While waiting for the westbound Captol Limited to arrive in Toledo last month, the eastbound Lake Shore Limited bound for New York passed through. The announcement named all the stops in between and I was surprised to hear that the final destination was Penn Station in New York. I had assumed that since this train runs on the old New York Central route that it would terminate in Grand Central Station. I was unaware that the two stations even had a connection. Has that always been there. The New York Central ran on outside third rail from Harmon to GCS while the Pennsy ran on overhead cantenary. How would these lines connect. Can anyone explain this. I am baffled by it.
Hiya,
Back in the 1990s, Amtrak consolidated their NYC operations at Penn Station. They fixed up the swing bridge over the Harlem River so trains coming down the Water Level Route on the banks of the Hudson River can drive right into Penn Station via the West Side of Manhattan (I think they also installed the necessary 3rd-rail power transmission equipment on the West Side line so the P32AC-DM Gennies can run down to NYP all the way from Croton-Harmon on 3rd-rail power). Amtrak no longer has a presence at Grand Central Terminal.
Grand Central Terminal is now the exclusive domain of the Metro North Commuter Railroad, and it remains a VERY busy place. MNCRR handles all the rail commuters coming in from upstate NY east of the Hudson and Connecticut and their return trip at the end of the day.
From Penn Station, trains going to points west of the Hudson River would either head right into New Jersey via the Hudson River tunnels, or head north to Troy NY before turning west and cross the Hudson there. For trains going north they will either continue north along the east bank of the Hudson from Troy, or from Penn Station they will head east under the East River to Sunnyside in Queens, then go towards New England via the Hell Gate Bridge from Queens.
(Amtrak by the way shares Penn Station with the Long Island Railroad, so NYP is also a VERY busy place-- So congested in fact that LIRR is looking into plans to build a terminal branch under the Grand Central Terminal).
Here at NYC we have a very interesting hodgepodge of rail transportation systems, to say the least. 
No. There is no third rail on the ex-NYC West Side freight line. When the connection to allow Amtrak train to run from this line into Penn was constructed, third rail was put in only to the point where the track emerges from the tunnel, which I believe is at or around West 36th Street. Once north of there all Amtrak trains are on diesel. They do not use Metro North’s third rail at all.