This Tuesday we visit yet another Westchester Harlem Line station: Tuckahoe. Tuckahoe is interesting in both an artistic sense, as well as historical. It is one of the few stations on the line that has an Arts For Transit piece, and the old station building still survives. It may not be used for selling tickets any longer, but it is beautifully restored and is occupied by Starbucks.

Tuckahoe itself is village located in the town of Eastchester, in the southern portion of Westchester county. Although the railroad played a significant part in the growth of Tuckahoe and all of the areas located along the line in Westchester (and further north), it was the discovery of marble in the early 1800′s that led significantly to the growth of the village. (The village was officially incorporated in 1902, the marble quarries were shut down in the 1930′s). Tuckahoe marble was used in many high-profile buildings, including St. Patrick’s Cathedral in the city, and the Washington Monument in Washington DC.

Tuckahoe’s station building was erected in 1901 and was designed by architects Reed & Stem. Reed & Stem worked on several stations on the Harlem Line, including Chappaqua, Scarsdale, and most notably, Grand Central. An Arts for Transit piece called The Finder / The Seekers by Arthur Gonzales is present at the station. Companion pieces also by Gonzales are at Crestwood and Fleetwood.

The station is located in a commercial area, and there are a few shops and restaurants that surround it. On Sundays during the summer the station’s parking lot also plays host to a farmers market (which you can see in the first photo).

As a bonus, here are some older photos of Tuckahoe in 1988. The station building looks a bit run down, and although I’m not the biggest fan of Starbucks, I must admit it looks much nicer today.

 
   
 
Photos from last year’s Bus Festival

Although the Transit Museum in Brooklyn is known for its collection of subway cars, it also has quite a collection of historical buses as well. Every year the museum has a Bus Festival to show off that collection, in conjunction with the Atlantic Antic, Brooklyn’s largest street fair. Admission to the event is completely free to see the buses and the museum. The festival runs from 10 AM until 6 PM this Sunday. I won’t be attending this year, but last year’s festival was really great and I highly recommend it!

For more information, check out the Museum’s Calendar page.

To some of you this may be new, to some perhaps common knowledge, but I must admit, I get asked these questions quite frequently and figured I’d answer publicly. Can you use your Metro-North ticket on other lines? Is there a ticket that will allow you to ride all of the Metro-North system? I was asked these questions most recently by a coworker (Eric this is for you!). I didn’t think that you could, but I wasn’t 100% sure, and I told him I would get the official word. As for a ticket that would let you ride any Metro-North train, well I didn’t think it existed – but yes, it does in fact exist.

Below are two official “Conversion charts” for Metro-North tickets. Because the system spans the two states of New York and Connecticut, there are some catches. Any ticket on the Harlem and Hudson lines, as they are both in New York, are completely interchangeable. If the two zones that you leaving and arriving from correspond with the zones on the alternate line, the ticket is valid. My ticket from Goldens Bridge to Grand Central on the Harlem Line would also be valid from Peekskill to Grand Central on the Hudson Line, as both Goldens Bridge and Peekskill are in Zone 6. However, because parts of the New Haven line are in Connecticut, taxes and fees are paid to/by the state for each ticket. If you buy a single ride on the Harlem Line and try to use it on the New Haven, you circumvented that. Thus tickets (with the exception of weeklys and monthlys) purchased on the Harlem and Hudson Lines are not valid on the New Haven. Similarly, ones bought on the New Haven can’t be used for the Harlem and Hudson.

But, here’s the catch: It is permitted to use your monthly or weekly from the Harlem and Hudson on the New Haven line, and the other way around. So if you were to purchase a weekly ticket from Wassaic to Grand Central (the furthest fare zones apart) you could effectively ride any train to any location on all three lines for the whole week. Or in the case of the monthly, for an entire month.

By now my little photography adventures have taken me to almost all of the Harlem Line stations (the only outstanding stations are Woodlawn, Williams Bridge, Botanical Garden, Melrose and Tremont. I’ve been warned for my safety at the last two). I’ve done a lot of fun things, and gotten to explore quite a bit. I’ve eaten an italian ice in Hartsdale with @kc2hmv, splashed in the river near Crestwood, and munched on good food in Mount Kisco, Valhalla and Tuckahoe. I’ve seen all the Arts for Transit pieces, and other randomly cute things, like the Commuter Rooster in Scarsdale. But despite all this, when I chatted with @bitchcakesny last night and she asked me my favorite station of all, I couldn’t quite answer.

