Eastern Rare-Mileage Trip
"The Pacific Express"

Hoboken-Bath, NY
Aug. 5th

Photos by Dave Ingles

Friday morning August 5th, the first day of the Pacific Express odyssey, dawned clear, and with departure scheduled before 7 a.m., I was up by 6 a.m., and first went forward for some front-end shots. The early hour makes them a bit disappointingly soft, but the train is facing almost due west, so when the sun is fully up these scenes would be horribly backlit.

Just to prove where Caritas is today ...

And finally, a shot of NJT 4200, which towed us over from Hudson Tower and stayed coupled up at Hoboken to provide HEP.

The nicely restored interior. This was my first time on solid ground, for a good long walk along the platform and inside here, since leaving Chicago on Tuesday! I also bought newspapers, the first I'd seen since Chicago.

We would take the Bergen County Line, as the 7:56 would, to Ridgewood, and we also would be a "through train," as with the 8:21, going to Port Jervis . . . and for us, beyond, of course.

Off we go at 6:45 before the rush hour heats up, leaving the terminal area behind the PRR "twins" and seen here beyond the station throat at 6:51 a.m.

Into the first of the 3 Bergen tunnels.

At West End tower, MP 2.2, we diverge away from the ex-DL&W electrified Morristown Line and onto a connection to the Erie that was constructed when Erie moved to DL&W's Hoboken Terminal in the late 50's, before the EL merger.

Clark Johnson huddles with John Godfrey of Montreal, a veteran mileage collector, private-car mechanic, and short-line railroader, hired by Bennett as a maintenance and liaison man on the train.

Passing thru Secaucus Transfer station at MP 3.6, a recently built Taj Mahal of a building where NJT's former Erie commuter routes (Bergen County Line, Main Line, and Pascack Valley Line) go under Amtrak's Northeast Corridor (also used by many NJT routes, obviously). This connecting point, plus the connection tracks at Hudson allowing former Lackawanna route trains to go to Penn Station in Manhattan as well as trains thru Newark Penn Station to go to Hoboken, greatly improved the flexibility of commuter route options for all New Jersey folks working in Manhattan and other points along, or east of, the Hudson River.

Looking back at Secaucus we see the outer end of an inbound NJT train being pushed by 4104, one of 13 GP40PH-2's, which Conrail rebuilt from the original Jersey Central HEP units classed as GP40P's, delivered in CNJ blue with squared-off long-hood ends. We saw none of these at Hudson Tower that I recall.

We're passing thru Bergen Jct., looking at the West Secaucus Hackensack River lift bridge on NJT's old DL&W Boonton Line (non-electrified) as we veer east on an NJT-built connection to the old Erie alignment. NJT trains going thru Paterson on the old Erie "Main Line" route also use this, since that route now combines former DL&W and Erie portions. The Pascack Valley Line will diverge from our Bergen County Line route about a mile ahead of us.

Looking back at Ridgewood Jct. at 7:25 a.m. at the Main Line, curving off to the right toward Paterson; we've come off the Bergen County Line, at the left.

An inbound commuter is leaving Ridgewood station as we approach 7:27; motive power pushing is MTA 4907, an apparent F40 rebuild but which i cannot i.d. on a roster.

Modernization comes to Ridgewood in the form of high-level platforms, etc.

Just north of Ridgewood comes another inbound commuter, pushed by NJT 4109.

We have stopped at CP Sterling; just ahead on the single track is the Sloatsburg station; we are awaiting train 54 from Port Jervis, which eventually comes. Our stop here is from 749 am to 814 am.

The view south from the high and long Moodna Viaduct at 919 a.m.; in 1972 or so I photographed an NKP 759 excursion from Hoboken to Binghamton and return (which was on the old DL&W), which I chased, not yet being into "mileage."

Approaching the old Port Jervis depot of the Erie at 1004 a.m.

At the new Port Jervis commtuer station, we exchange Metro-North crew for Central New York, a Susquehanna subsidiary which has taken over from NS on the Southern Tier between here and Binghamton. We stopped here from 1006 to 1013 a.m.

At the old Erie roundhouse site, the turntable still exists, and hosts a privately owned Erie-painted E8!

Just a reprsentative view along the Delaware River north of Calicoon, NY, at 1210 p.m., in an area noted for old Erie photos showing trains on the double-track main line protected by semaphores.

Alas, I did not record the location of this standing mainline coal tower, somewhere east of Binghamton. I also missed going over Starrucca Viaduct for the second time (the first time, on an AAPRCO convention special, it was dark), but you can't really see any of the viaduct from the train, and the D&H tracks below it are long gone.

As we passed a lot of standing NYS&W (Susquehanna) power, including some in storage, coming into central Binghamton, I was busy shooting slides, so this is the representative digital shot, at 2:25 p.m.

Two NS units are parked in front of the old DL&W depot in Binghamton; the Erie's, which was beyond the street bridge between these rails and the old DL&W's, is long gone. We stopped here from 225 to 243 pm to exchange CNY for NS crews.

At Waverly, NY, we overtook a westbound NS freight behind 8808 and 6008 at 340 pm. That is the old Lehigh Valley main line from Sayre, PA, and points south coming in from the right in the distance.

We are passing a waiting eastbound NS freight, whose CP units were parked under a highway bridge in the shadows, as we approach the Corning area, where to the east of Gang Mills yard, we will stop at the wye just south of Painted Post, where the old DL&W main line still exists to the north operated by Bath & Hammondsport. B&H's original line between its namesake towns is extant but dormant.

Two Alco C424's of the LA&L/WNY&P/B&H etc. family await their turn to tow us in reverse up to Bath for the overnight. We look north toward Painted Post about 4:30 p.m.

We back slowly onto the connecting track. The Alcos are 424, lettered for Livonia, Avon & Lakeville, and 422, lettered Bath & Hammondsport.

Our only photo op for the Alcos is as we disembark in Bath at 6:15 p.m., to board buses to take us up to Hammondsport for dinner at an old winery. They'll return with us after dark, and we'll overnight on board right here to conclude the Pacific Express's first day of four.

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