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| Weekend trip to NYC and Delaware (with lots 'o train riding!) :) (641615) | |||
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Weekend trip to NYC and Delaware (with lots 'o train riding!) :) |
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Posted by FYBklyn1959 on Sun Jun 29 15:20:35 2008 It was truly a whirlwind trip, from South Florida to NYC to Delaware, back to NYC and then back to So. Fla in under 72 hours (just barely--left the house around 4 AM on Friday 6/13, returned at 12:30 AM on Monday 6/16). Was booked on the 6:05 AM (!) jetBlue flight out of Fort Lauderdale on the 13th and the 7:05 PM out of JFK on the 15th (though we didn't take off until 1 1/2 hours after the schedule departure time, but that's another story (which can be found at my trip report at the jetphotos.net board.June 13th - LIRR Anyway, after arriving at JFK, it was off to Airtrain. We were going to take it to Jamaica and then get the LIRR to Queens Village where we were staying w/ a friend. The Jamaica train arrived first, making my Airtrain streak 2 for 2 (when I came to NY 2 years ago for my day of railfanning , the Howard Beach train arrived first. I had a similar streak the first few times I rode BART, no matter whether I wanted a Fremont or Richmond train, it was the first to arrive :) But I digress. We were in the first car (207, never did get the other car in the consist), so I availed myself of on of the world's greatest railfan views :) (And in a year or so, the only one available in NYC, except for Flushing-bound 7s) :( A couple of pics were taken, of course. After arrival at Jamaica, I was impressed to see that the TVMs sold combo Airtrain/LIRR tickets (now if only the machines at NYP did the same!) After purchasing the combos, we headed toward the tracks and saw that our train (#714 to Hempstead) was scheduled on track 8. It was due in at 9:58, and a few minutes before that, a Huntington train arrived on track 7 and sat with both sides opened up. We then heard that our train would be coming in on track 6! Great. So we walked through the Huntington train over to track 6. Train 714 arrived about 2 minutes down and we boarded lead motor M-7 # 7130. I think it was the first time I had ever ridden in the first car of an LIRR train. We made the employees-only stop at Hillside, and a few minutes before we stopped, this woman, obviously an LIRR employee, came out of the cab, therefore giving a brief cab/railfan view. There was a second one after Hillside, when the C/R entered the cab after checking tickets. We arrived shortly thereafter at Queens Village. Oh, the consist: I’m guessing that railroad south on the LIRR is away from NYP (or FLA), so S-7130/7129,7396/5,7313/4-N (in all consist lists in this posting, the car I rode in will be in bold). JUNE 14 – LIRR/AMTRAK The plan was to take LIRR to Penn and from there, the Amtrak Acela to Wilmington, DE to visit our cousin who lives in nearby Newark (Hi, NIMBYkiller!) :) We had tickets on train 2253, which was scheduled to leave NYP at 3:00 PM, but it is always a good idea to leave plenty of time when taking public transit, so we set out to catch train 6719, which left QV at 10:42 AM. We got to the platform around 10:20 or so. To our east, the switch replacement was taking place. On Friday, I had seen a couple of switch tracks on flatcars on a siding track behind the eastbound platform (which I had never noticed during my previous 2 trips to QV). I got pics of those while we were waiting. The work was taking place on the express tracks, so a couple of trains came by going express on the local. I was surprised that LIRR trains don’t honk when entering a station that they will not stop at, unlike the subway. At around 10:42, I spotted a train “wrong-railing” on the eastbound local, it switched over the middle tracks, a la G train east of Smith-9th and arrived. Consist was (I think) N-7372/1,7762/1,7400/7399-S. We would have to change at Jamaica, since most Hempstead trains go to FLA (except during the peak). We arrived at JAM and the train to NYP was waiting (most likely one of the ones that had passed QV earlier). May have been a Huntington train, as it had 10 cars. I didn’t get all of them, but what I got was 7789/7800, 7305/6, 7157/8, 7547/8. Got to NYP around 11:15 and set off looking for the Amtrak section. Well it seems that very few folks who work in the Penn Station complex actually know where anything is. And I hadn’t been in NYP to ride a out-of-town train since 1965 (and as I was 6 years old then, I certainly didn’t remember anything about the layout of the station). Eventually, we found our way to the Acela lounge. We got there just after noon, and with train 2253 scheduled to leave NYP at 3:00, we were in for a long wait. I amused myself by scoping out some semi-hot chicks that were around the waiting room (sorry no pics, if I could’ve figured out how to take some without getting arrested, I would have) Around 2:30, my mom went to find a red cap who would take her down to platform level in a wheelchair. Around that time, we also started hearing that 2253 was delayed due to a brush fire around the Mount Vernon area (it was inbound from BOS). The poor agent was beseeched by geese asking about the delay. Maybe they had a long-distance train to connect to in Washington (or even Phila.) We didn’t worry about it, just called our cousin who would be meeting us in Wilmington to let her know of the delay. Finally, the train arrived around 3:20 or so, and we proceeded to track level. We were in the first of the 2 business cars (#3556), which was just behind the café car (#3301). We left NYP at 3:36 and were off to the tubes under the Hudson via the West Side yards. 