Greetings from the Apostraphoe Cafe and Lounge in Schenectady, New York where I quickly eat a second breakfast during my hour planned layover to photograph the decrepit AmStation.
The day started early, on the A train. I left home at 6:20 and at 6:58 was stepping off the A train at Penn Station. I left he subway and walked up to beneath the big board. Much to my surprise I noticed the Maple Leaf was already boarding with a long line at 7 West. I skipped the line and went back downstairs to the Exit Concourse where I found one of the nice historic staircases to take me down to Track 7. I walked back to the foot of the escalator, asked the conductor which car for Schenectady (the Maple Leaf boards by destination), who rudely said “Walked back there” (assuming I had already been told) and at 7:06 I’m settling into a nice comfy seat on the left side of Amfleet-II #25014 to enjoy a ride almost entirely up the Hudson River. A New Jersey Transit BiLevel comes in on the same platform to unload its rush hour load. Train #63, the Maple Leaf with the final destination of Toronto (I’ve taken it as far as Exchange Street). I’ve ridden a number of times in my youth as it is the early train to Syracuse.
At 7:16 we leave most of the car without a seat mate, coming in and out of the dark. The train has a lighter load on a Tuesday morning (I typed in Thursday by) as we run by the streach of open tunnel I notice what must be an old Heritage Car formerly assigned to the Adirondack when it had a unique fleet. It has decals for tunnel use only.
- 7:19 — reach daylight at 38 Street, the conductor comes through just giving out seat checks saying hill come back for tickets. We raise our thrid rail shoe and start running under our own power. There is a European Couple who has to divide and I do get a seat mate. There a few others wandering the train looking for seats.
- 7:21 — Its the usual slow running up the Empire Connection through the trench. I hear beeping and know the conductor is scanning tickets as we glimpse the park between 72nd Street and had into the tunnel beneath Riverside Park. He doesn’t bother to give them seat checks. The conductor jokes his iPhone knows everything even your social security number, he scans my iPhone which works although the app is being buggy and part of it is claiming my trip ended in New York yesterday
- 7:25 — Reach 125th Street and run by Fairway than the North River Pollution Control Plant with Riverbank on top, my usual stopping grounds
- 7:27 — 155th Street, and a mile in two minutes. I notice in two days they’ve begun construction (I was on the bike path on Saturday) in a stretch of Northern Riverside Park they’ve been working on closing for awhile
- 7:28 — go under the George Washington Bridge as I see quite a lot of construction on the new streach of the greenway to Dyckman Street along the River.
- 7:30 — Go by Dyckman Fields, home of my little league. We reach the single streach portion of track at Inwoods interlocking (labeled) and slow down to go over the Spuyten Duyvil Bridge. Amtrak maintenance is already out and I notice some new fencing.
- 7:32 — arrive at the Hudson line and stop for a minute to enter their trackage before quickly switching over to the right express track.
- 7:35 — Riverdale, our first Metro-North stop. I’ve taken detailed notes on this route so many times I decide to stop to get a little website work done.
At 7:38 we arrive in Yonkers which doesn’t get an announcement to a platform full of mainly commuters. A southbound Metro-North Express train comes through as we sit along with a local to Grand Central. My car gets more crowded with its first child. We leave at 7:41, two minutes late.
- 7:42 — Pass the MTA Bus Depot but can’t see the Kawasaki plant, the women across from me drawing the curtain.
- 7:43 — Ludlow with the abandoned factory behind the station, then another southbound diesel express passed. We have to slow down. The conductor comes through as I hear some ripping, the conductor comes through joking with the foreign couple (for their tickets), they say they were already scanned finally giving them seat checks. There going to Buffalo, they will get to sit together for most of the ride after Schenectady.
- 7:46 — Pass a huge mass of Rush Hour commuters at Hastings-on-Hudson and then a nice old M3A train approaching to rush them into the city.
