I Ride The Harlem Line

Tagged: holiday

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Santa Claus is coming…

If you believe the Pennsylvania Railroad, Santa Claus visits all the good boys and girls while they are asleep tonight, even if they happen to be in a railroad sleeping car. Does that make conductors and trainmen Santa’s helpers? And if you don’t believe the Pennsy, it looks like the Central seems to think that Santa will take a visit to all the overnight trains tonight. So who are we to disagree? Wishing all readers of I Ride The Harlem Line, whoever you are, if you’re still out there despite my lack of posting for the past few years, a...

Lighting up the New York Central Building, and Happy Holidays from The Harlem Line!

Photos

Lighting up the New York Central Building, and Happy Holidays from The Harlem Line!

Grand Central Terminal isn’t the only building that lights up for the holidays… the old New York Central Building is another gem to behold. When I featured that building on the site – designed by Grand Central architects Warren and Wetmore – I mentioned the lights, but didn’t include any photos. Constructed to be the corporate offices of the New York Central Railroad in 1929, the railroad sold the building in the 1950s and has gone through several name changes since. However you want to call it – the old New York Central Building, the Helmsley Building, or 230 Park...

Lighting Up Grand Central – The Centennial Holiday Light Show

Events / Photos

Lighting Up Grand Central – The Centennial Holiday Light Show

Hopefully by now you’ve heard about Grand Central’s Holiday Light Show, one of the final events in this celebratory centennial year. Grand Central has hosted several holiday light shows in the past, but this year’s is most certainly my favorite. Taking over the Terminal’s west windows, LED lights turn each individual window pane into a “pixel” of color. In concert, all of these “pixels” can display colors, letters, and even basic shapes. Behind the scenes: a Textilene scrim hangs in each window pane, onto which LED lights are projected. The windows on the west wall contain over 350 window panes,...

Happy St. Patrick’s Day from I Ride the Harlem Line!

Events

Happy St. Patrick’s Day from I Ride the Harlem Line!

A special St. Patrick’s Day parade timetable printed by Metro-North in 1996. When it comes to the worst day to ride Metro-North Railroad, it is usually a tossup between New Year’s and St. Patrick’s Day. Both involve large crowds of people that have imbibed a bit too much. Most years I think St. Patrick’s is the clear winner (or loser, perhaps?), because when it falls on a work day you have a combination between the regular commmuters and the drunks, and it usually isn’t very fun. After all, I’d rather not step over passed out revelers, or in pools of...

Happy Valentine’s Day from the New York Central Railroad!

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Happy Valentine’s Day from the New York Central Railroad!

If you’re into relatively inane holidays, have I got a card for you! This 1951 advertisement for the New York Central was just dying to be made into a card for Valentine’s Day. Obviously, the above is photoshopped, but for veracity’s sake, below you’ll find the original advertisement – which is not at all for Valentine’s Day. The main concept it depicts is traveling in between the “heart” of cities, as the railroad does. With the mention of no “stormy skies” the ad seems to reference commercial air travel – to which the railroads were steadily losing passengers. While most...

Happy Holidays from iRideTheHarlemLine.com!

Events

Happy Holidays from iRideTheHarlemLine.com!

The front of our 2012 holiday card Happy holidays to all our readers, and a very Merry Christmas for those who celebrate it! For those that are into history, be sure to check out this post of holiday Harlem Line timetables, and this groovy Penn Central holiday suburban schedule. Penn Central may be despised by many, but they certainly put out some interesting timetables. Despite the holiday, today is of course Tuesday, and our final Hudson Line Tuesday tour will be posted, though likely later on this afternoon.