#spv2000

Annsville Creek: Thirty-Seven Years Apart Here we have two views of the mouth of Annsville Creek at the Hudson River. The contemporary image has a southbound Metro North train (with New Haven Heritage unit on the rear end, pushing) coming toward us on the causeway, approaching Peekskill. In the vintage view we have a trio of Budd SPV2000 units moving in the same direction, albeit seen from a higher viewpoint.

The SPV was to serve as a replacement for the Budd RDC (rail diesel car) but never caught on and was therefore not produced in large numbers (only 31 were built). Metro North used these on the weekends or late at night when passenger numbers were light.

In the spirit of the time-comparison diptychs I've been posting, I do have a shot of a Metro North train near this spot (though moving northward); it happens to have an FL9 in the New Haven paint scheme as well, as the first image here (though you can't really see it). Please go here for that earlier post with an image from 1990 or so.

These images were made along the former New York Central (Water Level Route) and is now operated by Metro North.

Odd Couple at Springfield Station.

In July 1984, I was only a few weeks out of High School. My Pal TSH and I were on one of our photography adventures. Bob Buck of Tucker’s Hobbies in Warren, Massachusetts had alerted us to the fact that Amtrak’s southward Montrealer had suffered a locomotive failure, and had been brought down by a borrowed Canadian National M-420.

At that time seeing a Canadian National locomotive in…

I made this photograph at Windsor Locks, Connecticut showing a southward Amtrak SPV2000 making its station stop.

The Budd SPV2000s only worked this Amtrak ‘branch’ for about six years and during that time they were rarely photographed.

Lets just say, I’ve seen more of my own photographs of these cars on the Springfield-New Haven run than all other published views of the cars. (And I only…