- 7:51 — go under the Tappen Zee Bridge and pass the boats of Tarrytown, southbound trains keep passing as we go along the scenic Hudson.
- 7:55 — As we go through Scarborough we finally get the announcement that the cafe car is now open in the rear. He mentions they have Bloody Marrys.
- 7:56 — Pass Sing-Sing Prison and then go through Ossening.
- 7:59 — pull up short of Croton-Harmon, as a southbound Empire Service train passes through
At 8:05 we arrive into Croton-Harmon 7 minutes late. There the usual few rush hour commuters waiting and some for the the train. The car gets crowded, the conductor saying everyone to have a seat, no more room farther up, thats right, the train just gets more crowded going up the Hudson. We leave at
- 8:07 — as I notice one of the platforms is being rebuilt and passed a few yards. I notice some NJT Comets sitting in the train yard.
- 8:09 — pass the sailing school as we leave Metro-North’s electric territory.
- 8:18 — Pass Peekskill, the platform still under construction
- 8:23 — Pass Manitou with a tiny shelter on a low-level platform, I need to get there
- 8:27 — Garrison as we keep seeing double-stack freight trains across the Hudson and go through the tunnels beneath the mountains.
- 8:35 — Zoom through Beacon
- 8:40 — Go through New Hamburg, the final stop the Maple Leaf will bypass until it gets to the Aldershot GO Station in suburban Toronto, long after I’ve gotten to downtown Burlington.
We get to Poughkeepsie at 8:48, ten minutes late as a diesel heading towards New York goes south. Nearly my entire car is asleep. The car gets even more crowded.
At 9:02 we pull into Rhinecliff, the ground-level platform is as always littered with yellow stools so the train crew doesn’t need to bring their own. We leave at 9:03, ten minutes late, and keep speeding up the Hudson.
At 9:23 the train pulls into Hudson at his nice historic station. The cafe now closes again until 10:10 (does it really take that long to do inventory, I thought they no longer restock in Albany because the commissary there was ended when the Albany only Empire Service trains lost their cafe cars a few years go).
At 9:47 we pull into Albany. I realize were on the ‘side’ platform for the Main Track (the platform is designed to become an island but another track hasn’t been built, the stop could use one). We lose power. I step off to get a few photos since I don’t remember the last time I came into Albany not on the main island platform. It takes a minute for the conductors to open the manually operated Amfleet-II doors (the ones are automatic and used on Empire Service trains). I watch P32AC-DM #717 replaced with P42 #61 (if only #63) which attaches with 10:02 as they make the final boarding call for the train. It is announced as just to Niagara Falls and Toronto (not listing Oakville, Aldershot ect, the intermediate stops in Canada). The locomotive is pulling 3 Amfleet-IIs followed by an Amfleet-I and an Amfleet-I Cafe/Club Car. We regain power at 10:06 and yet again I am getting delayed by an Engine Change in Albany. We leave at 10:09, time to pack my computer up.
- 10:13 — cross the Hudson to pass downtown Albany, I want to schedule a layover here entirely to see the facade of the former Grand Station. We leave town and I pack-up.
- 10:20 — Zoom through the trees between Albany and Schenectady as the conductor comes by to confirm destinations. He tells me Syracuse although my seat check is correct and then tells me he will open the door behind him.
- 10:28 — See the GE plant and get up. I hear Hi George to the conductor of train #290, the Ethan Allen Express as it is leaving the station (if only the timing was better I could have gotten a photo of it!).
I step off to the worst AmStation I’ve ever been two. There is an island platform with a staircase and elevator, there is a central canopy but the main thing I notice is the graffiti on the Brown 1978 station look. There is a door straight out to the street and I decide to skip the station until I return to board the Adirondack scheduled for 10:29. I end up stepping up into a thriving and nice downtown called the Arts District that even has a bus rapid transit station (for CDTA that also goes to Albany and Saratoga Springs). It’s the total opposite of the decrepit Amtrak station that I believe is slated for improvements.