15-10-10 PHOTOS: Port Jervis Line

It doesn't get much better than celebrating a wonderful Columbus Day weekend with a classic railfan road trip. After all, riding transit is best done on a weekday, when the service is frequent and express trains are running. On weekends the personal motor vehicle is the far better option for getting around. On this particular trip I enlisted the help of a fellow Subtalker to cruise around Rockland and Orange counties following the Metro North Port Jervis Line, Presented by New Jersey Transit, from Harriman all the way to Port Jervis with stops at Moodna, Hudson Jct, Middletown, Otisville and Port Jervis.

You can check out all the fall foliage tinted photos right here or keep reading for a photo-history of the Metro-North Port Jervis Line, Presented by New Jersey Transit.

The Harriman Station is located at the site of what was once known as Newburgh Junction as it was the point where the Erie RR Main Line branched off towards Middletown and points west from the Newburgh branch to Newburgh, NY. In 1908 the Erie completed the Graham Line a low grade freight cutoff that extended from the Newburgh Branch to parallel the old Main Line on an alignment 7 miles longer, but with no level crossings and drastically reduced gradients.



In 1983 the fledgling Metro-North Railroad shifted traffic off the old Erie "passenger" Main Line to the Graham Line to share costs with Conrail, who still owned and maintained the freight route as part of its Southern Tier route. The old passenger line through downtown Monroe, Goshen, Chester and Middletown was then abandoned. Here you can see the split between the old Passenger Main Line, now reduced to an industrial track, and the Graham Line at the newly rebuilt CP-HARRIMAN.

The old CP-HARRIMAN actually had the switch for the passing siding located near the south end of the single platform making it difficult for trains using the siding to discharge passengers. The rebuilt interlocking relocated the turnout a few hundred feet to the north, but left the old switch and siding stump in place as a dump track. Also left was the old Conrail vintage relay hut and Erie vintage pole line. The 1950's vintage CTC code line was once a chronic source of unreliability with routes taking as much as 20 minutes to come up after the dispatcher requested them. 

Here we see an eastbound PJL train rounding the bend at Newburgh Jct to make the Harriman Station stop. Lead vehicle is a 6700-series Comet V cab car. I don't know the exact number because MNRR is too good to put identification on the front of its rolling stock. 

Power was provided by MNRR F40PH-3C #4908, which is pooled with NJT equipment as part of the service agreement. While trains operating on the line are not strictly required to be owned by MNRR, all the trainsets I encountered were MNRR so I suspect someone sent a memo.

Here is a video of #4908 and its train departing Harriman.



Trains no longer stop at the Central Valley station, but the station still stands, now used by a fresh fish wholesaler.

Like CP-HARRIMAN, CP-CENTRAl VALLEY was recently rebuilt, but the old Erie vintage concrete relay hut still stands along with some of the old pole line.

The Moodna Viaduct is a 3200 foot long crowd pleaser spanning the Moodna Creek just south of the Salisbury Mills station. With a maximum height of 193 feet, it the highest and longest railroad trestle east of the Mississippi River. Here a westbound train crosses the viaduct with MNRR F40PH-3C #4907.

One can drive up to and under the viaduct on Otterkill Road. The viaduct was constructed between 1904 and 1908 by the Erie Railroad as part of the Graham Line and was opened for service in January 1909. Steep and curvy railroad alignments that made freight cutoffs like the Graham Line necessary were originally constructed because Engineering feats like the Moodna Viaduct were not possible using 1860's technology. Still, even in the gilded age cost was still a consideration and the Moodna viaduct was built as a single track structure.

03-07-19 CLASSIC PHOTOS: Port Jervis Trip

Before the age of formal Informal Railfan Trips, trips still happened, they were just fewer in number and not as well organized. Even the old Subtalk was known to get into the action and one such that trip organized in the summer of 2003 had the ambitious plan to go to Port Jervis and back on a weekend.

Port Jervis is always a tempting target for a railfan trip, but with 2_ hour travel times in each direction combined with spotty service frequencies, it is easy to get in over one's head. In this case everything was fine until the return trip where the brakes locked on an old CNJ vintage GP40P, which had to be set out and delayed us by an hour or more. Even returning express via the main line didn't do much to aid in our timelyness and we arrived at Hoboken well past the portal arrival and also well after the sun had set.

Because all of the "adventure" took place after daylight hours and before digital cameras had large memory capacity or native video, this photo set will cover all of the more "typical" railfan stuff that took place earlier that day.

We begin with a pair of Arrow III MU trains headed inbound and outbound at Hamilton, NJ with #1412 and #1377. Remember when NJT used to use MU's on it's electrified services? Crazy right?!

Amtrak left the lights on at MIDWAY interlocking. It also looks like I got lucky with a forward railfan view on an NJT train. Unfortunately with only 96 shots available on each card and a paltry 3x zoom, I couldn't take advantage of it.

Transfer to PATH at Newark and head out across the DOCK drawbridge. This was only 2 years after 9/11, but you can see what I thought of PATH's photo ban. 

SRS Doodlebug #149 was hanging out in Hudson yard. I believe that HUDSON Tower was still open.

PATH was still recovering from a land slide that had taken place the previous June.

PATH Journal Square yard complex.

 Arriving at Hoboken I found NJT and MNRR GP40PH-2's #4137 and 4190 sitting side by side.

The interior of Hoboken Terminal had just been renovated.

