10-09-24 PHOTOS: Sevens and ACES

Last autumn both the economy and business at the Atlantic City casinos were still in the pits so the financial viability of the NY-ACL ACES service was being increasingly called into question. Therefore I felt it was incumbent upon me to fuck over the $35 and actually try the service on a one way trip from New York City to Atlantic City followed by a quick ACL line train back to Lindenwold. Because I wasn't about to simply waste my time taking Amtrak to NYC then the ACES train straight to AC, I planed some activities around the only interesting thing remaining on the NYC Subway, namely the railfan window equipped 7 train.

Now I was hoping to carry out a nice photograph line survey with shots of all the stations and signals, but the weather was less than cooperative being overcast and misty so therefore while I was able to get photos I was unable to check off the whole definitive line survey box. Still it;s subway stuff and there's a lot of people who will drool those sorts of pics so here there are along with a few video clips, what I could manage from the side of the ACES train and what I could get in Atlantic City.

The entire set of photos are located here in chronibetical order.

We begin in the underground portion of the 7 with some video of my train departing the Tines Square terminal, crossing over to the correct track and continuing to 5th Ave.



We continue from 5th Ave to Grand Central.



Now a year earlier I had taken video in the Steinway Tunnels between Grand Central and Jackson Ave and again from Jackson Ave to Hunters Point so I won't bore you with them again. But I did get some new footage as we exited the tunnel portal and traveled from Hunter's Point to 45 Road passing two inbound 7 trains in the process.



And then from 45 Road to Queensboro Plaza. The general idea was that with suck sucky light it would be best to capture some video for a playlist I will eventually compile convering the entire express run. Because there is no express service before Queensboro Plaza I could shoot the video on a run of the mill local train such as this. In this segment we pass another inbound 7.



Waiting at the 420 signal at Queensboro Plaza we encounter both an outbound N train departing from across the platform and a 4th inbound 7 train diving down to the lower level.

Time for some more video as we pull out of QB Plaza (N train still adjacent to us) and take the take the switch to the local stop before finishing up at 33rd St.



Just short of 46th Street we pass the 5th inbound 7 of the journey.

And a 6th approaching Woodside.

Here we see the somewhat recently closed tower at 65th St.

Another inbound 7 passes us while waiting at 75th Street.

10-04-04 PHOTOS: ACL Cab Ride

Last April I realized that I hadn't been down to Atlantic City via the Atlantic City Line since 2002 so maybe it was about time I made an effort. Therefore I contacted Chuchubob and en route to an Easter related family gathering my plan to to travel with Bob from 30th St to Atalantic City, catch the departure of an ACES train, and then catch the next westbound ACL train to Lindenwold. Well our plan began to go awry when our eastbound ACL train was hit with massive delays forcing us to bail out at Absecon-Pleasantville in order to ensure we could catch both the ACES train and following ACL train.

Well after the ACES train passed and the northbound local arrived I was hoping that I would be able to get a reverse railfan view as it is standard practice for the crews to leave the rear interior door open. The problem is that ACL crews also believe that taking photos is illegal so I was bracing myself for some sort of nasty confrontation. Much to my surprise not only did the C/R on that particular trip not try to physically block my camera like a target of a 60 Minutes investigation, but suggested I could get better shots from the rear cab. Coincidentally he had never heard of the Railroad.net union hall Internet forums. I could have ridden all the way back to 30th St there, but alas I had an Easter dinner waiting and could not extend my trip :-(

Anyway the full set of photos is here and they mostly consist of a full line documentation. Some of you may find pictures of every signal and most of the bridges and grade crossings on the line between Absecon and Lindenwold, but I know that many of my readers have an allergic reaction to high concentrations of signal photos so I'll just hit some of the highlights here.

Here we see NJT Geep #4219 in push mode with my highly delayed eastbound train.

The new Abseason station was built atop the old PRSL Absecon-Pleasantville station which was constructed during the 1930's as part of a grade crossing elimination project in the area. The project elevated several miles of the high speed main line through the downtown Absecon. Unfortunately with the ACL's budget conscious construction techniques the original station was barely utilized. If you look eastward you can still see the remains of the original platforms on the road overpass.

After botching three other photos of the ACES train I finally managed a good one with ALP-44 #4409 being dragged west in a zoom shot.

Here we see NJT Geep #4201 pulling west adjacent to the old platform stubs as it enters Absecon station.

The trailing cab car was #5016. Here is a view of its Wabso EPIC style brake controller. Let's hope it doesn't FAIL.

Electric locomotive controls? They think of everything!

We pulled into the Pomona Siding to be passed by a southbound train. The ACL was built as a single track with passing sidings in the most literal sense of the word. Instead of short sections (2-4 mile) of double track, it was literally built with the barest bones of passing points like a single width mountain road. These are all a mile or less in length and lack any intermediate blocks. Even when trains are spot on time the schedule will have you waiting in the siding until you are passed by your opposite. No rolling meets here.

All the sidings also come with these nifty little emergency transfer boards as the lack of any two track stations means that all rescue operations will have to take place at a siding.

NJT Geep 4203 (hmm, I'm noticing a pattern here) soon showed up pushing its train southbound. Comet IV cab car #5020 was leading, but I didn't get a very good picture.