Closer to home but in a similar vein, Metro-North’s rail train has recently been spotted cruising the system. Delivered via CSX about two weeks ago, the train is loaded with long strings of CWR, which it is unloading and dropping off at points along the right-of-way to be installed at a future date. Metro-North is utilizing the services of A&K Railroad Materials, Inc., whose equipment is capable of carrying 1,600 foot strings of CWR. The equipment is marked as belonging to V&S Railway, a shortline in Kansas, which A&K is affiliated with.

Sighted last weekend at Riverdale, it was captivating to watch the machine slowly pull out one of the stored pieces of rail which untethered to any ties seemed to bend like a long strand of spaghetti. The stored rails were pulled forward and then maneuvered by the machine to the side, then lowered. After the front of the rail was placed in position on the ground, the train slowly reversed to unload the entire length of the rail. Two workers ensured the deposited rail was properly positioned in between the tracks and then they too departed, returning the picturesque locale to its former quietude—at least until the next local arrived at the station some minutes later.

The rail train will be continuing its journeys after Memorial Day, and is expected to be operating on the Harlem Line shortly.

Map of the Beacon Line showing the locations of the photos in this post, as well as the two historical rail lines.

Last fall the Beacon Line made the news as the MTA has issued a “Request for Expressions of Interest” regarding “all or part” of the line. The RFEI will be used to gauge interest in the line, and to see what people would actually want to do with it – but it is worth noting that the RFEI was strictly for informational purposes, it was not a formal Request for Proposals. Since the request closed last year, we’ve heard little from Metro-North about the proposals submitted and what anyone’s ideas for the line were. Any serious rail project would be difficult on the Beacon Line, and likely expensive. While Metro-North has not let the line become completely overgrown – weed spraying, fallen tree removal, and other minor maintenance happens occasionally – it isn’t in the best shape. Many bridges are in rough shape, needing costly maintenance. Years of people using the line as an ATV trail has led to severe degradation of the railroad ties, and in many cases the rails are old and in need of replacement.

Beside the condition of the line, making money on it would be another difficulty. Multiple studies have been performed in terms of reactivating all or some parts of the Beacon Line for passenger use, and all have pretty much determined that it is not economically feasible. One of the more promising ideas would be to operate a shuttle from Danbury to Southeast on the Harlem Line, a plan that was amusingly championed by politicians in upper Westchester County who would much prefer those Connecticut commuters to not come over to their stations on the Harlem Line (I’m looking at you, Katonah). Upon formal study, several difficulties were noted with the idea – the major one being the way that trains from the Beacon Line merge with the Harlem Line. With the current track alignment, any train coming from Danbury would be facing north when coming onto the Harlem Line, the wrong direction from Southeast station. Either the train crew would have to “change ends” and the train would go the opposite direction (which would take too much time due to procedural requirements like a brake test), or a wye track would have to be installed allowing the train to turn south onto the Harlem Line (difficult, as the land around the junction is protected wetlands, and would likely have to be acquired through eminent domain).

In the end, nothing may actually come out of this whole RFEI process besides calling attention to the nearly abandoned Beacon Line. I thought it might be an interesting time to take a little virtual tour of the line, as I’ve visited and photographed various portions on both sides – Brewster and Beacon. The two sides designation is somewhat important, as even though the line may be seen as one whole today, historically the Beacon Line is made up of two previous railroads. The eastern part of the Beacon Line that runs from Connecticut to Hopewell Junction is the former Maybrook Line. As one would expect, that line ran through Maybrook, New York and crossed the Hudson River at Poughkeepsie. After the fire on the Poughkeepsie Bridge in 1974, the portion of the Maybrook to Hopewell Junction was abandoned, and today is a rail trail. The western portion of the line, from Beacon to Hopewell Junction, was originally part of the Newburgh, Dutchess and Connecticut Railroad, later called the Beacon Secondary. The rest of the ND&C, which went beyond Hopewell into Millbrook, Pine Plains, Millerton, and Connecticut, had been abandoned in stages in the 20’s and 30’s.

Junction with the Harlem Line & the Ice Pond

The start of our explorations begin where the Harlem and Beacon Lines meet, a little less than halfway between Southeast and Patterson. As mentioned previously, there is no wye here, so it would be difficult to run trains from the Beacon south along the Harlem toward Brewster without a time consuming changing of ends. The lines meet and then diverge again, running along either side of the Ice Pond. Just beyond that body of water, the Beacon Line crosses over the Harlem Line and continues west, while the Harlem continues north. Here is the domain of fishermen, who spend entire weekend days with their pickups parked alongside the line.