Hanging out on one of the outdoor tracks was an Arrow III Gladstone train with #1314.

Under the train shed the aluminum body of Comet I cab car #5128 was showing through the white paint.

#5000 Class car of the currently stored Comet III fleet was also waiting quietly at Hoboken.

Here Comet 1 cab car #5110 sits next to Metro North Comet IA cab car #919. This would be the car that the group would eventually ride to Port Jervis in.

#5000 wasn't the only special car at Hoboken. The lead car of the entire Comet coach family, #5100, was also there posing for photographs. #5100 was built by Pullman in 1970.

03-07-31 CLASSIC PHOTOS: NJT PVL Trip

It's Thanksgiving week so this post is going to be a shorty.  Back in 2003 I came upon an interesting idea for a trip with one of my New York friends to ride the NJT PVL line outbound from Hoboken and then return to the other Port Authority Bus Terminal via an NJT Express Bus.  Because of the complete lack of railfan views I didn't get a lot of photos on the trip, but you can view the photos I did get right here.

As was typical for the time I started the trip at the Hamilton, NJ station.  While waiting for my NJT train I caught a southbound Regional with unrebuilt AEM-7 #908 in Phase IV paint.

Along the way I got some photos of UNION tower and its iconic southbound high PRR PL signals, including a unique cantilever-gantry covering tracks 3, 4 and B.

HUDSON tower was also still operational at this point.  

Early in the day I made it up to 190th St on the A in order to ride the attendant-operated elevators.

At the line the PVL had no passing sidings so was operated in the peak direction on weekdays only.  Therefore we had to spend the day in NYC before making our way to Hoboken for the first northbound trip.  To make things special my friend and I decided to take an NY Waterway ferry and walk through the newly re-opened Winter Garden that had been destroyed during 9/11.

At the time PVL trains were using the pool of 13 former CNJ GP40PH-2 engines that had been equipped with the rather dysfunctional SES PTC system that had been installed on the PVL.  While I didn't get any pics of the CNJ engine on out train I did catch NJT GP40PH-2B #4208 in Hoboken Terminal.

TERMINAL TOWER at Hoboken was still in service as well.

Here an ex-EL Comet I cab car #5119 leads an inbound train past TERMINAL TOWER.  Most of the Comet I cab cars had been converted to accommodate high level boarding.

02-07-19 CLASSIC PHOTOS: Boonton Line

Notice I didn't title this "Montclair-Boonton Line". Back in the summer of 2002, the word came down that the old Erie RR portion of the NJT Boonton Line would be abandoned in favor of a new routing via the old DL&W Montclair Branch with electrification extended to Great Notch. As a result I set up with once and future Subchatter Spider Pig
to ride the entire "classic" Boonton Line before it passed into history. This was made a bit challenging due to the fact that there was no weekend Boonton Line service and very limited reverse peak service. Pigs and I met in Hoboken for the first afternoon Hackettstown train departing around 2pm, then caught a return train via the M&E.

There were a lot of storms out this day and they overtook us just after we got to Hackettstown so that's why there aren't any pix from the way back. You can view the set of pixs we did get here

To get to Hoboken on a weekday I had to catch a train from Meriden, CT, where I was attending school at the time. The Meriden siding was a scheduled meet and the northbound shuttle arrived on the scene first. Much like today, the Amtrak Springfield Shuttle trains were running with one Metroliner Cab Car, one Amfleet coach and one Genesis. Unlike today the Genesis was a P40 (#820) and still dressed in Phase IV paint.

The northbound shuttle train was also running sandwich style with three Material Handling Cars on the end because unlike the other shuttle trains, this was one #490, connecting to early morning "mail" train #190. Before Amtrak exited the mail and express business in 2005, mail cars would traverse the corridor en route to the USPS sorting facility in Springfield, MA.

Here are my old buddies at the Meriden, CT Station. When Amtrak re-signaled the Springfield Line ~1990 they installed New Haven style small target US&S H-5 searchlight signals on new style aluminum masts. In 2005 the H-5's were re-headed with target type LED color light signals. These are now currently being removed to support Rule 562 operation without fixed automatic signals in conjunction with the double track project and CDOT commuter service.

The unpopular GE B39-8 was predecessor to the equally unpopular B40-8. High horsepower 4-axle road power just never caught on with the major railroads so most of the B39-8's ended up being sold to GE's leading arm. #8565 here ran with the Connecticut Southern short line who had the contract for Springfield Line freight service. It pulled into the Meriden siding with #8579 to wait for the arrival of southbound Shuttle train.

That soon appeared with Metroliner Cab Car #9640 on the end.

Arriving at New Haven Station I encountered some of the FL-9's that were still in service back in 2002. Still, by that time they were being assigned to lesser tasks like shuttle service and, in the case of #2014 and #2024, hauling the wire train.

AEM-7 #920 is one of another class of locomotives that have since vanished from the NEC.

Well at least this hasn't changed...recent accidents aside.

Comet V? What's a Comet V?? In this pic the V's were still some years distant. The first Comet cab car I of the entire class, #5100, sits at Hoboken next to Arrow III #1321 ready to follow up a train.

There was still a strong commitment to MU operations on the Hoboken Division before everything was converted to push-pull and funneled into Penn Station behind. Arrow III's #1528 and #1330.

Comet I Cab Car #5130 had had grade crossing protection stripes applied, while #5133 was unmodified.