There are so many good things about some of these stations, how could I pick just one? Wassaic and Pleasantville have my favorite Arts for Transit pieces, and I loved Harlem-125th’s art too, not to mention it was a great spot for photography. Bronxville has a unique station, and the shops surrounding Mount Kisco, Hartsdale and Scarsdale are cute and worth exploring. Chappaqua’s restored station building is a beautiful sight, and I’ve always been fond of Brewster’s old station building. What I was able to do though, is narrow it down by asking myself a question: If I had to be stuck at a single station for the entire day (maybe there was a big fire or something, shutting down Metro-North??), which would it be? And that answer is Katonah.

What makes Katonah special? The area around the station is very cute – full of shops and restaurants for eating good food. I will admit though, the Katonah Museum played a part in the decision. If you don’t mind walking the half mile from the station to this art museum, you really could spend the entire day here viewing art, shopping and eating. And if there was still time left you could hang out in the gazebo not far from the station, or go and visit the library which is two blocks away. Katonah is just another one of the nice places located along the Harlem Line, but one that certainly sticks out in my mind.

The twitterverse is abuzz with news and photos of the fire that has suspended all Metro-North trains into and out of Grand Central Terminal. The fire is a trending topic in the New York area, and folks in the city, including the NY Fire Department, are posting pictures.

Metro-North’s statement below was sent to everyone that is subscribed to their alerts service.

Service is temporarily suspended in and out of GCT due to a fire in the vicinity of 138th Street Bridge.

As of 1:20 PM Metro North has issued the following statement regarding alternate methods of transportation:

Service remains temporarily suspended into and out of Grand Central due to a fire in the vicinity of the E. 138th Street Bridge.

Outbound customers departing Grand Central are advised to take New York City Transit’s 4 or D train to E. 161 Street where they can transfer to a Harlem, Hudson or New Haven Line train at Yankees-E. 153rd Street Station.

Inbound customers traveling to Grand Central are advised to do the following:

Hudson Line–Take a Hudson Line train to Yankees-E. 153rd Street Station and transfer to the 4 or D subway line.

Harlem and New Haven Lines–Take a train to Woodlawn Station for the 2 or 5 subway line.

During this incident, New York City Transit is honoring cross fares.

I’ve been on a little map kick recently – I signed up for Panoramio, so a bunch of the station panoramas from the site now show up in Google Earth. I also made a map on Google of all the locations photographed for the panorama project. Harlem Line stations from the Tuesday Tour have the blue placemarks, and other locations I’ve photographed have the pink placemarks.

And just for kicks, here are two panoramas of the sunset over Interstate-84 around Port Jervis. I took these on the way home from Steamtown in Scranton a few weeks ago.

I thought it might be fun to do something different this Friday… Tuesdays I visit train stations, but I don’t talk much about what else is around the station. The Harlem Line has plenty of intriguing spots along the route, and many for the nature lover. I do get emails every once and a while asking me questions about doing things – people wondering what is within walking distance of the stations, and what they can get away and do. And for those who, like me, do not drive, or don’t feel like driving, you can definitely take Metro-North to get to interesting spots.

As I mentioned, there are many nature-related locales on the Harlem Line. Some of the obvious ones are the Botanical Garden and the Appalachian Trail, but there are many lesser-known spots. Pawling has the Pawling Nature Reserve, which is not far from the Appalachian Trail. At the end of the line in Wassaic is the trailhead for the Harlem Valley Rail Trail which follows the old route the Harlem Line once took further north. Lower Westchester has the Bronx River Parkway Reservation which is more than 13 miles long and stretches from Valhalla to Bronxville – and passes by North White Plains, White Plains, Hartsdale, Scarsdale, Crestwood and Tuckahoe stations.

One of the lesser-known spots is near and dear to my heart, situated in Goldens Bridge and not far from my house. In the evenings it is here that I make laughable attempts at running off the past nine years I spent sitting on my ass in front of a computer. In all seriousness though, it is beautiful and quiet little spot that few people other than fisherman and neighborhood residents (and some deer, swans and bullfrogs) know about. The trails are not extensive, but they surround the beautiful reservoir and provide access to various fishing spots. I went one step beyond that and purchased a boat for use on the reservoir as well (boat use is heavily regulated, this is NYC’s drinking water, after all). However, the most noteworthy part of this “Public Access” DEP area is the old railroad bridge.