Holmes & Whaley Lake

As the Beacon Line finally diverges from the Harlem, it passes through parts of Patterson before arriving at Holmes. The line continues past several swamps and streams before reaching Whaley Lake in Pawling.

Whaley Lake Stream

Just beyond Whaley Lake is an area known as Whaley Lake Stream. One of the line’s most precarious conditions exist here – a washout would need to be repaired before any service was attempted. For now, Metro-North has blocked the washout with two large concrete blocks, preventing access not to trains, but mostly to the ATVers that can frequently be found along this section of track.

Poughquag

Throughout our journey thus far, the Beacon Line has been gradually climbing – it is about 450 feet above sea level at the junction with the Harlem Line, to just over 700 near Whaley Lake Stream. Beyond here, there are several curves and the line slowly decends, all the way to sea level when it meets the Hudson Line. Historically, this difficult climb occasionally required helper locomotives (or pusher engines) to be attached to freight trains making the journey. The most notable curve along the line is at Poughquag, which is where we visit next.

Fishkill

Although one of the next notable places along the line is Hopewell Junction, I’ve written about it before, so in this journey I’ve skipped ahead to Fishkill. One of the difficulties of reactivating the line are the many grade crossings, most of which no longer have gates or flashers. One of the most major crossings is here in Fishkill, at Route 9, where some flashers still remain, but there are no gates.

Meeting the Hudson

Similar to the Harlem Line, the Beacon Line crosses over the Hudson Line before finally merging with it. This bridge is in rather poor shape, and would likely cost quite a bit to get back into top shape. This area of trackage is rather interesting, as it borders the trails at Denning’s Point, and has quite a few discarded items surrounding it – including a junked car.

If you’re interested in seeing the Beacon Line in real life, there are several places where you can view it from public lands (which are locations shown here) – the Ice Pond Conservation Area, Holmes Road crossing in Holmes, Whaley Lake, Depot Hill Road crossing in Poughquag, Sarah Taylor Park in Fishkill, and Denning’s Point Park in Beacon, as well as the old station in Hopewell Junction (not pictured here).

The famous High Bridge, New York City’s oldest bridge.

The facility here is, of course, named after the Aqueduct Bridge, or better known as High Bridge. The bridge’s roots stretch all the way back to 1848, making it the oldest bridge in New York City. As one would gather from its original name, the bridge was an important part of the Croton Aqueduct, supplying New York City with fresh water. Originally a stone arch bridge, five of the arches were replaced with one steel arch in 1928 to allow easier water navigation under the bridge. By this time the bridge was largely obsolete, and no longer carrying water – however it did serve a secondary purpose as a pedestrian crossing. That crossing was closed in the 1970s, until it was recently reopened last month after many years of restoration. From the newly reopened pedestrian crossing, one can get quite a good view of what is now a Metro-North railroad facility below.

  
 
  
   
  

The view from the newly reopened High Bridge

Today, Highbridge is where you will find Metro-North’s Car Appearance Facility, where both interior and exteriors of train cars are cleaned. Highbridge is one of three Metro-North washing facilities, and it possesses state-of-the-art brushes and sprayers that use 280 gallons of water per minute – 200 gallons of which are recycled, making it more environmentally friendly. 20 cars can be cleaned every shift, and each car gets this full treatment about every 60 days. The washing is completely computerized, and does not require an operator.

Heading into the Highbridge car wash. Photo by Paul Pesante.

In addition to the appearance facility, Highbridge provides storage tracks for trains that is close to the city. While in days gone past, the New York Central used Mott Haven for this purpose, most of Mott Haven’s tracks were ripped out long ago. Highbridge has stepped up to fill that gap, which will especially be needed due to the East Side Access project, where Metro-North needed to give up quite a few storage tracks in Grand Central in order to bring Long Island Rail Road trains to the east side.

The original passenger station at High Bridge in 1961. Photo by Ed Davis, Sr., from the collection of David Pirmann. By the 1970s the station had some scheduled trains, while on others it was listed as a flag stop.

Other noteworthy details about Highbridge are that you can see some old remnants of the New York Central’s Putnam Division here – Highbridge was a point of transfer between the Hudson and Putnam Divisions. It is also where the Oak Point Link joins with the Hudson Line, permitting freights to avoid the bottleneck of Mott Haven to get to Oak Point Yard.

