20-01-31 PHOTOS: Schodak

Every year I head up to New York's capitol region for winter activities and 2020 was no different. This year I had targeted some signal locations near the end of the Schodak branch on the former Conrail Hudson Line in addition to the usual fare of Amtrak's Empire Service. Not much more to say except you can find all of the photos here ( mirror ).

As I had caught a very early Amtrak train in darkness, the first thing of note were a bunch of Metro North Shoreliner I cab cars along with P32AC-DM #208 at Croton Harmon.

A southbound tanker meets northbound barge traffic on the Hudson River.

Amtrak P32AC-DM #702 passes under the southbound Conrail vintage signal bridge at CP-124. Today just a simple crossover, this location was once the junction for the northbound leg of the Schodak Branch flying junction with the Hudson Line. Built as part of a 1920's New York Central capacity expansion that included Selkirk Yard and the Alfred H Smith bridge, the Schodak Branch allowed Hudson Line freight trains to climb up to the level of the Smith bridge to cross the Hudson and enter Selkirk Yard.

The northbound leg of the Schodak Branch is now abandoned, but the right of way is still intact with a Central marked railroad bridge crossing NY State Route 91.

The remaining active track of the Schodak branch crosses Route 91 about a mile north of the first bridge.

At the Amtrak Albany-Rensselaer rail station, P42DC power, including #95, had collected on the CP-142 stub track after having been pulled off various through trains. Due to the limited number of P32AC-DMs that are needed to run through Penn Station, certain long distance trains on this route undergo a power change at Albany.

When I was there the eastbound Lake Shore Limited was sitting on the new Track #3 with P42DC's #108 and #110 ready to pull Boston section Train 448 off the front of the train and head down the Post Road Branch towards Boston. The New York section behind it would be handled by a P32AC-DM from the pool.

While visiting the milepost 167 Hudson Line intermediate signal near Hoffmans, NY, an eastbound manifest freight headed across the Mohawk River on the former Conrail Selkirk branch with a pair of distributed CSX ES44AH's, #3048 and #3071, for power. Despite the presence of grade crossings, line speed is 100-110mph because back in the 80's the FRA wasn't trying ro activly hinder high speed rail.

Heading back to New York and points south, my early Sunday morning Empire train was already lined up with Clear signals through CP-142 and CP-141.

Power was P32AC-DC #700.

If New York State is still looking, I happened to catch sight of the Turboliners at Adam's yard in New Jersey.

PRR FAIR tower in Trenton, NJ.

End of the trip, coupled end of ACS-86 #620 at BWI Airport Rail Station.

I'll finish things up with another set of videos taken from the rear of my Empire Service train between Poughkeepsie and Albany. Unlike previous years the sun was out and shining directly into the rear of my train so they are somewhat backlit :-(







Thanks for reading, next week I'm off to Boston to appreciate some vintage Orange Line rolling stock!