I’ll be in the Bennington, Vermont area this weekend and am looking for good places to watch trains, hopefully within a hour drive of here. I’m thinking about finding State Line Tunnel and Hoosac Tunnel but not sure what else. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
Keith Baker
The Hoosac Tunnel would probably be a better trip for summer or fall. The “East” end doesn’t have much to see anymore, and it is really out in the boonies. The “West” end is posted No Trespassing so you definitely would be taking a chance to go in there. At least in the nice months the scenery is pretty. You can get better views of each end from photo files online any way.
You’re close to Albany - and all of the CSX and Amtrak traffic thereabouts. If you’ve got time to dig out a POC, RPI is right there, with their fabulous model railroad.
Unfortunately, I’m not an expert on the Albany rail scene, but this thread on the New York State forum on Railroad.net might prove useful to you.
Sorry this is a bit late, but… Bennington, VT is not a hub of activity, especially on a winter weekend, but you never know. Pictures of old stations, etc., and abandoned ROW could be cool, especially the old Rutland “Corkscrew” (Chatham, NY branch). Hoosic Tunnel and Wilmington terminated at the east portal of the Hoosic Tunnel. Dunno if there is much left to see. I would recommend looking in the spring. Ain’t much left there at Zoar, MA but, again, the summer would reveal more. Have fun!
Hays
Place to go is the Albany area to see trains in action. For Amtrak, the Rensellaer (OK, OK, I can never spell the darn thing) station is moderately busy. For freight action there is the Selkirk Yard – lots of no trespassing (and they mean it), but there are a couple of decent vantage points from public roads. The Hudson bridges at Castleton (parallel NY State Thruway Berkshire extension and CSX – old Boston & Albany) are worth driving to look at. The State Line Tunnel on CSX (east portal) is about a mile from the Rt. 22 exit from the Thruway Berkshire extension. The Hoosac tunnel east portal is not hard to get too – but if you don’t know when a train’s coming, there isn’t much to see (true of the State Line Tunnel, too, for that matter). There are also a couple of CP yards, and their interchange with PanAm near Schenectady. There are a lot of abandoned railroads in the area, too. Easy to miss if you don’t know they are there, but the alignments can be remarkably visible this time of year, once you see them. If you have time, a ride on the Adirondack north from Albany to Montreal is one of the most scenic train rides anywhere – you don’t have to go all the way north, either. I think you can rig it to go northbound and get off in New York State somewhere, and catch the southbound – but I’d have to look at the schedules to figure that out.