The evening CSX garbage train waits at Highbridge after coming on to the Hudson Line from the Oak Point Link

Anyway, let’s take a quick behind-the-scenes glimpse of Metro-North’s official employee station at Highbridge… the only place we neglected on our original tour of the Hudson Line.

If this is a technique you’ve always been interested in trying out, or you’re just curious to see how exactly one makes a panorama (especially one featuring a train) – from camera to computer – read on.

Making a panorama

Taking the shots

The first part of any panorama is getting the shots that you need to blend later on. As a beginner looking to do a railroad panorama, I would suggest you try to capture a train that is not moving. Whether it is tied up for the night or just stopped at a station, having everything stationary is best – moving objects can cause issues and anomalies in the stitching process.

These days, programs are usually good enough to accommodate photos not taken on a tripod. But you’ll want to remain in the same spot, and most importantly, keep the camera at the same angle within each shot. Rotate your body to get a wide field of view across multiple shots. Make sure to overlap – 40% overlap is usually the rule of thumb – so the stitching program will have room to blend the images together. It doesn’t matter if you shoot horizontally or vertically, but if you want to get the highest resolution image, shoot vertically (it will likely require more shots to capture the full field of view, however).

   
   
Here’s an example of seven shots I took of an M7 making a station stop at Harlem-125th Street. Note how I’ve rotated along the field of view, while allowing some overlap between the photos. Since the train was not moving, I was able to capture it across multiple shots.

Things that move

If you’ve tried the stationary panoramas out, or your feeling a bit bold, you can go for a moving object. If you’d like to capture a moving train, for example, what you need to do is capture the ENTIRE train in one photograph (unless you want the train extending off the side of the image). For this reason, it is better to capture your photos in a horizontal format, so you can better capture the entire train. If you capture the train using multiple shots, because it was moving it will appear in different places each time, and thus impossible to stitch properly.

If you’re shooting a passenger train, after the train has passed, then capture the rest of the shots of your field of view. If you’re capturing a long freight (where in this case you probably would have the train extending off the edge of the image) it is probably best to get your other shots before the train arrives, since it may take so long for the train to fully pass that the sunlight has changed, making it very hard to stitch those images together.

 
  
  

Here’s an example of five shots I took of a P32AC-DM on the Hudson Line, passing West Point. Note how in the first shot I capture the moving train, and then in the subsequent shots capture the field of view after the train has passed.

This is what those photos look like stitched together in a final panorama.

What program to use?

In order to make a panorama from multiple shots, you’ll need some program to stitch the images together. There are various free options out there, like AutoStitch, which I used regularly years ago (and was what I used for all of the original panoramas for the entire Harlem Line in the Metro-North Panorama Project), but these days I use Photoshop’s Photomerge tool. If you’re serious about photography, Photoshop and Lightroom really are the best programs for you to be using to make your images better. They’re the industry standards.

Using Photoshop’s Photomerge tool

Photomerge is relatively basic, from the File menu, go to Automate and choose Photomerge. In the window that pops up, select the images you’d like to stitch together using browse. For almost all instances you don’t need to change any of the default preferences. Auto layout usually does the trick, and you want to keep Blend Images Together on, as it blends any color discrepancies between the images, to make it look like one complete image in the end. Depending on your lens and camera, your photos may have some Vignetting, or a darker ring around the edge of your photo. If that is the case, you can check off Vignette Removal (I prefer to remove any vignetting in Lightroom prior, and if you use both programs that is what I’d suggest).

The menu showing where Photomerge is, and the Photomerge window.

Now you have a stitched image…

Your photos may now be blended together, but it isn’t quite yet perfect or how you imagined it. You’ll need to crop unwanted jagged edges, and make minor adjustments with the warp tool in order to get that perfect panorama.

The stitched image that Photoshop spits out from the seven Harlem-125th photos. Note that each individual photo is a layer, which allows you to fix errors in stitching if there are any. Provided that everything looks good, you should merge all your layers before proceeding.

Working on the image – cropping and minor edits with the warp tool make the final image.

The completed panorama.

Questions about the process

Why make a panorama out of multiple pictures using stitching, when many new cameras and phones have a dedicated panorama feature?
The panorama feature you’ll find in newer cameras or phones requires you to pan the camera across the field of view, and it will automatically assemble the panorama for you. While this is, of course, easier, it doesn’t necessarily yield the highest quality result. If you’ve ever wanted to print out your photos, you’ll find that the resolution of an in-camera panorama job is low. In contrast, the West Point panorama above has a final pixel size of 14329×4000 – sufficient resolution to print the final image at a width of nearly six FEET. Now I’m not saying you’ll ever have to do such a thing, but you’ll get a higher quality, more detailed image that is croppable if you desire by stitching.

