Conrail Favorites From an Eastern Tour

During my July 1993 eastern railfanning tour with Marty Surdyk, we caught Conrail trains in a number of places including New York State and Pennsylvania.

Here are a few of my favorite images of the Conrail trains that I made during that tour.

The top photograph was made on the West Shore Line, a former New York Central property, and shows a southbound (railroad timetable eastbound) crossing Popolopen Creek.

I was standing on the Bear Mountain Bridge when I made the image.

In the next image, a northbound (timetable westbound) crosses Popolopen Creek.

The next two images were made in downtown Altoona, Pennsylvania, on the former Pennsylvania Railroad mainline.

The series concludes with an image made at the famed Horseshoe Curve.

Photographs by Edward Ribinskas

FL9s Along the Hudson River

Marty Surdy and I spent three days along the Hudson River in New York from June 29-July 1, 1993. We focused on photographing Amtrak and Metro North FL9s.

The top photograph was made of a northbound Metro North train at Cold Spring.

In the first image below, Bannerman Castle on Pollepel Island looms in the background in a view of a southbound at Cold Spring.

The next two images were also made at Cold Spring with one going north and one going south.

Next up is an FL9 painted in the livery of the New Haven and shown at Croton-Harmon. Photo six is features a northbound Amtrak Empire Service train at Garrison.

That is followed by Amtrak FL9 No. 484 leading a northbound train at Peekskill. This unit would later run on the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad between late 2009 and early 2012.

The series ends with an image of a northbound Metro North train coming out of the station at Peekskill.

Photographs by Edward Ribinskas

Some Varnish on the Water Level Route

My girlfriend and I took a New Year’s Day drive into the Hudson River Valley by Bear Mountain.

Here at Fort Montgomery, New York, the Hudson River is about one-third of a mile wide. We were by the old NYWS&B (now CSX River Sub) hoping to catch a freight.

Of course, Murphy’s law had different ideas. Red signals and the only thing going through the tunnel was a hiker.

However, we did catch some passenger action across the river on the old Water Level Route, once home to the New York Central’s 20th Century Limited and other famous NYC trains as they sped to and from Grand Central.

Here we see a Metro-North commuter train out of Grand Central heading toward Poughkeepsie, New York, the end of the line for Metro North.

The other train we caught was Amtrak’s Ethan Allen heading to Penn Station after its journey from Rutland, Vermont.

Both trains are headed by GE P32ACDM, dual-mode locomotives that run as diesel-electric or third rail straight electric for entering New York City.

In a few months life will return to the mountains and the hills will be back to a nice, lush green, but for now the only colors in the area are the passing trains. Happy New Year, everyone.

Article and Photographs by Jack Norris