#amtrak

Amtrak From the Bear Mountain Bridge

While not a time-based comparison, as I've been doing in this series of posts, I wanted to show these shots of an Amtrak train moving southward toward Penn Station as night fell.

I believe all Amtrak trains use Penn Station while all Metro North trains on the Hudson line use Grand Central Terminal.

As opposed to the blur seen in the previous post, I chose to up the ISO in an attempt to "freeze" this train movement. A good dose of noise reduction was used in the processing of these two images.

In the first image the train is between Manitou and the bridge, with Sugarloaf visible in the distance. In the second photograph, with the train going away, one can see Peekskill in the distance. Once again we see Amtrak's penchant for running with a locomotive on each end of their regional trains on this line.

This long stretch along the east side of the Hudson River makes up a portion of New York Central's Water Level Route, which is another theme of this series of posts.

Hudson River and Sugarloaf: Thirty-Seven Years Apart

Here are two views of the Hudson Valley and Sugarloaf made looking northward from the middle of the Bear Mountain Bridge. In both views a southbound Amtrak train, on the former New York Central, contributes action to the scene. The vintage image shows a Rohr Turbo train having just sped through Manitou on what appears to be a hot and humid day. I chose to blur the train in the recent shot as it was getting quite dark at the time. When I lived in this area decades ago, I hiked to the top of Sugarloaf more than once. This was, most likely, in a quest to see birds along with a wonderful view of West Point, and the Hudson Valley generally.

Garrison Landing: Thirty-Eight Years Apart In the top (recent) image we see an inbound Metro North train (with Conrail heritage unit), on the right, passing a northbound Amtrak train on the left. In the vintage photograph a commuter train of Metro North, is being powered by an FL9. In each photograph, the commuter train is moving away from us, approaching the station—note the marker lights are lit as opposed to the headlight in each case.

Metro North runs all trains to Grand Central Terminal with locomotives on the north end of their consists, so it's not always easy to tell which direction these trains are moving in still images. Additionally: Amtrak trains sometimes have locomotives on each end (as is the case above), which can further cloud how a viewer might perceive the direction of travel of their movements.

I've always loved how the light on the vintage Metro North locomotive reveals its form (in the second shot). In the past, I've posted about the interesting model of locomotive from EMD: if you are interested, search the term, "FL9" to learn more about that intriguing locomotive that was designed for use in Grand Central Terminal specifically.

On the re-photography aspect: I couldn't match the angle here as the bridge on which I was standing had been moved significantly: to the north and higher as well.

Garrison Landing: Thirty-Eight Years Apart

Once again we are following New York Central's Water Level Route; the cement milepost tells us we are precisely fifty miles from Grand Central Terminal, in Garrison, New York.

In the contemporary image above we see a northbound Amtrak train (going away from us, with an additional locomotive on the tail end) after having sped through Garrison Landing.

The vintage photograph has a city-bound commuter train of Metro North (coming toward us) approaching Garrison through the short tunnel there just north of the station. The engineer is sitting in the end of the passenger car (or cab-car) on the south end of the train.

Metro North runs all trains to Grand Central Terminal with locomotives on the north end of their consists, so it's not always easy to tell which direction these trains are moving in still images. Additionally: Amtrak trains sometimes have locomotives on each end (as is the case above), which can further cloud how a viewer might perceive the direction of travel of their movements.

On the re-photography aspect: I couldn't match the angle here as the bridge on which I was standing had been moved significantly: to the north and higher as well.

being on Amtrak makes me feel crazy because everyone is more normal than me in a way that makes me feel really weird. I am a Chinatown bus truther but idk im just on here and the guys behind me are talking about collecting teslas. one of them has been watching rage tik toks out loud for hours. the kid next to me filled a Nalgene in the bathroom and is carrying a giant bouquet in it. He fell asleep with it in his hands. the lady diagonal from me is using AI to make a slideshow about eye diseases. She toggles between the screen where hundreds of words about eye diseases are being generated and a bunch of dynamic line graphs and apps on her phone I can’t even begin to guess the functions of.

I called maps and they told me they decided to take time off in August so we can have a full 3 weeks to bike to Nova Scotia. it made me feel better about finding myself again after my job that like blew bits off my person. I had an exit interview at my museum job today and went dressed in head to toe brandy melville lol irdgaf about anything but my friends and the summer and the truth.

b told me they r hopping out to the west coast next week. I haven’t been to the west coast and I hope to get to do that some day. I think all the Worcester friends are playing baseball as we speak. I’m scared to catch the ball.

the knicks winning made me think about my dad. the last time they won was the year he was 1 year old and didn’t even live in the US yet. he told me that his earliest memory was playing with a wooden plane in china. we got breakfast recently and he told me about his friend from middle school tex. they used to sell fireworks from chinatown together to bodegas in Washington heights after my grandfather stopped doing that. Tex taught him about mechanical engineering and brought giant pieces of wood from Home Depot onto the bus to build a giant glider. They tried to run off of the top of snake hill covered in hockey equipment. I tried to find him online but we couldn’t get through to him. We found out that Tex is an aircraft mechanic for delta now.

Trains at Poughkeepsie: Forty-Five Years Apart

Two views made at the train station at Poughkeepsie, New York, forty-five years apart; the trains are all facing northward here. I've posted the vintage image, which was made on my first ride to The City, several times on Tumblr.

In this series of posts, I've followed New York Central's Water Level Route to the Hudson Valley where it now will drop down (from Albany) to New York City. It's also a bit of a memory tour for me as I lived in the area several decades ago (as we'll see in subsequent posts).

Coming & Going: Twenty-five Years Apart

Southbound trains arrive at, and depart from, Hudson, New York. The before and after images were made twenty five years apart.

As in some of my previous posts, I've mentioned being on the so-called Water Level Route of the New York Central. I should explain...

The NYC competed with the Pennsylvania Railroad between New York and Chicago: the Pennsy had a more direct route through the Keystone State (via Harrisburg, Horseshoe Curve, and Pittsburgh) but was slower given curvature and grade. Famous trains on the competing lines were the 20th Century Limited (NYC) and the Broadway Limited (of the Pennsy). In the end it was a wash, with both railroad's premier trains making the run in fifteen hours.