hello Larry here where do people on new york get the BEST photos of Locomotives
in new York
larry stewart of Tacoma Washington
South end of the two platforms of the 125th Street Metro North station at Park Avenue and 125th Street. Buy a round-trip ticket from Grand Central Terminal so that you won’t be hassled by being on the platform without a ticket. Best times are aearly in the morning and late in the afternoon, with the southgound platform better in the morning and the northbound platform in the afternoon. Passenger action on all four tracks, with push-pull diesels and several varieties of mu cars, all in two different color schemes, McGinnis New Haven orange-red and Metro North Blue both b-ajd silver. Good secuirty on station platform. I used the 125th St Station many times wlaking crosstown to one of the north-south subways, and it is a well used street, so don’t believe any tales of it being a problem area. The bakcground is the New YOrk skyscraper skylie.
If you have a freind with a boat, a trip up the Hudson River gives lots of photo opporutnities for Amtrak and Metro North along east bank of the Hudson and occasional CSX freights ont he west bank.
Ride Metro North to Poughkeepsie and take the walk over the old New Haven Railroad Maybrook line brtidge, now a Pedestrian walkway over the Hudson. Same lines as above.
Ride out to Woodside on the Long Island Railroad or the No.7 Subway and on th esouitheast sidewalk of Roosevelt Road overpass photograph LIRR and Amtrak. Lots of tracks and lots of trains. Best in afternoon for better light. In the morning, the same stations, on the eastbound main line platform, not the platform used by westbound main line trains or the Port Washington branch trains, you can photograph eastbound LIRR trains on the express non-stop tracks with the elevated structure of the 7 line in the background, and it should be easy to get trains of both lines in the same picture. There is a good Chines reestaurant in the area for a break between morni
The Long Island City station on the LIRR is a good choice, you can stand at street level since the tracks cross the street at grade just outside of the yard.
Apologies, I got my platforms at 125th reversed. Better northbound platform in the morning and southbound platform in the afternoon. Matterof the sun’s direction. On an overcast day both are good anytime.
Just to be clear, here, are you talking about New York city or New York state?
New York City is 305 square miles with a hundred (or two) miles of track.
New York state is 54,556 square miles, with hundreds of miles of track ranging from the “water level route” to some interesting mountain railroading.
There are hundreds of places to get excellent rail photos all over the state.
Define, NY indeed, as Tree68 suggests…Manhatten itself is all underground except from 125th St. Sta. on MNRR (nee CR, nee PC, nee NYC/NH); you can do some pictures at GCT, but unless you have a ticket and an Amtrak OK, NYP is difficult at the very best. If you can get upstairs in some of the buildings west of NYP, you might get some shots. On LIRR, lots of stations and open spaces. SIRR is out in the open as are a lot of subway lines. If you mean the Metropolitan area, then you’ve got to take in NJ and it’s NJT into account along with CSX, NS, CSAO, and several shortlines to the west; lots of LIRR action to the east, and lots, and lots of MNRR and CONDOT to the north and east. If you mean New York State…keep going north and west for almost 500 miles and have a NYS Atlas with you.
Best railfan subway ride is the 7 train to Flushing…up out of the ground at Huterspoint Ave next to the LIRR station there, then to a vista over Sunnyside Yard and back across the LIRR at Woodside.
When are you going to be in NY? I may even have a Ridewithmehenry trip lined up you might want to join…only cost is your train fare…and whatever you have for breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, dinner, and other snacks.
I know Long Island City was a main terminal and transfer point to Manhattan ferries until the East River tunnels and Penn Station were opened in 1910. Looking at Google Earth, I can see the recently revived ferry dock about a block east (although I’m not sure if there is direct access), and the subway station about 3 blocks north. It looks like it’s a handy spot to park a handful of diesel trains between rush hours. Otherwise I am wondering how this intriguing place managed to survive a hundred years after it would seemed to have been made obsolete?
