For my 2025 visit to New York Capital Region I turned my attention south of the city to Amtrak's Post Road Branch and the former Conrail Boston Line to revisit some infrastructure I had not kept up on for over 15 years. Unfortunately actual encounters with train movements was rather slim so I have included additional photos from SS72 DEVON junction on the New Haven Line plus some MARC Camden Line activity so I hope you all find this worth your while.
Albany can be considered the Harrisburg of the New York Central. A major hub located in an eastern state capitol that has to coordinate multiple flows of freight and passenger rail traffic. Located at the junction of the old New York and Hudson River, Mohawk and Hudson, Boston and Albany and West Shore Railroads this created quite a bottleneck in the downtown Albany area where all of these rail lines met. Operations were further complicated by a pair of swing span drawbridges and "stiff" (for the New York Central) grades on both sides of the Hudson Valley. All of these problems were solved by the 1924 Castleton Cutoff that provided a low grade freight route that completely bypassed Albany and Schenectady. The signature work of engineering was the high level Alfred H. Newman Smith bridge over the Hudson River Valley. The entire mile long bridge recently underwent a renovation that cleared the right of way, repaired the steel supports and re-pointed the concrete footings.
You can see some of the specific work that was carried out with replacement beams and gusset plates painted a lighter shade of brown and the new concrete also readily apparent. The new steel also used high strength bolts instead of hot rivets.
The Smith Bridge features two steel truss spans over the Hudson River navigation channels, one of 404 feet and the other 610 feet.
Despite the renovation work, CSX did not use the opportunity to demolish the old base of SM tower which stood at the eastern end of the bridge where the connecting track to the Hudson Line branched off. Today this branch typically sees a daily overnight freight round trip to and from New York City.
It was here I caught the sole freight train of the trip, the cars making a bit of noise as they pounded the frog on the #3 switch at CP-SM.
My annual winter Boston trip has always involved the challenge of convincing my more normal friends to take a round trip along the full length of the NEC. In the 2010's going overnight on Train 66 was a no-go due to their troubles sleeping on board. For a while a compromise was reached where they would fly up and I would use a companion pass for a return Acela trip. More recently, thanks to Amtrak's new pricing strategy and my tier status perks, we have found ways to make the trip in Acela first class, which my friend finds preferable to flying. Although Boston has a bit of a "been there, done that" feel for me, 2025 would turn out to be the last winter trip to Boston before the Next Gen Acelas entered service. With this I paired a trip to Braintree due to the impending retirement of the early 01500, 01600 and 01700 Red Line stock. You can see both categories of photo here.
Although I live close to the BWI Airport Rail Station, the poor selection of Acela trains often makes it necessary to travel first to DC to then proceed north. While waiting for my southbound MARC train, Amtrak Regional Train 170 pulled into BWI on track #1 with ACS-86 #640.
Arriving Washington Union Station I caught VRE and MARC MP36PH-3C's #V63, #29 and #29 in their respective storage facilities.
The Original Generation Acela sets were getting long in the tooth with train cancellations a frequent occurrence, especially in winter. On my upbound trip I lucked out with my 930am departure departing DC Union Station on time. The Track 19/20 "Acela platform" had two waiting trainsets with power cars #2039 and #2011, with #2039 being the "ultimate" unit of the 40 Acela Express power cars constructed. My party had managed to get window seats at the Row 14/15 4-table, adjacent to the Joe Biden 14A/15A seat pair favored by then Vice President Joe Biden when he was a weekly Acela commuter. While Acela first is a fantastic service, there was still the whiff of Amtrak inconsistency as cut lemons and limes were not stocked for this trip. Fortunately I had remembered to bring my own.
The first arch span of the new PORTAL bridge was in place. The new design is trying hard to make up for replacing an iconic bit of early 20th century engineering, but remains just as soulless just at a higher price point.
At Penn Station we pulled across the platform from NJT ALP-46 #4650.
On the Metro North New Haven Line I managed to snag a photo of New York Central heritage painted P32AC-DM #211.
Passing New Haven, Amtrak Phase III heritage P42DC #145 was still working out of Springfield with ACS-86 #609 on hand for the Regional/Vermonter power changes.
At Boston South Station power car #2035 was on the opposite end of my train and the outdoor train concourse under the new South Station Tower was largely complete.
Delays with the CRRC 01900 series cars have extended the life of the older Boston rolling stock with the bulk of service now being provided by the 01700 and 01800 classes.
The Urban Transportation Development Corporation 01700 series cars, #01754 shown below, are a somewhat updated 1986 copy of the c.1970 01500/01600 series cars built by Pullman Standard. UTDC and its plant in Thunder Bay, Ontario would be taken over by Bombardier Inc who would go on to produce the all-new 01800-series in 1994.
Ages ago when I was going to Boston on a more frequent basis I remember being scared to travel to Braintree because nobody could give me an answer on if the trains would discharge outside of fare control, resulting in paying an exit token followed by two more tokens to get back in. Thanks to the internet I now know the Quincy extension uses island platforms and can be visited without additional cost. Here we see 01754 and 01727 waiting at the Braintree island platform.
A fun feature of the whole 01500/01600/01700 series are the manually operated rollsigns.
Returning back downtown I made an effort to take forward facing video as the new CRRC cars effectively lack a forward view. The Quincy extension was built for 70mph speeds, but is currently operating at 55mph, which is actually an improvement from 40mph due to a track maintenance panic.
Of course my good luck couldn't last forever. Due to about 4 inches of snow falling overnight Sunday my 11am Acela was canceled on Monday and I was pushed back onto the 1pm departure. Arriving at South Station three Acela sets with power cars #2036, #2014 and #2035, were waiting at the buffers, implying that the reason for the cancellation was crew availability as opposed to equipment failure. The roll of the dice directed me onto the #2025/#2039 trainset, aka the exact one I had traveled to Boston on several days earlier. What are the chances?! 藍
Amtrak has been promoting the revamped menu in Acela First and while they have been doing a good job, I was presented with the same menu on both round trips which included an Italian version of the plant based meatballs. While quite tasty Amtrak has been leaning heavily on this ingredient as a vegan dining option and the novelty can quickly wear off. Needless to say I went for the crab enchiladas.
On the New Haven Line I got videos overtaking two separate Metro North trains.
Due to the later departure I was losing light approaching New York, however I managed to get some photos of the sun setting behind Manhattan as we crossed the Hell Gate Bridge.
Ultimate Acela Express power car at New York Penn Station track 12,
That's all for this run up and down the NEC. Join me next time as I head back to the Capitol Region to check out some former New York Central infrastructure.
