I Ride The Harlem Line

Tagged: historical photos

Tuesday Tour of the Hudson Line: Spuyten Duyvil

Photos / Train Stories / Tuesday Tours

Tuesday Tour of the Hudson Line: Spuyten Duyvil

View of the railroad tracks near Spuyten Duyvil in 1890. When coming up with superlatives for the Hudson Line, people generally cite it as Metro-North’s most attractive line. I, on the other hand, like to think of it as the most frequently misspelled. It is the Hudson Line that has stations like “Phillip’s Manor” and “Pokipse,” and, of course, the one that takes the cake – “Spitendivel.” Today’s tour takes us to the (correctly spelled) Spuyten Duyvil, a station about 10 miles north of Grand Central Terminal in the Bronx. Considering that it is a station that is frequently misspelled,...

Tuesday Tour of the Port Jervis Line: Suffern

Photos / Train Stories / Tuesday Tours

Tuesday Tour of the Port Jervis Line: Suffern

Erie-Lackawanna train at Suffern in 1966. Photo by Carl R. Baldwin. Welcome to Suffern, our first stop on our tour of the Port Jervis Line. As you are no doubt aware, the Port Jervis line is on the west side of the Hudson, its trains do not enter Grand Central, and the service is operated by New Jersey Transit. Suffern is a little bit of an island unto itself, however. Although it is located in New York state, Suffern is for the most part a New Jersey Transit station, and is operated by NJT. Unlike the rest of the Port...

More old photos for a Monday morning… Part 1

History / Photos

More old photos for a Monday morning… Part 1

Good morning, everyone. I hope you are all enjoying your long weekend for President’s Day… that is, unless you are a conductor, or me, or one of the other unfortunate saps that find themselves working on this day. Last Friday I posted a whole bunch of my recently acquired postcards from my number one most visited website – eBay. But postcards and timetables are not the only thing I buy on there. If there is a nice slide of something happening on the Harlem, I usually can’t resist. Today I’m posting a small selection of my most recently acquired photos....

Tuesday Tour of the New Haven Line: Old Greenwich

Photos / Train Stories / Tuesday Tours

Tuesday Tour of the New Haven Line: Old Greenwich

Located slightly more than 31 miles from Grand Central is today’s current stop on our tour of the New Haven Line, Old Greenwich. While touring Metro-North’s stations, we’ve encountered a couple places that have changed names over the many years the railroad has been around. Unionville, for example, was what Hawthorne was once called. Katonah was once called Whitlockville. Up until 1931, Old Greenwich was known as Sound Beach. I personally think that Sound Beach sounds a lot nicer, but perhaps the word “Greenwich” in there bestows a certain level of elevated status for its residents. Old Greenwich station in...

Tuesday Tour of the New Haven Line: Rowayton

History / Train Stories / Tuesday Tours

Tuesday Tour of the New Haven Line: Rowayton

Twilight on the Sound, Darien – Painting by artist John Frederick Kensett. Welcome to Rowayton – a delightful neighborhood of Norwalk (full of people with salaries significantly higher than mine), located right along the coastline of Long Island Sound. The New York, New Haven, and Hartford Railroad ran through this area for many years, but a station was only established in Rowayton in February of 1868. According to popular lore the station was built at the urging of several prominent artists that worked in the area. Vincent Colyer and John Frederick Kensett worked out of a studio located on Contentment...

Tuesday Tour of the New Haven Line: Springdale

Photos / Train Stories / Tuesday Tours

Tuesday Tour of the New Haven Line: Springdale

Photo of Springdale station, April 1933 Faithful readers, our tour of the New Haven Line is heading into the final stretch. We’ve featured about three-quarters of all New Haven Line stations, including Metro-North’s newest station. I figured that today would be a great day to finally finish up the branch line stations, with the only outstanding station from the New Canaan Branch: Springdale. Springdale is a section of Stamford, and the station is one of three located in that city. It is situated in between Glenbrook and Talmadge Hill, and like those stations, is relatively unremarkable and fairly run-of-the-mill in...