17-02-18 PHOTOS: Schenectady Stuff

Well the second part of my 2017 trip to the NY Capitol District is focused on the Schenectady area due to the ongoing re-signaling efforts and replacement of the Amshackle downtown passenger station. In addition to those photos are also included some shots of the Albany-Rensselaer Station I took on my way back south. You can find the full set of photos here.

First up we have what I believe is Amtrak Train #63, the northbound Maple Leaf, led by Amtrak P42DC #96 as it passes the MP 161 automatic signal at Scotia, NY.

The Schenectady Station it had just departed is currently in the midst of getting a new high level island platform amoung other upgrades.

Back in the day the station used to have two island platforms, 4 tracks and also served the D&H.

The old waiting room and ticket office, dating from the Amshack era, will be replaced by a completely new building.

The northbound Adirondack, with Amtrak P42DC #105, pauses at Schenectady before switching over to the former D&H route for the trip to Montreal. 

Video of Train #69 departing Schenectady.

17-02-16 VIDEOS: Hudson Line North

Like the photo surveys, I have also done a number of rear and front facing video surveys of the Hudson Line. Last year I documented the entire Amtrak section north of CP-75 and south of DV. Previously I had done the MNRR portion between Croton-Harmon and GCT. All that remained was the MNRR section north of Croton and as you can surmise from my photo set, I was indeed able to capture it.



In fact, since the weather was so much better than 2016, I just kept the camera rolling all the way to Albany! This section covers Amtrak Train 281 traveling Poughkeepsie to Rhinecliff. By this point Train 281 was running about 15 minutes late due to a delay at Poughkeepsie because Metro-North did not have a platform available for the train.



Here we have Rhinecliff to Hudson. A recent storm had dumped some snow, but warm day temperatures prevented it from blowing, a phenomena that has ruined survey attempts in the past.



Finally we have the final part between Hudson and Albany-Rensselaer. Note the new CP-138 and the rebuilt Albany terminal interlocking. Our train even platforms on the brand new 4th track!



Well that's it for this week. Next time we'll stay in the Capitol District and check out the work going on around the Schenectady station.

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.