Shades Of The Century
For Monochrome Monday here's another view of these New York Central time machines.
I rarely go out with the specific goal of shooting the hind end of a train. While locomotives have always been the primary focus of railroad photographers since the earliest days of the genre at least a couple generations ago the rear ends were nearly as interesting. Until the mid 1980s every freight train was punctuated by a caboose each dressed in the unique colors and style of the owning road, of which there were far more in the pre mega-merger era. Go back a generation or two further than that to the pre Amtrak era and the rear end of passenger trains were just as interesting often brought up by observation cars of varied styles and colors and frequently adorned with neon logos or stylish nameplates befitting the status of the train.
Alas those days have been relegated to the history books and if you want to photograph a caboose rolling you have to visit a heritage railroad or participate in a photo freight reenactment. Similarly you won't find an observation car on any modern Amtrak trains so unless you want to travel north to see VIA's classic Canadian, you have to visit a museum or be lucky enough to catch a private car or executive train out on the line.
However in recent years the New Jersey based United Railroad Historical Society has begun running regular excursions along the Hudson River (and even a few as far as Chicago!) with their trio of original New York Central Railroad cars that they add to regularly scheduled Amtrak trains.
Bringing up the rear of Amtrak train 233 (Empire Service from New York Penn Station to Albany-Rensselaer) are NYC tavern-lounge number 43 (Budd built 1947), Pullman bedroom lounge 'Swift Stream' (Budd 1949), and observation lounge car 'Hickory Creek' built by Pullman-Standard for the 1948 refit of the flagship 20th Century Limited.
All three cars would have regularly traveled these rails on their original trains, though originating at Penn Station instead of Grand Central would seem blasphemous to those old Central men! The Hickory Creek resplendent in her Henry Dreyfuss designed two toned grey livery splits the Central era small target GRS type SA signals as she sails north up Main1 at MP 99 on modern day Amtrak's Hudson Line which opened between New York and Albany in 1851 as the Hudson River Railroad.
In 1864 the road was purchased by Cornelius Vanderbilt along with the New York and Harlem. Meanwhile in 1853 Erastus Corning had assembled a plethora of small local lines as the New York Central Railroad running from Albany to Buffalo and in 1867 Vanderbilt merged it with his road to create the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad and the rest as they say is history. The line passed from the NYC, to Penn Central, Conrail, and ultimately CSXT until December 2012 when Amtrak took over control and dispatching of the line from Poughkeepsie to Hoffmans (where it joins the busy Mohawk Subdivision) under a long term lease agreement with CSXT.
As for these trips check out this website to learn more about what the URHS offers:
www.hudsonriverrail.com/experiences
And for an in depth history of each of these three cars check out these links:
www.urhs.org/rolling-stock#/nyc43
Tivoli, New York
Saturday October 26, 2024
Shades Of The Century
For Monochrome Monday here's another view of these New York Central time machines.
I rarely go out with the specific goal of shooting the hind end of a train. While locomotives have always been the primary focus of railroad photographers since the earliest days of the genre at least a couple generations ago the rear ends were nearly as interesting. Until the mid 1980s every freight train was punctuated by a caboose each dressed in the unique colors and style of the owning road, of which there were far more in the pre mega-merger era. Go back a generation or two further than that to the pre Amtrak era and the rear end of passenger trains were just as interesting often brought up by observation cars of varied styles and colors and frequently adorned with neon logos or stylish nameplates befitting the status of the train.
Alas those days have been relegated to the history books and if you want to photograph a caboose rolling you have to visit a heritage railroad or participate in a photo freight reenactment. Similarly you won't find an observation car on any modern Amtrak trains so unless you want to travel north to see VIA's classic Canadian, you have to visit a museum or be lucky enough to catch a private car or executive train out on the line.
However in recent years the New Jersey based United Railroad Historical Society has begun running regular excursions along the Hudson River (and even a few as far as Chicago!) with their trio of original New York Central Railroad cars that they add to regularly scheduled Amtrak trains.
Bringing up the rear of Amtrak train 233 (Empire Service from New York Penn Station to Albany-Rensselaer) are NYC tavern-lounge number 43 (Budd built 1947), Pullman bedroom lounge 'Swift Stream' (Budd 1949), and observation lounge car 'Hickory Creek' built by Pullman-Standard for the 1948 refit of the flagship 20th Century Limited.
All three cars would have regularly traveled these rails on their original trains, though originating at Penn Station instead of Grand Central would seem blasphemous to those old Central men! The Hickory Creek resplendent in her Henry Dreyfuss designed two toned grey livery splits the Central era small target GRS type SA signals as she sails north up Main1 at MP 99 on modern day Amtrak's Hudson Line which opened between New York and Albany in 1851 as the Hudson River Railroad.
In 1864 the road was purchased by Cornelius Vanderbilt along with the New York and Harlem. Meanwhile in 1853 Erastus Corning had assembled a plethora of small local lines as the New York Central Railroad running from Albany to Buffalo and in 1867 Vanderbilt merged it with his road to create the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad and the rest as they say is history. The line passed from the NYC, to Penn Central, Conrail, and ultimately CSXT until December 2012 when Amtrak took over control and dispatching of the line from Poughkeepsie to Hoffmans (where it joins the busy Mohawk Subdivision) under a long term lease agreement with CSXT.
As for these trips check out this website to learn more about what the URHS offers:
www.hudsonriverrail.com/experiences
And for an in depth history of each of these three cars check out these links:
www.urhs.org/rolling-stock#/nyc43
Tivoli, New York
Saturday October 26, 2024