Leave No Station Unphotographed » Amtrak

Springfield is Here! plus a points run on early #236 from Yonkers down to Penn Station

Jeremiah Cox — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 15:26:19 +0000

Greetings from the ClubAcela in Penn Station where I’ve arrived after completing a YNY-NYP points run on the first Empire Service Train of the day to stop at Yonkers #236 to set up my day-trip to Philadelphia tomorrow and enjoy a second breakfast before a noon time appointment in midtown.

First I’ve rebuilt, and added tons of photos to Springfield-(142 Photos added) from my long stopover on Friday and the trip I made there a few weeks ago on my via Inland Route trip. These photos include the four platforms, stations both the modern one and facade of the historic one, plus two of the Heritage Locomotives (virtually my only photos of them stopping at station)

Todays Trip:

Getting to Yonkers I realized I was cutting it just a bit close, I leave the house at 9:00 on this Summer-like morning and decide to walk to 191 Street and get the 1 train through the tunnel to avoid dealing with 181 Street’s overcrowded elevators.

I get to 191 Street at 9:19 and just miss the 1 train. at 9:24 the next one comes and I get to 242 Street-Van Courtlandt Park at 9:33. I was hoping for the 9:30 Bee-Line bus to have a little more time. Luckily combined service is every 10 minutes during weekdays from 242 st to Yonkers on all the various incarnations of Bus Route 1 and Route 2 and peak-hour Route 3.

Route 2 pulls up at 9:40, schedule says I’ll arrive at 10:00 on this very warm day.

9:44 – Still in the Bronx. and delayed for a wheelchair. Bee-Line is high floor buses and I forgot how slow the lifts are. The Driver gets up to move seats, goes back to his seat to operate the lift, back to wheelchair at the potion to secure. We finally leave at 9:48. Wheelchairs have every right to be on the bus, I’m a big proponent of the ADA, it is just another reason to miss the train.

9:49 – arrive at the border in Yonkers. The ride is a bit slower than yesterday’s discharge only trip. The bus becomes standing room only.

We arrive 10:02 at the stop closest to the train station. I have a nice walk down to the station and stop to photograph the artwork, a Metro-North train arrives at 10:14 and my Amtrak train #236 comes in early right behind it.

Arrival time is 10:16, The usual two rear doors open. I’m the only passenger boarding or discharging and the conductor doesn’t bother to scan my ticket, simply checking me in via his iPhone. The train is so early that two people step off to quickly smoke. I see quite a few people in the cafe car. I find one open set of seats, its a bit more crowded then my afternoon trip yesterday. We leave on time at 10:18. I’m in a previously occupied seat with a New York post in the seat pocket that I glance at during the ride. The overhead luggage rack is empty, most passengers are day trippers into the city. The train feels quite well dressed.

10:25 – Pass track workers and over the Duyvil bridge. The path along the Hudson south of dyckman looks like its going to Just be a stub with a loop at the end and no legal connection further south.
10:31 – Northbound #281 passes us as we pass fairway and we go under riverside park.
10:38 – Go trough the tunnels of the west side line. At 38th st I notice an Amtrak owned (Bear, DE registered) fuel truck down on the tracks.
10:40 – reach the main electric tunnels, lights off entering the station on track 5 and we arrive 10 minutes early. I walk up to the ClubAcela as the usher is gathering passengers taking the silver star.

Just heard train 125, the Regional Train to Washington, DC and onto Norfolk, Virigina. That’s a new announcement! Then the Vermonter is announced and the ClubAcela attendant first announces it as Regional Train #56 before correcting herself saying the Vermonter to St. Albans, Vermont.

The 4 Levels of Newark-Penn Station are here!

Jeremiah Cox — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 04:47:53 +0000

Well I finally have finished another one of New Jersey major rail stations, Newark-Penn Station.
It’s a quite vertical oriented station and I made different sections of pages for its four levels.

Starting from the top:

Upper Level Platform H-(21 Photos) — used by PATH for discharging passengers
Main Elevated Tracks Level-(49 Photos) — six used by Amtrak & NJT Rail, plus the PATH receiving passengers track.
Ground Level Station Building and Waiting Room-(54 photos) — includes exterior views of the entire station and the two secondary entrance concourses to the platforms across the street from the main station
Underground Newark City Subway Station-(rebuilt with 20 photos) — the trolley platforms is the only portion of the station underground

Upload: VIA Cars at SDY and Port Henry

Jeremiah Cox — Wed, 05 Dec 2012 05:02:04 +0000

Well, here are the two stations that I got photos of Adirondack Trains #68 and #69 a little over a week ago when I rode the unique VIA Equipment using Park Cars. I also have a nice full photo essay and description for the new station:

Port Henry-(85 Photos)

Schenectady-(44 Photos add)-with the Adirondack, Maple Leaf and Ethan Allen Express Entering

Enjoy!

Fort Edward, NY and a few additions to stations from the dome car

Jeremiah Cox — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 04:18:06 +0000

I meant to do this upload a few days ago but have had another busy week. During my ride on Ocean View over the weekend I made one photo stop in New York State when I was on the Adirondack in Fort Edward, New York-(79 Photos).

