Riding the Harlem Line in the fall… it is sort of like this (in case you missed it on twitter last night):

In fact my ride home last night was quite a lot like that. We are in the season of falling leaves, and slippery rails. By all means most seasoned train riders are familiar with this phenomenon. But if you aren’t, every year Metro-North always puts together a nice little explanation about it. Just make sure you don’t add to the problems by throwing your banana peels and/or foil-wrapped lobsters on the railroad tracks.

Older Larchmont station that was replaced by the current station

1955 sketch of the replacement Larchmont station

Today’s stop on the tour of the New Haven Line is Larchmont, one of the handful of stations on the line located in New York state. Larchmont, situated about 18 miles from Grand Central and in between New Rochelle and Mamaroneck, is a rather unique set-up. The station and platform run parallel to Interstate 95 – and the parking garage for the station is constructed over the highway. The older station was demolished around the 1950′s when the highway was being constructed, and was replaced with what we have now.

  
 
  
 
 
The photos above are all from the collection of the Larchmont Public Library

Larchmont has all the newest Metro-North train tech, with both video boards in the overpass that list the next nine trains, as well as announcement boards over the platform that identifies the next train and where it will be stopping. These are standard at larger train stations, such as Harlem-125th and White Plains. There is a small station building, but it was closed during my visit. Which is unfortunate, because there was an Arts for Transit mosaic in there which I didn’t really get to see. I still must wonder why the heck Arts for Transit places artwork in station buildings that are most often closed. The forty foot long mosaic is by artist Joy Taylor and is titled The Four Seasons.

Taylor isn’t a stranger to Metro-North and Arts for Transit – she submitted a proposal for the sculpture at Wassaic station, which was ultimately not selected (the piece by Anne Huibregtse that was selected was a perfect match for the station). From the photos on the internet I’ve seen, the mosaic looks beautiful, however I never got a good look at it. You’ll find a single photo of the mosaic below (taken through the window of the locked station), along with the rest of my photos from Larchmont station.

There are quite a few things that Metro-North could be doing right now to make our train rides better. Attempting to rid the internet of profanity probably isn’t one of those things. Every time I see one of the many tweets like this, it cracks me up:

Metro-North’s twitter is apparently being run by someone who does not understand how twitter even functions (more about that here). Messages sent to the Metro-North twitter account aren’t really “public.” Unless I am following the person, I’d have to dig around to actually find the tweets. Hilariously, by posting these things, Metro-North is actually calling attention to them. In fact, I would never have seen this gem of a conversation, if they didn’t call attention to it.

Maybe we ought to focus our energies in helping people? Instead of telling them to call 511? (oops, sorry folks in Connecticut. You need to dial 877-690-5114 to call “511″) Better yet, you totally should have called out that guy for improper use of “you’re” – clearly that was the biggest offense in that tweet!

But really, @MetroNorthTweet, thanks. Every time I need a little chuckle, I’ll turn to you. Good luck getting rid of profanity on the internet, the moon from the night sky, or the drunks from your late night trains.

In other news, today’s Tuesday Tour is coming, but will be slightly late – likely be posted sometime this afternoon.

One of the things I hate more than being dull and serious is a late train. To amuse myself while waiting for late trains, I began using twitter to invent odd reasons for the lateness. Derailed circus trains, planking customers, and rabid pigeons have all been presented as reasons for lateness, despite their relative insanity. Although it started as a joke, I now feel the obligation to come up with something crazy every time I hear there is a late train.

Below you will find some of my favorite nonsensical tweets about late trains, several of which have been designed to annoy @MetroNorthTweet. Over the years, Metro North’s twitter account has been operated by several individuals – the most recent of which has decided twitter is absolutely pointless and is not a platform in which customers can be helped. Their current modus operandi is to copy and paste to everyone “call 511, idiots, twitter sucks.” The new tweeter also made it a point to unfollow me, though to my immense amusement they are still best pals with @fuckedcommuter. A fine endorsement for the railroad, I see. If you want to read more about my thoughts on Metro-North’s attempts at social media, you can find it here. But now, onto the insanity:

Note: Gregory, occasional blog reader, railfan, and photographer was that week arrested for train photography at the Virginia Road crossing in North White Plains. He claimed that while this was all ensuing, police asked him if he knew “the cat girl.”

Based upon a factual incident, where 3 young females attempted to fit into an M3 bathroom. Clearly they should have waited for a train using M7 equipment.

By all means, if you have a suggestion for a future reason for a “train delay” – please comment. And if you’re not following me on twitter, you totally should.

Over the years, Metro North’s twitter account (@MetroNorthTweet) has been operated by several individuals (two of which are most wonderful folks) – the most recent of which has decided twitter is absolutely pointless and is not a platform in which customers can be helped. Their current modus operandi is to copy and paste to everyone “call 511, idiots, twitter sucks.” The new tweeter also made it a point to unfollow me, though to my immense amusement they are still best pals with @fuckedcommuter. A fine endorsement for the railroad, I see.

