Eastern Rare-Mileage Trip
"The Pacific Express"

Morning at Sunnyside Yard
Aug. 4th

Photos by Dave Ingles

Thursday morning, August 4th, was nice and sunny when I got going inside our parked PV's in Sunnyside Yard. Otto Dobnick headed out to explore the city, eventually riding the Staten Island ferry and the island's rapid-transit line. They are on my to-do list, but I enjoyed seeing Sunnyside from the inside, and with a camera, not a frequent opportunity. This is just a through-my-roomette window shot as AEM7 948 passes by. Unknown to me at this time, it is serving as a yard engine, and eventually would take us over to Hudson Tower in New Jersey for the afternoon.

The locomotive is one of LIRR's 23 EMD DM30C dual-mode units. LIRR also has 23 similar DE30AC's, which are only diesels. Third-rail electric capability is required for entry into Penn Station on Amtrak from Albany and on LIRR. Northeast Corridor trains use overhead catenary. Third-rail is also required on Metro-North into Grand Central Terminal.

New Jersey Transit shares Sunnyside with Amtrak. We look east off the Caritas platform as a bilevel train comes around the turning loop, having emptied at Penn Station, which our Lake Shore Limited had done about 8 hours before. Another NJT bilevel train is parked to our right.

Here's a push-pull Amtrak train, probably a Keystone Service job from Harrisburg and Philadelphia, passing with its AEM7 at the rear.

Looking north from our parked cars.

A new NJT ALP46A electric, 4647, comes around the loop.

Comparing equipment.

Closeups of  the 4647 and a bilevel coach, about 10 a.m. now.

Amtrak dual-mode GE 711, one of its 18 P32-AC-DM's, comes around the loop into the yard with an Empire Service train from Albany at 1005 a.m. The "series leader," 700, had brought our Lake Shore in to New York from Albany.

"Jersey Transit's" recent electric locomotives have a unique attractiveness, to me, if not to everyone. They are no GG1's, though, of course. NJT has 20 ALP44's and 12 ALP44M's, series 4400-4431, and 29 ALP46's and 36 ALP46A's, series 4600-4664. Don't ask me the differences, I just get this locomotive info from rosters on the Internet.

AEM7 928 is on an Amtrak Regional consist; we saw P42 73, coupled to P32ACDM 715, up at Albany the evening before. The time is about 1015 a.m. as our cars are being moved by AEM7 948 from track 12 to track 34 to have the cars watered and septic-pumped.

From left we see an NJT m.u. train, an Amtrak Keystone push-pull consist, 3 NJT electrics, and an Amtrak AEM7.

Amtrak's "toasters," the AEM7's, are coming up on replacement, and while they were attractive in their original paint schemes, no way can they match anything else in the current one, especially NJT's ALP's.

NJT M.U.'s run to Trenton down the NEC main line, out on the old Lackawanna lines, and down the North Jersey Coast (former Long Branch) route. Many of the frequent Trenton trains now have ALP's and bilevel cars, though, vs., the former practice of 8 or 10 M.U. cars.

The bilevel trains (4th from left here) operate in push-pull mode, BTW.

Backing into Track 34, to the right of engine 700, still tied to the consist of the #48 we trailed into Sunnyside.

After servicing, we headed out from Sunnyside at 1212 pm behind AEM7 948 for the run thru Penn Station to Hudson Tower, NJ, to park for the afternoon.

Once into the tunnels, we were instructed to keep off the platform and out of vestibules until we were thru Penn Station and the Hudson River tunnels.

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