What are some fun things you can do with panoramas?
Once you get the whole “moving train” thing down, you can try this funky technique, which I’ve always liked. Capture the train entering your field of view on the left side, and then capture it yet again as it leaves your field of view on the right side. It looks something like this:

What other methods can you use to capture wide fields of view?
Besides panoramas and stitching, you can capture wide fields of view with very wide angle lenses, and fish-eye lenses. A wide angle does capture a wider field than a normal lens, but it can never capture as much of the field of view as a stitched image could. Fish-eyes are nice (and I enjoy them very much!) but the distortion they cause is a little too much for most people.

But sometimes there is distortion in panoramic images. How do you minimize that?
From an artistic perspective, I tend to enjoy the distortion you can get in a fish-eye or panoramic shot. It is almost like a visual cue that what you’re seeing is something beyond the capability of your own two eyes. In terms of railroad photography, it also introduces a break in the abundance of long, straight lines from railroad tracks and platforms. However, it isn’t for everyone. In a stitched image, you’ll get more distortion the closer you are to the subject you’re photographing. If you’re capturing a train that is on a platform (like the Harlem-125th panorama above), it is very difficult to achieve no distortion. In the Hudson Line panorama, however, there is no noticeable distortion, as I was far away from my subject.

What is your favorite panorama from the Panorama Project?
Although I definitely consider the photos I initially took of the Harlem Line to be subpar considered to my work today, I’ve always liked this photo of Harlem-125th Street for some reason. I have a printed version hanging on my cubicle wall at work.

That just about wraps up today’s post – have more questions about panoramas? Have a panorama you’d like to share? Want to make a suggestion for a future Trains & Modern Photography post? Drop a line in the comments!

Here’s a photo gallery of some of Metro-North’s dynamic and dashing diesels, most of which were captured within the past few weeks (although a few are favorites from last year) on the Harlem, Hudson, and Port Jervis Lines of Metro-North. Enjoy!

 
  
 
   
  
 
  
   
  
   
  
 
  

The Mott Haven wye area in 1908, note the turntable and large yard area for storing trains.

A modern look at the Mott Haven wye, much of the infrastructure from above is long gone.

In addition to having mechanical shops, water towers, a turntable and more, at Mott Haven, all types of passenger cars were cleaned and sterilized with the modern technologies of the day. Train conductors reports were reviewed for any mentions of ill people or deaths, wherein that car would be taken out of service and cleaned. The car would be sealed and treated for four hours with formaldehyde gas. This procedure would also be used every time immigrants had occupied the car. A normal train car, however, would have the floors scrubbed and the carpets and furnishings cleaned up. Scrubbing of every nook and cranny of the car occurred once every three months, except in the winter, when that happened once a week. Dust was removed with compressed air weekly, and after each journey the lavatory would be scrubbed and treated with muriatic acid. Four times a year the floors and seat legs were repainted, and every year the carpets and seatback cushions were removed and re-dyed.

A sleeping car which carried an ill person is prepped for formaldehyde gas treatment

Cleaning the interior of a car with compressed air

A crew of cleaners stationed at Mott Haven would enter each car when it arrived and remove all portable items, like the aisle carpet, bottoms and backs of seats, curtains, mattresses and linens. Blankets would be treated with compressed air and freshened on a rack in the sun. Soiled blankets would of course, be washed. Unless outwardly dirty, blankets would only be fully washed every six months. Linens would be boiled, and carpets, mattresses and curtains would also be blown with compressed air. Cars were cleaned on special platforms at Mott Haven, which had pipes and hoses for the compressed air spread throughout. Lastly, wood would be polished and oiled, as was the exterior of the car.

Removing the mattresses from the sleeping cars

Cleaning the dust from bedding with compressed air at Mott Haven

Cleaning the blankets and allowing them to air dry

Although the cleaning methods used seem rather ineffective to modern ears, this was the general process used by the New York Central in 1905. Thankfully at that time they didn’t have to worry about things such as Ebola – though the main concern seemed to be the spread of tuberculosis among train passengers.

Mott Haven in the 1960s. Photo by Charles Warren.

