIS LINK or just some of the photos by reading on.

You might also remember that a year ago we were in the midst of a major financial meltdown. To commemorate this event I took a picture of this Banker waiting for a train at the Wall Street (A)(C) station.

Moving on here is a shot of the tower at Hoyt St. You can make out the model board and the GRS Model 5 pistol grip interlocking machine.

Here the A train mounts the liberty El just past Grant Ave.

Number 30 signal at the intelrocking at 80th St.

R44 #5400 emerges from the hole at Rockaway Blvd interlocking.