I also got photos out of the dome car (front or back) at Schenectady-(5 Photos) including kids skateboarding on the platform, Saratoga Springs-(4 Photos) and Plattsburg-(5 Photos)

Enjoy!

Upload: Brunswick, ME where train service is coming soon!

Jeremiah Cox — Sun, 02 Sep 2012 02:30:23 +0000

The reason I have had no action on the website in the past week is because I was on an internet-less vacation in Downeast Maine, a trip I’ve done virtually every year of my life, I got back yesterday. It was the usual driving trip with others so no photo stops like I enjoy doing on my way to Vermont. Three years ago I did go by myself, taking Greyhound through the night up (with a 4am to 5am layover in South Station Boston) and managed a ride on the Downeaster back. Hopefully next year, once the Downeaster is extended to Brunswick I’ll be able to finagle on it and connect to the Maine Eastern Railway onto Rockland (that will get me a bit closer to my family’s house farther Downeast). I did though manage to get some photos of the finished Brunswick Station-(31 Photos) platform with it’s coming soon banners.

Enjoy! (Don’t know the last time I did an upload post for just one new station)

Upload: The Jersey NEC North Elizabeth to Metuchen

Jeremiah Cox — Thu, 23 Aug 2012 04:17:01 +0000

Well in this update I’m proud to say that I am down to just two Northeast Corridor Stations left in New Jersey (which I will admit isn’t saying much since there only 14 stops including dinky, missing Edison and Hamilton) but for a system with expensive fares that make stopovers hard I think I’m doing pretty well considering I did the section on basically 3 fairly expensive trips. Here it is:

·North Elizabeth-(52 photos)
·Elizabeth-(72 photos)
- Historic CNJ Station-(28 Photos)
·Linden-(67 photos)
·Metropark-(25 photos)
·Metuchen-(78 photos)

Enjoy!

Upload: From my Vermonter Trip: St Albans, Essex Junction, Burlington Union Station, and Windsor Locks, CT

Jeremiah Cox — Sun, 19 Aug 2012 03:55:16 +0000

Well, I had a chance to upload the new stations from my Southbound trip on the Vermonter, I am saving White River Junction (where I stepped off for a few photos) until I can re-visit it and get more of a photo essay. Two of these three stops are on two pages because I also visited historic stations:

St Albans, VT-(47 Photos)
Essex Junction, VT-(38 Photos)
- Burlington Union Station-(39 Photos)
Windsor Locks, CT-(45 Photos)
- Windsor Locks Historic Station-(20 Photos)

Enjoy!

Upload: St. Albans and Schenectady, Photos from my trip up to Vermont

Jeremiah Cox — Sat, 18 Aug 2012 04:16:01 +0000

Well this morning I finished my TripLog for riding the Vermonter to Windsor Locks for the Shuttle to the Northeast Regional back into New York City.
Here are the two new stations I visited on my journey North on Tuesday on the Maple Leaf to the Adirondack, One gets the reward for the worst AmStation I have ever been to, the other is one of the most scenic:

Schenectady, NY-(68 photos)
Port Kent, NY-(34 photos)

Enjoy!

Upload, More Amtrak: Kansas City, Champaign-Urbana, Warrensburg and La Junta

Jeremiah Cox — Mon, 13 Aug 2012 04:43:20 +0000

Well in this update I make my last upload of a big town, Champaign-Urbana Amtrak Station from my recent trip, I also finally got to making pages for the last three I visited on my Tennessee to Texas Trip that I didn’t lose from having hard drive issues (I still haven’t brought it somewhere to see if I can get the data off so I haven’t given up all hope). Kansas City required two sections to give that impressive station justice with 99 photos:

Kansas City Union Station-(39 photos)
- Kansas City Platform (for Tracks 29 & 30) and Trains-(60 photos)
Champaign-Urbana-(53 photos)
Warrensburg, MO-(23 Photos)
La Junta, CO-(76 Photos, including inside a grade crossing’s brain, the control shed, a friendly employee was doing maintenance)

Enjoy, I now have 150 Amtrak Stations on line, that is over 30% of the 509 Stations in the nation Complete (not to shabby since I’ve only driven to stop at 9 of them, the rest visited by train)!

Upload: Alton, Grand Rapids, more from Toledo and Cleveland Layovers, Starting on Amtrak From My Trip

Jeremiah Cox — Sat, 11 Aug 2012 05:34:55 +0000

Over the Last few days I wrote about my trips on the Lake Shore Limited, Carl Sandburg, Lincoln Service, Illini, Pere Marquette, Capital Limited, and Northeast Regional during my time doing RAGBRAI this year. I postdated the posts to the dates I actually road the trains because of issues with my iPhone. It wasn’t like my California trips in terms of getting tons of station additions and more about just enjoying the Chicago Hub Routes in my quest to ride every inch of Amtrak. I did manage one photo stop on the Lincoln Service and also included in this update the crowded terminus of the Pere Marquette, plus two obligatory additions from fresh air stops from the Capital/Lake Shore Limited:

Pittsburgh, PA-(18 Photos added)
Toledo, OH-(24 Photos added)
Grand Rapids, MI-(44 Photos)
Alton, IL-(45 Photos)

Enjoy!