Eventually both Grand Central Depot and Station became too small to accommodate the ever-increasing amount of trains operating into the city, and thus Mott Haven was often used as a storage point for trains. With the construction of the Terminal and its plentiful tracks, the Mott Haven facility certainly lost some of its stature. Nonetheless, it retained a laundry and mechanical department, among other services, until the 1960s. Reflecting the ever-changing landscape of railroad technology, the turntable was at some point removed for a switching tower, which still stands (albeit in poor shape), though it is merely used for storage today. The wye is still an important part of the railroad, and used to accommodate interline Harlem and New Haven Line trains going direct to Yankee Stadium. On most days, however, you’ll find one of Metro-North’s GP35s in wait, kept company by a small population of the Bronx’s feral cats.

Hudson Line tracks and the old MO tower under the yard’s bright nighttime floodlights

Two Metro-North diesels meet near the Pleasant Ridge Road crossing in Wingdale, New York.

 
Left: An Alaska Railroad train bound for Fairbanks rounds the bend north of Nenana at sunset. Right: A Genesis pushes southbound on the Danbury Branch, kicking up leaves after departing Cannondale.

The only non-railroad photo to make the top 10, New York’s skyline as seen from the opposite side of the river in New Jersey.

  
Left: An M7 heads toward Manhattan, as seen from the Bronx. Center: A new BNSF locomotive gets some finishing touches at the GE plant in Fort Worth, Texas. Right: An M3 in rush hour service on a foggy fall morning.

A Port Jefferson train pushing west toward Huntington makes a station stop at St. James at sunset.

 
Left: An M7 on the Hudson Line, just south of Scarborough station. Right: A Thanksgiving morning Wassaic shuttle passes Towners, where the old Maybrook Line crossed over the Harlem.

Not all of my favorite photos made the cut, however. Here are some of my favorites from the year:

A PATCO train is a mere streak of light as it crosses the Ben Franklin Bridge into New Jersey.

 
Left: A photoshop edit of one of the Danbury Railway Museum’s steamers, imagining it as if it were operable. Right: A sunset in Brooklyn, from the platform of the Marcy Avenue subway station.

One of my first good photos taken with my drone camera – an aerial view of a train crossing the Moodna Viaduct.

 
Left: A sunset at Amtrak’s Hell Gate Bridge. Right: One of my favorite people shots of the year, Maria working the Upper Harlem Line at Tenmile River.

If you’d like to see more of my train photos, and you aren’t already subscribed, you can follow my instagram account here: http://www.instagram.com/mtaharlemline/

Thank you all for a wonderful 2014!

 
And #217 said, “I don’t think I can…”

If you’re interested in checking out the area, across the river Inwood Hill Park offers great views of Metro-North’s Marble Hill and Spuyten Duyvil stations, as well as Amtrak’s swing bridge. Not necessarily railroad related, but of noteworthy mention is the large painted “C” that is kind of hard to miss. The C stands for Columbia – and was first painted on the rock in the early 1950s, with the approval of the New York Central Railroad. Coxswain of the heavyweight crew team, Robert Prendergast, came up with the idea and approached the railroad for permission. After it was granted, the C was painted about 60 feet by 60 feet square, and has been maintained ever since.

One of my personal favorite spots is the swing bridge used by Amtrak, after it splits from Metro-North’s Hudson Line. As most of you are already aware, for many years Amtrak trains ran from Grand Central Terminal. After some significant work in the late ’80s, including fixing up this old swing bridge, Amtrak was able to finally consolidate its New York City operations in Penn Station and vacate Grand Central. I can’t say that I know first hand, but I’ve heard plenty of stories about raucous parties that happened on this bridge while it was out of service. Originally constructed in 1900, the bridge was damaged and taken out of service in 1982, and was reopened in 1991.

Anyway, here is a collection of some of the photos from my outing to the park, as well as some videos. I’m going to try uploading videos to YouTube again… so if you’re not following the site on there, go and subscribe!

  
 
   
  
 
  
   
  
 
 

For the folks subscribed to the site via email, you must visit the site to view video features.

 
 
  
   
 

Meanwhile, Metro-North crews were hard at work this weekend in numerous places around the system. On the upper Harlem Line, busing was in effect as crews worked at the Pleasant Ridge Road and Chippawalla Road crossings in Wingdale. The Pleasant Ridge crossing has been a difficulty for well over a month now, requiring trains to stop and warn before entering the crossing, and proceeding at reduced speed through it. Hopefully after this work, everything will be getting back to normal. Crews started work on the crossing Friday evening, and worked almost nonstop through the weekend to get it back in order for regular service at about 4 AM this morning.

Busing continues today during off peak hours to allow further work to be done.

 
  
   
 
Metro-North crews work at the Pleasant Ridge Road crossing in Wingdale, on the upper Harlem Line.