Welcome to Scarborough, located 29.5 miles north of Grand Central, and the first stop we’ll be making on our tour of the Hudson Line. I felt Scarborough would be a good place to start, as it seems to reflect what the line is all about. Throughout much of its journey – from Grand Central to Poughkeepsie – the Hudson Line closely follows its namesake, the Hudson River. Some stations may be further from the river than others, but in the case of Scarborough, the station is right on the water. Because of this, the station is often subjected to cool breezes carried by the river – although nice in the summer, it is likely brutal in the winter. The river does provide a lovely backdrop, though, and on a clear day you can see the Tappan Zee Bridge in the background.

Old station building at Scarborough. You can see the older station facilities that were recently rebuilt by Metro-North in the background. [image credit]

In the past few years, Metro-North has been doing significant upgrades on the Hudson Line, and Scarborough is no exception. The old overpass (visible in the photo above) was completely demolished. When rebuilt, elevators were added to make the station handicap accessible. The rebuilt facility, besides being much more attractive, provides more space for commuters to sit – both outside, and in the overpass, protected from the elements.

During construction on the new overpass, stained glass was installed as part of the Arts for Transit program. [image credit]

As part of the Arts for Transit program, some stained glass panels were created for Scarborough station, and installed in the new overpass. The piece, called “Untitled with Sky,” was a collaboration between artists Liliana Porter and Ana Tiscornia. The six glass panels were fabricated by Willet Hauser Architectural Glass, a company that has worked extensively with the MTA and the Arts for Transit program.

Rendering of how the glass was to look when installed in the windows of the overpass. [image credit]

Although originally intended for the overpass (and for a short time installed there), the glass panels were, at some point within the past year or so, moved to the platform. They now provide a screen from the wind for commuters at the station. Also part of the Arts for Transit installation are a few concrete shapes covered in mosaic tiles, which can be used for sitting. Both share the same attractive palette of purples and blues, and are a lovely addition to the station.

That is about it for the informational tour of Scarborough, now onto the visual tour:

I hope everyone had a spectacular weekend… Although I managed to get slightly sunburnt, we certainly had some lovely weather! Maybe you even partook in some of the events for National Train Day in Grand Central? I saw quite a few of you there, apologies to the folks I never got a chance to meet up with and say hi.

My weekend was quite full with Train Day festivities, as well as my first photographic foray to the foreign territory that is the Hudson Line. At Poughkeepsie I achieved the milestone of my 100th Metro-North station photographed. When you think about it, I mostly take pictures of stations, not trains (though stations do look better when there are trains present). But there was certainly an exception to that over the weekend, as I managed to snap quite an array of trains in various places along all three lines. Want to know how my weekend was? It is far easier to show you in photographs than it is in words – so here is a little bit of randomness from the past few days.