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PHOTOS: SCHENECTADY RIVER LINE |
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Posted by Jersey Mike on Sat Mar 8 01:00:53 2025 Over the past 20 years Schenectady, NY has changed from a blighted city suffering the effects of post-industrial decline, to a vibrant community benefiting from the resurgence in urban living. Public policy has played a huge role, starting with a program to sell vacant houses to refugees and immigrants for $500, to a complete reconstruction of the city's main drag. One of the more visible projects was the replacement of Schenectady's literal Amshack with a brand new station that called back to the New York Central era Union Station that previously existed on the same site. During my 2023 Trip to Albany (tm) I had the opportunity to check out the new Schenectady Union Station and grab some photos at the adjacent CP-159. On the return trip I also managed to divert the vehicle to grab some photos of Conrail era signaling on the former River Line freight route. Photos from all of this can be seen here ( mirror ).The 1908 beaux arts New York Central Schenectady Union Station was closed in 1969 by the Penn Central due to high costs and low ridership before being sold to the city in 1971 to facilitate the construction of a paring lot. The Penn Central's idea for a replacement was a suburban station within the border of Colonie, NY consisting of a small building with parking. Needless to say, the resulting Colonie-Schenectady Station had even lower ridership than the failing 1908 structure and in 1978 Amtrak moved back downtown with immediate plans to construct what would become known as an Amshack style station similar to others on the old Water Level Route at Syracuse, Rochester, Buffalo-Depew, Cleveland, South Bend and Hammond. By the 2010's the Amshack itself had become a rundown shambles that was out of place in a newly revitalized urban downtown and funding became available to completely replace the station and platform facilities with one that called back to the 1908 structure. Here we can see the station facade along with the new waiting room.    The platform remained low level, but was completely renovated. CP-160 was altered to only cover track 2 for movements onto the former D&H with the conversion from double to single track moved to a new CP-161 a half mile to the west.  Despite its implosion as an industrial conglomerate, the GE power systems plant is still a fixture of the Schenectady skyline.  Due to the limited sight lines at the station itself, I took up a position a bit to the east adjacent to CP-159. The first Amtrak train to appear was Empire Service Train 281 en-route to Niagara Falls with P42DC #120 leading.   This was followed by westbound Lake Shore Limited Train 48 with P's42DC #94 and #147.  The last train I managed to catch was southbound Ethan Allen service Train 290. Because the Ethan Allen's service to Burlington, VT requires a reverse move at Rutland, the train now runs with engines at both ends. This day P32AC-DM #714 was leading towards New York with Amtrak 50th Anniversary P42DC #100 was on the rear.    Although later eclipsed by the railroad, the Erie Canal is a thing that still exists and most of the locks, including the flight climbing out of the Hudson valley near Waterford, are public parks where one can just walk in and around the lock structures. Closed during the off season, the Waterford flight is drained of water for maintenance allowing for views of canal and lock sutures normally hidden by water.   Most of the current canal features were built between 1908 and 1918 when the original Erie canal was converted into a more modern barge canal. Still, towpaths were included in the updated design, some of which can be seen as causeways crossing the basins around locks 5 and 6.   Over the same weekend I managed to arrange a little brewery tour around North Adams, MA, which as many of your know is home to the World Famous Hoosac Tunnel. Completed in 1877, the 5 mile long bore was the longest in the United States at that time and one of the earliest instances of nitroglycerine blasting technology. Winding up as part of the Boston and Maine's bridge line to westward connections at Mechanicsville, NY, it later became part of the Guilford Rail System before becoming part of a joint venture with NS to reach New Englande markets. With only a handful of daily trains I was not lucky enough to catch one at either portal.   A few miles south of Catskill, NY, CP-106 and CP-102 are from what I can tell the last examples of Conrail era signaling on the River Line between Selkirk Yard and Northern New Jersey. Directly adjacent to US 9W it didn't require that much subterfuge to get my friends to detour off the Thruway. Upon arrival at CP-106 I was greeted by a Clear signal on the main track for an impending northbound movement.  As this is CSX's primary container route from the Port of New Jersey to points west, there was little surprise when the train turned out to be of the double stack variety led by CM44AH #7227, CM44AH #7241 and ET44AC #3433.     Heading to CP-102, I discovered that there had actually been a southbound manifest freight train in the siding that had met the northbound intermodal. Unfortunately I was only in time to snag this photo of the tail end and the reversed switch at CP-102.  That's all for this trip. Thanks for reading and I'll be back next week with a quick trip to Princeton and some other Philly area stuff. |
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| (1639827) | |
Re: PHOTOS: SCHENECTADY RIVER LINE |
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Posted by Italianstallion on Sat Mar 8 11:41:25 2025, in response to PHOTOS: SCHENECTADY RIVER LINE, posted by Jersey Mike on Sat Mar 8 01:00:53 2025. Beautiful new station thanks to government action. |
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| (1639828) | |
Re: PHOTOS: SCHENECTADY RIVER LINE |
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Posted by Jackson Park B Train on Sat Mar 8 14:38:11 2025, in response to Re: PHOTOS: SCHENECTADY RIVER LINE, posted by Italianstallion on Sat Mar 8 11:41:25 2025. agree.and very much appreciate the Canal locks pix. |
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| (1639849) | |
Re: PHOTOS: SCHENECTADY RIVER LINE |
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Posted by Jersey Mike on Sun Mar 9 17:13:45 2025, in response to Re: PHOTOS: SCHENECTADY RIVER LINE, posted by Italianstallion on Sat Mar 8 11:41:25 2025. Yeah, private company Penn Central literally sold the old station for $20,000 for a parking lot. |
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