The holiday season is fast approaching, and many interesting holiday themed events will be happening along the Harlem Line. The Botanical Garden’s Holiday Train Show opens tomorrow, which is accessible via Metro-North’s Botanical Garden station. Grand Central’s Holiday Gift Fair, located in Vanderbilt hall, opens on Monday. Starting on Wednesday the Transit Museum’s Annex in Grand Central will host their Holiday Train Show (please note that this will be closed on Thanksgiving). And of course, Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade will be held on Thursday. Of course, Metro-North has come up with some new holiday schedules, including additional trains, to help you get to these events.

Thanksgiving Metro-North Schedules

Thanksgiving Eve 11/25 extra early getaway trains will be offered, beginning at 1 PM. Because of decreased ridership in the PM peak, some trains will be combined or eliminated.

Thanksgiving Day 11/26 Operating on a holiday schedule with extra AM inbound service for those of you going to the Macy’s Parade. There will also be lots of late morning/early afternoon outbound service, and plenty of inbound evening service to get you back home.

Day after Thanksgiving 11/27 operating on a “Saturday” schedule with extra service during the AM and PM peak time periods.

For the most up to date schedule information, consult the schedule search on Metro-North’s website. Information for the Harlem Line’s Wassaic branch can be found here.

Regarding events, I’m trying to come up with a nice schedule of all varieties of events accessible by the Harlem Line. These events will be listed on the right side of the site. If you know of an event that I should mention, please contact me!

The more I post in this blog, the more I find myself split between posting pictures and stories of the crazy people I see, and relevant news regarding the Harlem Line. I think that I have come to a compromise of doing half and half. However, today is certainly a pictures of crazy people day. Oh, and remember, if you see some crazy people around the MTA trains, subways or buses be sure to take a picture and send it to me. :D

This funny guy kept trying to read, failing, and then falling asleep. I seriously thought he was going to fall out of his seat and onto the floor. There were a lot of sleepy people today, that is until one of the other crazies came upstairs and started shouting at them, “WAKE UP!”

I just thought this woman was funny, she was carrying this small rocking horse around on the platform, and then onto the train.

The other day I mentioned a girl with crazy hair carrying a mannequin torso… apparently she visited the train station again last night, this time she chose to carry a halloween pumpkin bucket. But this time I did take her picture. My coworker that saw her said that the tattoo on her face is probably real as well.

Also for amusement, here are some of the pictures that I was mailed today from the Christmas Carol Train Tour that was in Grand Central two weekends ago. On the train they took your photo, and then did a few “face morphs” to make you look like some of the characters from the movie.

Riding the subway on Halloween is always interesting. Crazy people running around with fake blood pouring down their faces, and females wearing costumes that are more skin than clothes. Bert and Ernie were sighted in Grand Central, as well as many child train conductors, princesses, power rangers and firefighters. And even a rather cute Teletubby.

Anyways, have a Happy Halloween everyone, and enjoy some pictures from the Christmas Carol Train Tour in Grand Central. Remember, tomorrow is your last chance to see the train. Grand Central is the final stop in this tour across the country.

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This weekend in Grand Central is the final stop for the Christmas Carol Train tour! This event is free, and will be held at track 37, as well as Vanderbilt Hall. Dates and times are as follows:
Friday, October 30 9AM-7PM
Saturday, October 31 9AM-6PM
Sunday, November 1 9AM-4PM

Enjoy a once-in-a-lifetime attraction where guests of all ages will get a behind the scenes look at the magic, the spectacle and cutting edge technology of the all-new motion picture “Disney’s A CHRISTMAS CAROL” directed by Robert Zemeckis.

See a sneak peak of the film in our state of the art Digital 3-D Theater!

Experience a Behind the Scenes look at the making of the movie!

See original artifacts from the Charles Dickens Museum in London, England.

Morph your face into characters from the movie using HP TouchSmart PC’s!

See concept art, models, costumes, and maquettes!

Plus Carolers, Snow and Much More!

Honestly I don’t think I ever really thought about folding bikes before. I mean, I knew they existed, but I had never seen them before. That was until this guy started riding on my train. He always is wearing his bike helmet (though of course he could take that off on the train) and has with him a red folding bike. I always thought it was really cool. A folding bike actually comes quite in handy if you want to bike and ride the train. You are not required to have a bike permit on Metro North or the Long Island Rail Road if your bike folds up.

A few weeks ago when I had gone into the city I stopped at the annex of the Transit Museum in Grand Central, and I noticed that in the window they had two folding bikes as well, the Metro Bike. I snapped some photos, and only happened to come across them today as I was going through my old photos. So even though I know this may be old news for some people, I decided I’d post some of the pictures I took, and some from the web.

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The bike isn’t too bad looking, though for me, a non-bike rider, the pricetag is a bit high at $299. But of course, folding bikes cost a bit more to begin with. Anyways, if you are interested in the Metro Bike, you can order it here.

