15.3 miles north of Grand Central on the Harlem Line, lies the station of Bronxville – located in the village of Bronxville, and the town of Eastchester. It is one of the more heavily used stations on the line, only Scarsdale and White Plains get more commuters. The railroad has had a presence in Bronxville since 1844, and like many of the suburbs along the line, grew significantly because of it. Bronxville is relatively small – the village is only one square mile, and has a population of around 6,500. It is not only one of the most affluent areas on the Harlem Line and Westchester, it is certainly one of the more affluent areas in the entire country.

Architecturally Bronxville’s station is very different than the tudor-style stations seen at other locations such as Hartsdale and Scarsdale. It was built in Mission Revival style, taking after the Hotel Gramatan, which was built in Bronxville in 1905. Mission Revival is more common in the west and specifically in California – and now that the hotel it was modeled after was torn down in the 1970′s – Bronxville station looks a little bit out of place stylistically. Nonetheless, it is still a beautiful building, and although the inside has seen many changes, the outside is very similar to how it was when completed in 1917. Unfortunately the Saturday I visited the station building was not open, so I never got to see how exactly that inside looked.

The architect for the station was A.F. Haldeman, and not much is known about him. It is possible that he was an architect on the staff of the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad. The only other projects I have seen him referenced in are a freight house in Manhattan, which most likely no longer exists, work on the Port Morris railroad yard, and stairwells for the Harlem station.

For an amusing bit of history, be sure to check out this newsreel video of Bronxville from 1933, Loving husbands face jail for kissing wives:

And here are a couple of views of the station in 1988:

Last Saturday I had the pleasure of meeting Lou Grogan, who is the author of the definitive guide to the Harlem Line and all its predecessors: The Coming of the New York and Harlem Railroad. Over the years he has acquired quite the collection of just about everything railroad related – from books, photos, timetables and newspaper clippings, to the train-shaped weather vane atop his house. Wooden trains, plastic trains, metal trains all adorn the inside of the house on shelves and tables and desks, along with many rocks, which he also collects. His wife told me he didn’t really start collecting all of the stuff until he decided he wanted to write the book (which took about ten years to complete), but once it was written he never stopped. All he’s collected fills rooms, and would probably take weeks, if not months to go through.

We did happen to find a binder of photos though, full of photos of the trains around Pawling, Brewster and Towners from the early 80′s, which he graciously allowed me to borrow. The majority of photos were not labeled, except for an occasional date mark from when the photo was developed and printed. At the end of the binder were two photos though, one of the only ones that happened to have labels. The first was a picture of a blue sleeper car in Canada, with the name Elizabeth stenciled on the outside, with a handwritten caption – “My favorite sleeping car.” Alongside that photo was a photo of his wife, with the caption of “My favorite Elizabeth” (how cute!). The majority of the other photos though, do not have captions or dates, so I am not 100% sure of the location, but they all seem to be either on the Harlem Line or in the vicinity. I’ve scanned some of my favorites, and present them here. A few of them may have been in his book (which was black and white), but this is the first time they’ve been presented in color. So take a walk down memory lane and enjoy these photos (or in my case, a glimpse of Metro-North right before I was born).

Despite the fact that I started this blog to talk about all the crazy people I see on the train, I don’t really do it all that often anymore. But that is not to say I still don’t see crazy people. The coat guy is still around in White Plains, sporting his new favorite accessory: a big red cowboy hat. I rode in this morning with a skinny guy that dreams of being a bodybuilder. He had about ten bags, along with a few magazines that had photos of greased up men with muscles so enormous they must be taking steroids. The seat next to him he used as a table, as he buttered his bagel and mixed up his protein shake with the cup of milk he purchased from Starbucks. Bag Lady still rides the shuttle bus, as does the whiny girl that moans in some foreign language on her cell the entire ride. Yesterday I had to sit through the entire shuttle ride listening to her whine – she does not talk, she whines – and she continued to do so in the waiting room of the train station. I couldn’t stand to hear it anymore, so I went exploring.

There aren’t too many places in the White Plains train station I’ve never been. But I figured, why the hell not, I’ll go to the top of the parking garage. Up at the 8th level you can look down at the city of White Plains, listen to the rumble of the diesel engines as they head to Wassaic, and hear the whine of the M7 as it brakes and stops. And besides all the bits of trash (used condoms, eew) it is actually kinda nice up there. And quite peaceful, since I never seem to see anybody up there. Anyways, here are some photos of the view, morning and evening.

You know, the only thing I’m afraid of now is that someone is going to see me up there looking down and think I want to jump. Thats the last thing I need – cops coming after me. With all the stories I hear about photographers getting arrested and such for taking pictures, I really have a fear of the police, and I don’t trust them one bit.