New Haven on New Years Eve—It Ain’t Pretty, but it’s busy!


Many years ago, my old pal T.S. Hoover and I would make a project of photographing the old New Haven Railroad during the holiday season.

This past New Years Eve (December 31 2018), I maintained this tradition, although that wasn’t my intent!

I was transferring from Amtrak 405 from Springfield to Amtrak 195 from Boston. Let’s just say the Boston train wasn’t holding to the advertised and I had ample time to wander around and make photographs of the passing action.

New Haven isn’t pretty,  high level platforms combined with a plethora of poles, catenary masts, catenary, signs, garbage, stray wires and other visual clutter hasn’t improved this classic setting, but there’s a great variety of equipment on the move.

Shoreline East lurking on left, CT Rail Hartford Line on right; FujiFilm XT1 with 90mm lens.
CT Rail Hartford Line train. Lumix LX7 photo.
Shoreline East train with a former Amtrak P40 at the back departs eastward for Old Saybrook. FujiFilm XT1 with 90mm lens.

Metro North M8s on left, old M2s on the right. FujiFilm XT1 with 90mm lens..

No GG1s, RDCs, FL9s, E8s or other relics that made this a fascinating place when I was a teenager. For that matter there weren’t any E60s, AEM-7s, F40s or SPV-2000s either.

Boston-bound Acela Express. Lumix LX7 photo.

Boston-bound Acela Express. FujiFilm XT1 with 90mm lens.
FujiFilm XT1 with 90mm lens.

And finally, train 195! Hooray! Lumix LX7 photo.

Tracking the Light Posts Every Day!

5 comments on “New Haven on New Years Eve—It Ain’t Pretty, but it’s busy!

  1. Charlie Allen on said:

    Of course PennCentral. Can the post be edited?

  2. Charlie Allen on said:

    Great photos Brian. As you know, New Years Eve was also the 50th anniversary of the end of the New Haven Railroad as it became part of Penn Central on Jan 1, 1969…. Timely article!

  3. I was surprised to see the M-2s there myself.
    Last time I saw them on the move was about two and one half years ago, and I was surprised to see them then. I don’t know if the Metro North M-2s are still in traffic or not. Anyone know? Brian S

  4. Anonymous on said:

    4th shot from the top shows some M-2s apparently still in service. I thought I read that the final M-2s bit the dust a couple of months ago. Are some still running?

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

* Copy This Password *

* Type Or Paste Password Here *

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>