For amusement, here is another Metro Bike. Or should I say, Metro Card Bike. Pretty cool, but I don’t think that folds up. :P

So my morning train so far this week has been conductorless. Not to say he isn’t there, but I just haven’t seen him. Guy got switched to another job, and whoever took his place, well, I don’t know if this guy actually collects tickets. Considering this is a morning peak train going to Grand Central, I would think that tickets would sort of be, I don’t know, important? Really it doesn’t matter to me one way or the other, I have a monthly anyways. But there are a bunch of people that I know don’t, who just happened to get two free rides so far.

Even the school kids that ride the train were like, “Where’s Guy?” I guess he never told them he was leaving. They always liked him though. One morning they had an amusing conversation
Kid: Is your name really Guy?
Guy: Yeah…
Kid: Wow…
Guy: When I was first born, my parents didn’t know what to name me. So back then they called me Boy. Now they call me Guy. And after fifty they’ll be calling me Man.

Oh well. Tomorrow I have to go to the city for a meeting, so I’ll be taking a different train than normal. I won’t see if we go a third day in a row conductorless.

I suppose it is getting rather close to elections, and because politicians apparently adore White Plains, they’ve frequently been hanging around the station. And everybody knows how much I love politicians. Or rather, how I love to draw on their brochures. Last week folks were passing out stuff for Andy Spano. I couldn’t do anything too terrible to his face, because he looks a lot like my now deceased grandfather. I was amused by the fact that along with the brochure, they gave out antibacterial hand gel. What kind of political message does that get across? That we are dirty, dirty people? They totally missed the chance at cheesy marketing: Andy Spano, cleaning up Westchester one person at a time!


I left this on the ground at White Plains, in case one of the crazy people needed it.

In other news, the Cat Girl has returned. There are many people that ride the trains, passengers as well as conductors, that know me merely by the name Cat Girl. All because of my cat hat.

Since the temperature has begun to get colder, I’ve taken out the hat and have been wearing it for the past week or so. I always say that the cat hat spreads joy wherever it goes. Something quite so silly and minor, does in fact make people smile. An elderly disabled war veteran in White Plains. A woman whom I’ve nicknamed Ginger, who told me that every morning she sees me wearing the hat, it makes her smile. A rather effeminate young man was curious to know where one could purchase a hat similar. And you, passenger, I saw that little tug at the side of your lips, a barely-there smile, when I got on the train.

Since I’ve been asked far too many times, the hat was made by the wonderful Susan over at Boshi-Basiik. They make some incredibly cute hand made hats there, so do take a look.

Oh, and if you do happen to see a Cat Girl on the train, be sure to say hello :D

So on Friday the New York Times posted an article (which I believe was in the print version Saturday) talking about how Metro North trains leave Grand Central one minute late. There is an extra minute built into the schedule, so if a train is supposed to leave Grand Central at 5:59 on the public schedule, the conductor schedule actually reads 6:00. It may have actually been a helpful thing, but now that everyone knows? Probably not so much.

The article is getting posted on various different websites, but in the process they’ve lost the picture that was posted with the original article. In fact I do believe this is my favorite part of the article, this little running man.

Run little man, run!

That, and some of the comments…

Basically, you are destroying a helpful deception in order to make points for yourself as a journalist. SHAME ON YOU!

Now that the word is out, my husband and countless others will be missing more trains. Thanks alot, you just ruined my family’s dinner!

Do you have any idea what you have done!!! Shame on you. Just to score a few “journalistic” points.

This is like those placebo buttons at pedestrian crosswalks and in elevators that give us the illusion of control. Fun to know.

And my personal favorite:

Woo Hoo. What a scoop!! The train people were trying to do their customers a favor and the Times decides to blow their cover.

Next you’ll announce to all six year olds that there’s no Santa Claus.

Why is this on the front page of the New YorkTimes? I thought it was “All the News That’s Fit to Print,” not “All the News That Fits We’ll Print.”

I guess now you can at least take your time walking to your train in Grand Central (note that this extra minute only applies to trains leaving Grand Central)… I mean the last place you want to trip and fall (and hit your head and die) is on a dirty train platform, running to catch your train that was going to be there an extra minute anyways.

When I started out this blog, it was sort of just a portion of my own personal website. It had the same layout as my site, and was fairly integrated. I have been thinking for quite a while now though, this blog has really taken off in another direction, and is pretty much standing well on it’s own. So I felt that in order to reflect that new identity, the site needed a little bit of change in the aesthetics department. Enjoy the new layout that I’ve made, which I’ll probably be tweaking for a little while now that it is up. I’m not much of an illustrator, but I did want to try doing a little sketch for the title, with the Sky Ceiling in Grand Central in the background.

So what else is changing? Next week brings new schedules to the MTA, and conductors will be changing around their jobs… so you may see some new faces on your trains. I’m quite bummed that all the conductors on my train all got bumped off and had to take jobs on other trains.

Conductor winter wear will also make it’s comeback… though my proposed new hat for MTA conductors was denied.

If you do like changes though, especially changes in the leaves, you must check out the Fall Foliage Rail Excursion, over on the Hudson Line, which will be happening on the 24th. You can find more information about that tour here.

Lastly, if you missed October’s Mileposts, you may have missed some nice deals. When buying tickets for Cirque Du Soleil’s Wintuk, and the Radio City Christmas Spectacular, you can save ten dollars, and get a free round trip train ticket. Just be sure to use the promo code METRO.