New York Trip 2013 Part 4

Today I'm going to "The Big Apple," or New York City.  This train ride goes from Rensselaer/Albany to NYC along the Hudson River.  The depot is located in Rensselaer, across the Hudson River from Albany.

The depot was built about 10 years ago and is a well-designed facility.

The train on the left is arriving from New York City and is one of their Empire Service trains.

3 trains in the station at one time.  Actually, the train on the left and the train on the right are both the Lake Shore Limited that came from Chicago.  It splits here with the left train going up the hill to the left to Boston and the train on the right going to New York City.

We take one of the Empire Service trains to NYC.  Dick purchased Business Class tickets for us so we have much nicer, bigger seats.  But there's no cafeteria service today so we don't even get our complimentary coffee!!!  It's a foggy morning but it will soon burn off.  Notice there is a lot of algae or weed growth on the Hudson River.

I had ridden this route once before, about 10 years ago in a private railcar, but it was at night and I couldn't see a thing.  This is much better!  The trackage is former New York Central Railroad trackage and this side of the river sees almost exclusively Amtrak and Metra passenger trains.  There are a lot of impressive bridges spanning the Hudson River.

The slogan of the New York Central was "The Water Level Route."  You can see we are right on the bank of the Hudson River.

The other side of the river sees freight traffic as this CSX train heads toward Albany.

I hope the river doesn't rise or trains won't run over that low trestle.

Here's a neat barge loading facility.  The industry in the background conveys its product to the loader in the river.

Here's a little fixer-upper for you.  Will take a little time and money but you will have a great view of passenger trains and barges.

We pass by West Point Academy.

Enjoy some scenery along the Hudson River.

Looking at this bridge, we must be approaching NYC.

Amtrak trains enter Penn Station while Metra commuter trains use Grand Central Station.  Here's the inside of Penn Station.

Any doubt where we are???

There used to be a beautiful Penn Station at this location but it was leveled to build the new Madison Square Garden.  No basketball game today . . .

Here's what the exterior of Penn Station looks like today (compare it to Grand Central Station a few pictures down the list).

Take a walk with me around New York City as I head to visit Grand Central Station.

Grand Central Station is the largest railway station in the world by the number of platforms (44) and has been proclaimed the "loveliest" train station in the world.  Efforts were made by Jackie Kennedy Onassis and NYC Mayor Ed Koch to save the structure.  Believe it or not, 750,000 people pass through its hallway every day and it contains 68 shops and 35 places to eat.  There is a new station level being built under the present train level to accommodate more commuter trains.

The 100 in the windows signifies the 100th Anniversary of the station.  Other than that, we didn't see anything different at this time to commemorate the occasion.

I was going to walk to Yankee Stadium which was 9 miles away but it was raining and I didn't want to be all wet for the train ride back to Rensselaer.
Another fun day--but TOO MANY PEOPLE!!  I guess Barron is about the right size for me.