Unfortunately, I thought the railroad was actually doing pretty well in terms of social media. In fact, I thought the way they handled Irene was commendable. There were frequent photographic updates on flickr, many of which were picked up by various arrays of media outlets. In fact, a photograph taken by Metro-North spokeswoman Marjorie Anders pretty much went viral, was talked about by thousands, and was even a trending topic on twitter. Companies pay to get their topics trending on twitter. Metro-North did this organically. And you know what? I bet all of nobody at the company even knew it. So although there is a lot to learn, they were on the right track.

Well, that is, until they dropped the ball on twitter. Twitter is now merely a platform to refer people to 511. End of story. How unfortunate. You can see my conversation to the right with the new @MetroNorthTweet – and the other people who just happened to chime in, which was never my intention, but thus the spirit of twitter. Since they don’t believe that people can actually be helped on twitter, I decided to come up with a list of times that I was helped by twitter… and for the record, I am sure there are many more that I do not remember.

• Goldens Bridge station was graffitied. Reported via blog and twitter. Was cleaned up within two weeks.

• Glass panels in the doors at Goldens Bridge were kicked in. Was repaired within a week.

• Was extremely irate due to being detained by a track worker who eventually called the cops on me for photography. After blogging and being angry on twitter about it, @MetroNorthTweet talked to me, and turned me into a friend. That on its own should be a fairly powerful statement, because I was seeing stars angry.

• As a personal favor to me, I requested that @MetroNorthTweet investigate a situation where I was trapped in an elevator at the White Plains train station. After being stuck for a half hour, by the time I was rescued by the fire department, my train had just arrived on the platform and I ran off to catch it. I felt bad that I did not appropriately thank them, and after Joe was able to figure out who it was that rescued me, I telephoned with my gratitude.

• Goldens Bridge station was again graffitied, reported on twitter and taken care of within a week.

• Reported via twitter that CooCoo was not appropriately serving schedules for Beacon – it only showed schedules for Beacon Falls. This bug has since been fixed.

• Me and countless others have reported things like air, heat, or announcements in train cars not working via twitter. @MetroNorthTweet always followed up on these for us. The real question is, if not on twitter, who would we even call about this, or even about vandalization in our stations? I’m not going to spend ten years talking to a robot and wishing and hoping for an operator that can speak English with 511.

Over the two and a half years I’ve maintained this blog, I’ve featured quite a few old railroad stations that are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Today is a little different, as not only do I have photos of another station that makes the list, but also of a bridge. I have mentioned Bridge L-158 before, and I’ve always thought it had a terrible name – though the Mianus River Railroad Bridge may be even worse. All you pretty much need to do is a google image search for Mianus – you’ll see plenty of fratboys (and the folks from the show Jackass) posing in front of various town signs. As much as they’d love to believe the name refers to a particular area on the body, it apparently derives from the name of a Native American chief.

Photos of the Mianus River Railroad Bridge taken in 1977 from the Library of Congress

The Mianus River Railroad Bridge (Sometimes referred to as the Cos Cob Bridge. Not to be confused with the Mianus River Bridge which carries I-95 over the river and famously collapsed in 1983) was built in 1904 by the American
Bridge Company. A previous two-track bridge existed in the same spot, but was deemed unsafe. However, not all parts of the previous bridge were dismantled, some portions were reused in the construction of the current four-track replacement bridge. Historically, this bridge was the final constructed portion of the railroad line linking New Haven and New York – completed on Christmas day, 1848.

Photos of Cos Cob station, first photograph is from 1946, and the second from 1954. Both are from the Dodd Research Center’s Railroad History Archive.

Located just west of the bridge is the Cos Cob train station. This building is also on the National Register of Historic Places, and was built around 1894. The wood-framed station is on the west-bound side of the tracks, and measures 50 feet by 20 feet. The station was constructed during a time when the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad was working on a complete overhaul of the line. Curves were straightened, tracks were elevated to remove grade crossings where possible, and two tracks additional tracks were added for a total of four. The relatively simple station design was reused for other stops along the line as a cost-saving measure – the Old Greenwich station is an extant example.

Similar to many stations I’ve featured here, the railroad played an important part in the growth of the area. Greenwich became an upper-class suburb, and its citizens could easily commute by rail into the city. Looking out the window from the train, it is highly likely you’ll spot many boats and yacht clubs – and in the few photos I took of the Mianus River Railroad Bridge it is fairly difficult to even spot the bridge as there were so many boats.

Cos Cob is roughly 30 miles to Grand Central, and during off-peak times takes about an hour to get to the city. However, some express trains during peak hours make the journey in as little as 45 minutes. The station is one of four along the New Haven Line in the town of Greenwich, and the neighborhood of Cos Cob is one of fifteen that make up the town.

On this Tuesday’s tour we’re taking a quick look at the New Haven Line station East Norwalk. It is far smaller, and much less interesting than its neighbor South Norwalk, which we’ve already featured on the site. East Norwalk is 42 miles from Grand Central, and has a travel time of a little over an hour to the city.