I created this map based on my own explorations of the area. Maps are actually fun to make. :P

I’ve mentioned Bridge L-158 a few times before. It is one of the few remaining vestiges of the branch of the Harlem Line that ran from Goldens Bridge to Lake Mahopac, and is on the National Register of Historic Places. It was originally built in 1883 over Rondout Creek near Kingston, NY, but was moved in 1904 by the New York Central Railroad to Goldens Bridge. Although the original bridge carried two tracks, the Mahopac branch was a single track line and when the bridge was reconstructed the width was shortened for a single track.

If you’re interested in visiting this part of the Harlem Line, it is within walking distance of Goldens Bridge station. Although it is rarely enforced, you do need an access permit to use the land for recreational use. But access permits are easy to get – you can register for one online and print it out immediately. If you’re interested in fishing or boating, you’ll need additional permits, so I advise checking the DEP’s site. People fish in the reservoir all year long, as the Muscoot is one of the reservoirs in which ice fishing is permitted. Although it is a lot smaller than some of the other nature spots around it is at least worth visiting to see the historic bridge. There are some times where it gets so quiet, except for the crunching leaves under the foot of a squirrel or deer, that you forget that you’re not that far from the city… only until you hear a train go by, yanking you back to reality.

When I was a lot younger if you had asked me what my favorite train station was, I’d probably say Valhalla. I had never been there, but every time I rode the train and we passed it by, I thought Valhalla was the coolest station ever. You see, I was always a fan of Norse mythology (and if you were wondering, Loki is of course my favorite Norse god). I also loved this silly old game called Castle of the Winds, which I played on my computer that had Windows 3.1 loaded on it. Castle of the Winds was roughly based on Norse mythology. And if your character was to die at any point during the game, your name would be listed on a scroll: Valhalla’s List of Legends.

Usually the quick response given to anyone wondering what exactly Valhalla was, is that it was Heaven in Norse mythology. But calling it Heaven doesn’t fully explain the subject. Valhalla was the hall of slain warriors. Warriors that died in battle congregated in Valhalla with the chief god Odin, awaiting Ragnarök (battle at the end of the world). During that battle, these warriors would fight alongside Odin. The real question that comes to mind though, is how the heck did a little hamlet in Westchester county come to be known as the Norse hall of slain warriors?

The story (whether it can be validated or not, I am unsure) is that after the village of Kensico was flooded (for building the dam) the relocated people and their post office needed a new name for their town. The postmaster’s wife, who was a fan of Wagner, chose Valhalla. One of Wagner’s operas is titled Ride of the Valkyries, the Valkyries being those who transport the deceased warriors to Valhalla. Considering the hamlet is well known today as being the resting place of many people, with all its large cemeteries, I bet that woman thought she was pretty sly.

Technically the blog has visited Valhalla already – at least the old station building, which is a restaurant, and back in February I made a snow angel on the platform there. But this time I am officially visiting the station itself (and in good weather!), and in typical Tuesday fashion, have quite a few pictures.

Metro-North released some images of their new Operations Control Center… and looking at those big screens… well, I couldn’t resist. Here’s what goes on in the control center after hours:

In all seriousness, the new control center looks pretty awesome, and it helps get your train to where it has to go on time. Metro North’s facebook page has more info, with a non-photoshopped image.

I don’t happen to be in a very chatty mood, so you’ll have to forgive me if I post a few pictures and then run. Saturday I went down to Scranton, Pennsylvania for Steamtown’s Railfest. I hadn’t been to Steamtown before, and I enjoyed it – though the smoke from those engines gives me a headache. The coolest thing about working for a camera company is the access to new and cool cameras, so I figured I’d try one of our newer models while there (as I am thinking of getting a new camera before I go to Africa). I also brought our 3d camera, as one of my goals was to get a great shot of a steam train in 3d, which I managed to do.

Here is a question for everyone though, if I printed extra copies of these 3d prints, would anybody be interested in buying them? They are a bit expensive to print though, around $8 to $10 dollars, as they aren’t done here in the US and have to be imported from Japan. They are all 5×7′s and done with lenticular printing. They do have a neat effect and are rather unique, so if anyone is interested let me know.

Anyways, here are some photos. Enjoy the rest of the week, and have a great weekend!