13 minutes later, we arrived at Newark Penn Station, where several NJ Transit trains were seen. After leaving NWK, PATH trains were seen on either side, including a yard. We arrived at Metropark at 4:03, and then the long stretch to Philadelphia. I knew we were getting near when we slowed, and soon we were crossing the Delaware River, with the skyline of Philly off to the south. Shortly after crossing the river, I saw tracks for one of the subway/surface lines (alas, no Kawasaki LRV was seen) :( By 4:46, we were at 30th Street station. We dwelled there for about 3 minutes as several folks boarded and alighted. A few miles out of 30th St, I noticed a SEPTA subway/surface yard on the left, with several LRVs and a lone PCC. Took me by surprise, so I wasn’t able to get a pic :( We arrived at Wilmington at 5:12, where we were met by our cousin. JUNE 15 – AMTRAK/LIRR/AIRTRAIN This was to be the big rail-riding day, as we were taking the Acela back to NYP, then LIRR to Jamaica, the Airtrain to JFK to get out B6 flihgt back to FLL. We were booked on train 2252, which was scheduled to leave Wilmington at 12:17 PM, but our cousin dropped us off around 10 AM, because she had to get to church (which was not far from the station). So we had a couple of hours to kill in the station. The Wilmington station is celebrating its centennial (opened in 1907, but the celebration continued into 2008). Seems that the entire downtown Wilmington area is undergoing a revival, there was a cool model of the area in the station, which I photographed. Just south of downtown, there is what appears to be a fairly new minor league stadium (Chase Field?) which is the home of the Wilmington…um…forgot the name, might be Red Rocks. They are a Class A team (not sure which league, or which major league team they are affiliated with, if I have time, I’ll Google). The station had a nice, old-school train board, complete with the flipping letters/numbers that updated, line by line, after a train departed. There were modern electronic TV screen boards to complement it by the ticket windows. 2252 was on time, so the red cap took us up around 12:10, so I got to see the Acela arrive (shoulda got a pic, but I didn’t). Nice sleek nose on the engine. North engine was 2006, and we were right behind it in Business Class car 3440. 2nd Bus. Car was 3516, not sure what # the Café car was, it was a 31XX. We departed WLM (?) at 12:21. We passed what appeared to be an Amtrak yard just north of the station. Wilmington seems to be a strategic Amtrak location, I think they had an operations center or something like that just to the east of the station. We got to PHL around 12:43, as we were entering 30th St, I got a shot of a Septa Regional Rail train, and on departure, I got SEPTA New Flyer D40LF 8080 on the highway (I-95?) that was just to the east of the ROW. We crossed the river, and shortly after that, we passed under PATCO. Somehow, I had missed it on the outbound. An eastbound PATCO train was on the elevated, but again I was taken by surprised and didn’t get a pic :( We arrived at NYP at 1:58 and we asked the red cap to take us back to the Acela lounge while we figured out which LIRR train to catch. Unlike the previous 2 days, we had our choice of trains as we were only going to Jamaica, and almost every LIRR train goes there. Eventually, we decided on the 3:06 Huntington train. We boarded car # 7217, and as we boarded, we noticed a bunch of water on the floor to the left, probably coming from the restroom. Nice. We went the other way and settled in, and the C/R made an announcement telling folks in the 2 “hot cars” to try one of the other 8 cars in the consist. Gotta love BOMBardier! :P We were soon underway, and this particular train skipped Woodside, but stopped at Kew Gardens and Forest Hills (first 4 cars only). After arriving at Jamaica, we made our way to Airtrain, where we had to buy AT tickets since the damn TVMs at NYP don’t sell LIRR/AT combo tickets (all they offered was a $20 Metrocard, and since AT is only $5, we would be stuck with a $15 Metrocard with nowhere to use it, since we have no return trips scheduled to NYC in the foreseeable future. Oh well. Our Airtrain was S-120/122-N. Since we were in the 2nd car, no railfan view this time. We were inside Terminal 6 by 4 PM, for a 7:05 PM departure. Better to wait for the plane, b/c the plane won’t wait for you! Getting to and on the plane was an adventure, but you can check my trip report (see the link at the beginning of this post if you choose). Quite a rail extravaganza! I rode on 4 different LIRR trains in 3 days, after having ridden maybe 8 or 10 total previously in a 35 ½ year period between December 1971 and May 2007 (all of those were M-1s except May ’07 which was an M-7) Guess I’ll never get to ride an M-3, though I noticed several trains of those at Hillside, are they in dead storage, or do they still operate during the peak? And definitely the first time I rode LIRR 3 straight days. (I once rode 2 straight days in Nov. 1974, to and from an overnight stay w/ friends in North Babylon). Also, my first time on the Northeast Corridor (at least in the Amtrak era). Lastly, taking this trip, I was able to see firsthand all the different rail systems in the corridor. I personally saw the following: MTA NYC Subway (7 trains from Woodside and Sunnyside yard area) LIRR (rode) NJ Transit (both EMUs and Atlantic City trains at 30th St station) PATCO PATH (not sure which class of cars I saw, as I don’t know that PATH roster) AMTRAK Acela (rode), Regional and Long Distance (one of the Silver trains?) AIRTRAIN (rode) In other notes, first time I have been back to NYC 3 straight years, since I visited 4 straight years from 1978-1981. Also, only the second time that I didn’t ride any subways during a visit (other time was 1990). Finally (stop applauding!), did they change the seats on the M-7s? I know when they first went into service, there were complaints about the seat armrests ripping pants of unsuspecting riders. The first time I rode an M-7 last year, it might’ve happened to me, but I had been forewarned at sat down carefully. But this time, it didn’t seem like there was a threat. Or maybe I was just hyper-aware. Anyway, enough wasting of bandwith! :) |
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