12-07-06 PHOTOS: An R32 Day on the A

One of the many highlights of Summer, right up there with baseball and trips to the shore is the now annual appearance of R32's on the A. No longer confined to dismal local runs under the ground, the A assignment allows the venerable Budd cars to stretch their legs on long express runs and even see the light of day as they emerge from the tunnel and head out to points in Queens and the Rockaways.

Over the July 4th Holiday period I headed up to New York City to take advantage of this wonderful opportunity and shoot some HD video from the large and surprisingly clean railfan windows. Most of the video segments will be put into a follow up post, but here is a compilation of still photographs I took during the outing, the complete set of which can be found here.

We begin in Trenton where Amtrak train #79 or 89 has arrived with an extra heritage baggage car on the head end. The pair includes #1708 in a Phase IV scheme and 1763 in the current scheme,

Here we see R32 #3442 on the rear of a southbound train at Penn Station with an R160 E train passing by on the local track.

Cab of R32 #3427 at 207th St.

R32's #3607 and #3841 laying over at 207th St.

An R32 at Canal street facing a Clear signal after having waited for the E-Train connection across the platform.

That same train now departing southbound along with the E train on the local track.



The closed and cinderblocked Canal St tower.

Train of R32's on the A arriving northbound at Penn Station.



Same train departing northbound and racing a an E-train of R160's on the adjacent track.



Arriving R32 #3818 at Dr. Van Nostrand Ave.

Train of R32's emerging from the hole at Liberty Jct.

View of the Rockaway LIRR elevated line at the 822 signal. In just a matter of months everything here except for the trestle was destroyed by Hurricane Sandy. This foresight by the PRR to build an elevated lines here has provided the roving bands of leather clad post-apocalyptic tribesmen that now populate the Rockaways critical mobility as they go about their daily fight for survival. 

Another R32 train making its stop at Beach 25th St.

 Approach Medium indication at MOTT AVE interlocking as our train heads into the Far Rockaway terminal.

In this video you can watch as my train of R32's crosses over at Mott Ave and then running to Beach 25th.



Unfortunately there were still some evil R46's running on the A, but fortunately I was not on this one that I spotted at Beach 50th.

Here in the last photo we see another outbound R32 equipped A train with #3870 in the lead as it pulls into the Howard Beach station.

That's it for the photos. Stay tuned for the video segment of today's show.