In the 1970s and early 1980s, my brother and I would routinely travel on Amtrak from Springfield or Hartford (with a change at New Haven ) to Rye, New York.

Why Rye?

To the average passenger, Rye was a fairly ordinary suburban station on the former New Haven Railroad electrified mainline. For my brother and I, it was the designated station for my grandparents to collect us for the short drive to their Co-op City apartment in The Bronx.

I didn’t know it at the time, but Rye was also a residence of Roger Lewis, Amtrak’s first president.

Upon alighting from an Amfleet coach on the westbound platform, we met my grandfather who was waiting for us. He understood my desire to rush up to the head-end to make a photo of the train before we headed away.

I made this view of our engineer at the throttle of E60 972 as he was looking back waiting for the signal from the conductor to depart Rye for New York’s Pennsylvania Station.

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