I don’t believe LIC ever became “obsolete”. It is a very large yard for the LIRR with all Hunterspoint Ave. trains actually terminating and stored there during the day. It has third rail, too. Trains tie up there and then go to Hunterspoint Ave for passengers but a few do actually start at LIC platforms. One revenue train comes in from Jamaica (originates in Oyster Bay) on the Lower Montauk in the morning but there are no afternoon departures over the line. The #7 train station is right adjacent to the Hunterspoint station and the Vernon St. station is about a 2 block walk as is the walk from the ferry slip. I have taken some pics there and if I can ever figure out how to post them here, I would. The Lower Montauk reportedly is used for deadhead moves from Morris Park and Jamaica and is also used by the freight operations to and from the Island with Fresh Pond Jct. about halfway.
I’m guessing the East Side Access to Grand Central Terminal project will eliminate much of the need for the Hunterspoint station transfer for the #7 subway. (Eliminating that extra crowding on the subway line is one of the stated goals of the project.) Will the water taxi connection at LIC be enough to keep the terminal open? When is the East Side Access supposed to open? I may schedule a trip back east before that to be safe.
I don’t think that is the idea for East Side Access…at least not all. In fact, with the #7 linking further west and south than now, it will become even more important for all access. Plus, the rate of increase of commuters and population, they will never run out of need for services. Services have been pulled in the past more because of politics and not economics or even operations.
If at that time in the future I was riding the Long Island toward Grand Central and had to ride the #7 subway beyond, I would keep my seat on the LIRR until GCT, and then transfer there. But anyway, when is the East Side Access supposed to be done?
I think there would be a quicker transfer…less walking…at Hunterspoint Ave than at GCT. Plus Hunterspoint Ave/LIC is diesel which allows for trains from Oyster Bay, Montauk, and Port Jefferson give one seat ride rather than the otherwise mandatory change at Jamaica. I know planners have an idea of how they want to deal with traffic flow, but people’s behavior could just as easily negate all their thinking!
Good point. When do you thing all this will happen? ( The completion date for the East Side Access is one thing I can’t find on the MTA site. Maybe even they don’t want to hazard a guess.)
It’s New York City. It could be scheduled for next Wednesday but happen Monday. Or a year or two from next Thursday.
Informally at the end of Sept. 2011 I was told that it would be 2015 - but some well-informed skeptics claim that 2018 to 2020 is more realistic.
- Paul North.
As we speak NYC is bragging the third tunnel is broken through for the East Side project and is three weeks ahead of schedule…doesn’t mean the whole project is 3 weeks ahead nor that the project will be completed anytime ahead of schedule.
I found a recent article on the NY Times site that puts the completion of the East Side Access in 2019.
I also saw in Wiki-p that the were going to put a transfer station at Sunnyside for NEC. Of course someone coming from the north could transfer at any number of Metro-North NH Line stations for Grand Central. And anyone coming from the south on NEC could probably save time by taking the subways from Penn Station to GCT. It would hardly seem worth the extra stop on the NEC, but I guess they are also thinking of tie-ins to the JFK AirTrain.
Gotta remember several things, MidlandMike…first is that you are talking about NY City; second is that you are talking about New York City politics; third is that you are talking about public works in New York City; fourth is that you are talking about New York City. Everything the Times says is 100% correct and 100% incorrect depending upon time, day, and date with those three factors revolving in separate orbits coupled with statement origin (i…e., person making statement, political point of view of the person making the statement…remember the time, day, and date factor, too…and the bent of the published or broadcast source…at the moment). Also be aware that Wikopedia is not a stable or reliable source of information.
Since there is no Amtrak service out of GCT, no Amtrak riders would gain anything transferring at Sunnyside. Infact, a Sunnyside transfer makes little sense to me. And the JFK Air Train runs out of Jamaica Station with LIRR, E and J train connections or the A train at Howard Beach Blvd.
So. This East Side Access…the LIRR to GCT…is a commuter service to accommodate those from LI who work in “upper midtown, east of Broadway”. Any attempt to work toward NEC/Amtrak traffic is not worth the effort. However, there is a great need for a regional concept for rail transportation from Philadelphia through the New York Metropolitan area, which this may or may not address.
Henry, the Wall Street Journal gives the same date:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304019404577418792452139340.html
If Rupert Murdoch’s WSJ agrees with the NY Times it must be true. Although they are both just quoting MTA, and everyone knows is just another estimate in a long line of guesses. As a geologist, I can appreciate that there are virtually always going to be unforeseen problems in any project underground.
But don’t forget you are talking about NY City: people, politics and politicians, and projects.