25-11-01 PHOTOS: Stamford

Recently I have discovered that travel to and from Stamford has above average value for railfan purposes. Not only is it the gateway to Metro North's Connecticut branch lines and related museums, but tickets functionally cost the same as one to/from New York City. As as Acela stop one can get close to an hour of additional ride time for no extra cost. Of course the big issue is blandness of Metro North and its infrastructure, but Stamford is at least good for a couple visits before it turns stale. So sit back and enjoy a parade of M8's along with a couple Amtrak trains.  

I mostly slept on the way up, but I did manage to catch ACS-86 #668 in the push position on one of the push-pull Regionals. 

My Regional Train 160 was able to traverse the newly opened eastbound HAROLD duckunder track. Built as part of the East Side Access project, the HAROLD duckunders eliminate conflicting movements between Amtrak trains to New Englande and LIRR Main Line trains. The eastbound duckunder was opened first to support the temporary closure of East River Tunnel Line 2 for rehabilitation.

The weather that day was absolutely fantastic and even side window photos from the train, like SS28 GREEN here in Cos Cob, looked great.

I'm not sure if my Regional Train 160 was late, but at Stamford it had to wait on track #4 while an all stops local to Grand Central crawled out of the yard. As T160 was able to depart it passed the inbound GCT express from New Haven which provides local riders with a timed transfer at New Haven.

While the Stamford Station is a great location for photos I got a tip off about another spot a bit south of down behind a DoubleTree hotel. The nearby glass covered office towers provided a natural fill lighting at this time of morning. Here is a montage of Metro North / CDoT M8 MU trains. West of Stamford the NHL sees 4 trains per hour, 2 express and 2 local.

Because of the timed transfers the westbound local and express trains tend to race each other out of the station, although meets between east and westbound trains are not uncommon.

25-09-09 PHOTOS: Cleveland Circle

 In September of 2025 I was able to score a work related trip to Boston and since I have been making about two trips per year to that city for the past decade it was somewhat difficult to figure out a railfan mission besides ride up and ride back.  I ultimately came up with a nighttime round trip out on the Green Line C Branch to Cleveland Circle. This set of photos also has the distinction of being taken entirely with my phone camera as I was always in low light or actively traveling. 

As is typical my trip kicked off at the Amtrak BWI Airport Rail Station. Upon arrival I caught ACS-86 #634 with a southbound Regional, however I would be on classic Acela set #17 with power car #2022 leading train #2252. At this point in time the Next Gen sets had officially entered service, but with only a single weekend round trip I would not be on one.

Here are some videos from the side window of #2252 including racing cars at the BELL flyover and passing through Trenton non-stop.

 

At the Penn Station "halftime" break I grabbed a photo of NJT ALP-46 class unit #4600.

Crossing the Connecticut River Drawbridge, work had started on its eventual replacement, which did not seem to be making use of the piers the New Haven had built for that purpose.  

 

 

Old #2022 completed its trip, pulling into Boston South Station's track #6. I then proceeded South Station Under to catch a Red Line train to Shawmut.

Instead of waiting around at South Station Under, I caught a Braintree train to JFK UMass where a CRRC train with #01936 arrived for me to complete my journey down the Ashmont Branch. 

Fortunately there was still plenty of classic rolling stock running around on the Red Line like 1970 vintage Pullman Standard car #01617. 

25-08-30 PHOTOS: Lower Hellgate Line

 As Penn Station Access ramps up on Amtrak's Hellgate Line between Sunnyside, Queens and New Rochelle Rochelle, it has started to put pressure on the Amber PRR Position Light signals that were installed in the 1980's to replace New Haven era semaphores. Some research indicated that some of the once nd future Hellgate Line signal locations were accessible for photography so I scheduled a NYC day trip to visit those at Mileposts 09 and 11 as well as Amtrak's new LEGGETT interlocking. As a bonus I got some photos of the old Bronx River movable bridge which is adjacent to a new linear park.

As usual the trip started at BWI with ACS-86 #613 ahead of whatever Amtrak Regional had reasonable prices. I then stayed overnight with family in South Jersey to get a jump on the next day's NYC activities. 

Since I was unable to secure low cost Amtrak travel to NYC I decided to rely on NJT's RiverLINE making a PATCO connection at the Walter "Ayn" Rand Transportation Center. 

There seemed to be a lot of NS road power lined up at Conrail's Pavonia Yard

A CSX road freight was crewed and ready to go with CM44AC #7247 leading.

NJT RiverLINE DMU #3510 at the Trenton buffer stops.

Getting to the southmost platform at the Trenton Amtrak/NJT station, an inbound SEPTA R7 was on the South High track with Silverliner V #809 leading. It departed shortly before my NJT arrived.

25-06-14 PHOTOS: Norwalk Nights

In 2025 a friend in southern New Hampshire I had stayed with during the HART tower trip back in October 2024 informed me that they would be soon be moving back to Ohio. Although I had largely completed by Connecticut Valley signal documentation project there were still a few odds and ends I wanted to check on so I found a free weekend with cheap Acela runs. Unfortunately, my friend was presented with a surprise gift of tickets to see Ringo Star's All Star Band at Carnegie Hall on the night where I would arrive via Amtrak's Valley Flyer to Greenfield, MA. Well, no problem, instead of transferring to the Flyer, I could just backtrack from New Haven to where my friend would be parked at Stamford, killing the remaining time at a brewery in South Norwalk. Here is a set of photos from what turned out to be a surprisingly successful Plan B.