From visiting Harlem Line stations, I’m very familiar with the “normal” station layout where the east and westbound platforms are across from one another. Usually these stations also have a relatively easy way of passing from one side to the other – either a passageway under the tracks, or a stairwell that links the two above the tracks. East Norwalk, however, is a deviation from the norm. Quite a few of the New Haven Line stations do not have east and west platforms directly across from one another, and this is true here. Also, passing to the opposite platform is not easy at all – it requires you to descend a stairwell, walk around, cross a busy street, and then reascend on the other side.

Photos of the East Norwalk station, taken in 1955. Note the low-level platforms, and the fences protecting the inner two express tracks.

As I said, our tour of East Norwalk will be rather quick – I didn’t take too many photographs while I was there. But there are photos of both sides of the platform, and in a few you can see how far the other side of the platform is. The station building visible in a few of the photos is on the westbound side.

Will someone please remind me, what month is this? Just a few days ago riders on the Harlem Line were suffering delays due to fallen leaves on the tracks. Now we have to worry about a massive snowstorm that has blanketed the area, knocking out power for many residents of both Connecticut and New York. The Harlem Line is notorious for its falling trees in heavy storms, and this snowstorm was no different. Service from North White Plains to Wassaic has been suspended for almost 24 hours now due to fallen trees. Grand Central was open throughout the night for stuck passengers – they were probably more lucky than the riders that found themselves stuck on a train yesterday evening. I did manage to dig up a photograph of yesterday’s storm damage, a photo from Hawthorne.

I am the Abominable Snowman, and I have shit snow on you, Harlem Line.

Hopefully service will be restored by tomorrow morning. In the interim, the now useless @MetroNorthTweet (who has given up on attempting to be useful on Twitter, such a shame) advises you to call 511 for absolutely everything – especially if you have any Abominable Snowman sightings to report.

Edit: Metro-North says normal Monday morning service is a go from Southeast on down the line. There will be bus service for stations north of Southeast.

Earlier in the week I posted my first Where am I, and I must admit, it was kind of fun. I was right though, it didn’t take much for a whole lot of people to recognize the rooster, a small part of Alison Saar’s Arts for Transit piece at Harlem-125th Street. This week I am hoping that the challenge will be a little bit more difficult. When I visited this station, these two little guys were my absolute favorite part of the place. I don’t know anything about them, though I’d love to learn more. They bear some resemblance to gargoyles, but in my mind they are “leaf people” – the faces do look a little bit like they are made of leaves and acorns. Again, we’re totally talking Metro-North stations, and current ones at that. Here are the two photos:

So, do you recognize these “leaf people?” Do you know where I am? Post a comment or tweet if you think you know where these guys are located, or you want to take a guess! If nobody gets it, I think I’ll post some hints throughout the day. We’ll see how it goes

Edit: Nobody has figured out the location, so here are a few hints:
• It is not New Haven Union Station (a guess on twitter)
• The name of the station, and the line that it is on are both two word names.

When I first started out doing a little bit of research on the railroad station in Rye, I was rather disappointed. I was coming up dry in a lot of areas – I couldn’t really find anything tremendously noteworthy about the station to write about. Apparently, I hadn’t looked hard enough, as the information I eventually found turned out to be an absolute gem. In fact, it is downright crazy, and I’m warning you in advance. This may have been the most amusing research investigation I have, or will ever go on.

Enter artist Matt Mullican. Mullican is the artist behind the recently installed Arts for Transit mosaic in the Rye station. I’ve already gone on record with my opinion of art being installed in frequently closed train stations, so I wont get into that again. Thankfully, there are plenty of windows in the Rye station, and I was able to get a few shots of the work inside through them. Apparently the mosaic is based upon the works of designer and architect Marcel Breuer. If you’ve ever been to IKEA in New Haven, you probably remember some odd looking building right next to it – it is the last remaining portion of the Breuer designed Pirelli Tire Building. Breuer also designed pieces of furniture that look like they could be sold in an IKEA, and he almost gave us this abomination:

So why exactly did Mullican pay homage to Breuer in his mosaic? Apparently Breuer was the architect for the (original) Rye train station. Arts for Transit has used the talents of countless artists, many of which have a rather diverse body of work. I’d be willing to go out on a limb here and say that Mullican definitely deserves a spot on the list of most interesting artists the program has employed. In his artist statement regarding the piece, it is said that “Mullican is concerned with the relationship between perception and reality.” And although not completely relevant to this post, the following YouTube video was too good for me to not post.

How does one perceive reality while under hypnosis? Oh my, what is he doing to the floor?

Back on the subject of railroads, Rye is one of the handful of New Haven Line stations in New York state. It is 24 miles from Grand Central, and during off-peak hours takes about 50 minutes to get to the city. However, during peak hours some trains make the journey in as little as 35 minutes. During the summer months many take the train to Rye station, enroute to the Playland amusement park. Besides that, Rye is pretty much a station like any other. Below you’ll find some old video clips I found on YouTube, and of course, the photos I took on my recent exploration of Rye.

Old footage I found on YouTube of Rye and other New Haven Line stations.