Somehow I managed to get a reasonably priced seat on the 330pm Acela out of BWI which arrived with a classic set and power cars #2027 and #2033.

Using an upgrade to first class I was able to two meals on my trip to New Haven, crab meat enchiladas and a cheese plate.

I managed to make a very short connection to the next westbound Metro-North local with M8 MU #9729 leading. The previous eastbound MNRR NHL train was on the adjacent track with M8 #9365 on the rear. 

I arrived at South Norwalk well after dark. I had been to the station a couple times before to visit the nearby preserved SS44 interlocking tower, but never inside the actual station building.

25-03-23 PHOTOS: Shirley (You Can't Be Serious)

The last time I went to Lowell, MA was during the height of COVID and I only had enough time to walk the length of BY interlocking where the MBTA Lowell line briefly merges with the old Guilford Rail System Freight Main Line. With all of the re-signaling that is currently taking place along that route, I returned with a friend for a day of craft beer appreciation and searchlight signal photos. This post will detail the more interesting parts of the trip along with my return to the Mid-Atlantic via Acela express.

On weekends service to Lowell is pretty awful with trains running on a 1-2 hour headway. Today was no different and the only thing I was able to catch at Lowell's transportation was an empty high-low island platform. Lowell has an interesting layout as the two tracks on the left are used for MBTA service to Boston, while the three on the right are part of the former Guilford Rail System "Freight Main Line" that at one point stretched 714 miles from central Maine to Sunbury, PA.

A few years ago what remained of the Guilford was purchased by CSX which has wasted no time assimilating the line with new chaining, signals and, in this case, bridge art.

Due to the presence of hydro power, Lowell had become an early industrial hub, mostly specializing in textile production. The advent of electricity and modern logistics allowed this industry to move to more suitable locations turning Lowell into the stereotypical "gritty old mill town". In 1978 Federal money was obtained to create the Lowell National Historic Park as an urban renewal. One component of this was a heritage streetcar operation coined the "National Streetcar Museum", which I was able to visit and ride back in 2006. On this march day 20 years later the vintage streetcars weren't running, so I made do with a photo of Boston and Main 0-6-0 switcher #410, which is displayed on the streetcar platform.

Since 2006 Lowell has undergone an impressive recovery as the cost of housing in the core Boston area has exploded. Helped by the presence of UMass Lowell and MBTA service, the city is full of new development with many of the old mill buildings converted into artist lofts or new housing. This vintage service station sign was located across the street from the National Streetcar Museum.

Heading out of town my host suggested seeing the old B&M station at North Chelmsford. The trackside structure is being relocated for preservation with the wooden building already gone and the foundation marked up for disassembly. This project is likely one of CSX's "good will" gestures after taking control of neglected Guilford assets.

The MBTA Fitchburg Line station Shirley might look like something out of the 19th century, but it was actually constructed in 1993 after the station itself was reactivated in 1981 after over a decade of Fitchburg Line extensions and retrenchments. Although the minimal infrastructure gives the station a vibe similar to some of MARC's least used stations, Shirley currently serves a respectable 100+ passengers a day.

Because I had been out all day getting photos of 1940's and 50's vintage railroad signaling I hadn't really noticed that it was almost sunset when I had encountered an actual train movement in the form of a Norfolk Southern run-through freight with a former Guilford C40-8 leading a trio of NS units including SC70ACC #1807, AC44C6M #4857 and C44-9W #9928. In the 2010's NS had invested in a joint venture with the Guilford to run freight from Harrisburg to Ayer in conjunction with NS's of the former Delaware and Hudson route between Sunbury and Schenectady.

25-02-08 PHOTOS: New Cannan

One of those services that is easy to overlook is the Metro-North New Canaan Branch which runs between Stamford and the small town of New Canaan. Included in the New Haven's suburban electrification scheme it managed to hold onto its electrification unlike the nearby Danbury Branch. Today the 8-ish mile line is mostly served by shuttle trains making main line connections at Stamford and to use up some Amtrak expiring companion coupons a friend and I made plans to day trip the line from Baltimore taking Amtrak to/from Stamford and connecting to the Metro-North shuttle from there. The following is a summary of how that worked out.

In order to get all the way up to Stamford at a reasonable time we had to catch one of the first northbound Regionals from the BWI airport rail station. Power for that day's trip was ACS-86 #607.

On the trip up I encountered Acela NG power car #2104 at Philly, SEPTA ACS-86 #909 and Amtrak ACS-86 #650 with a southbound Regional near Co-Op city.

Due to the close connection at Stamford I only had had time for this one photo of an inbound Metro-North  train to GCT before boarding the New Canaan shuttle.

While the line isn't fast or super exciting, it was interesting to reverse my typical perspective of the  Merritt Parkway as well as suburban back yards abutting the single track like it was some sort of suburban trolley.

The line has no passing facilities and typically sees hourly service with the shuttle laying over at Stamford. Today the shuttle was a 6 car train of M8 MU's with a car and a half hanging off the platform at New Canaan.

The balance of the layover is carried out at Stamford so my first act was to briskly walk down to the Grove St crossing to catch the departure. Endcap units were #9445 on the west and #9108 on the east.