Ride a line once, and it’s an adventure! Ride the line every day and it can become drudgery.
In June, I made an adventure of riding NJ Transit.
My trip was thoroughly pleasant and without incident, except for my brief conversation with an unnecessarily surly NJT conductress at Secaucus, “The SIGN is over THERE!” (Gosh! Forgive me for neither knowing the routine nor how to interpret NJT’s train color coding on platform B).
Ok ok, after all there’s a reputation to be maintained here, I understand.
But, perhaps NJ Transit could take a few tips from the Belgian national railways when it comes to employee uniforms, customer service, and timetable planning. (All top marks for the SNCB based on my experiences).
Hoboken.Rutherford.
Signals at Suffern.New York City as viewed from Secaucus.Meet on the Gladstone Branch.Probably not the cheapest ticket I ever bought, but an interesting routing none-the-less.Dual mode at Newark Pennsylvania Station.Top level of a bi-level car.
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Years ago I noticed there seemed to be a natural law regarding the ratio of traffic to scenery in regards to railroad locations.
Lines blessed with stunning scenery generally suffered from a dearth of traffic, while the busiest places tend to be scenically bereft.
There are, of course, a few notable exceptions. California’s Tehachapi crossing comes to mind, as does New York’s Lower Hudson Valley. Both places are blessed exceptional scenery and frequent railway operations, and this makes them popular places to photograph.
Switzerland must not be considered in this equation as the whole country completely violates the natural law of railway photography.
Yet, many of the world’s most scenic lines—railways legendary for their stunning panoramas—have been abandoned, or lie dormant.
Then at the other end of the scale we have Secaucus Junction. Let’s just say it’s one of the busiest places in the Northeastern United States.
Outbound NJ Transit 4617 approaches platform B at Secaucus Junction.Trains come at go at Secaucus Junction every few minutes. FujiFilm X-T1 photograph.Secaucus Junction has some very interesting signaling. FujiFilm X-T1 photograph.An Amtrak Regional train blitzes the station.
The station exists on several levels, with the former Pennsylvania Railroad lines crossing over the former Erie. How many tons of concrete? I don’t know. And the whole structure is neatly situated in the Jersey Meadows (ie an extensive brackish marsh).A view of the station from the Erie-Lackawanna side. (Lower level). This holds to the formula; it is by far the prettiest part of Secaucus Junction, and the least active. Lumix LX7 photo.A train from Suffern, New York to Hoboken accelerates away from Secaucus. Lumix LX7 photo. Notice the three separate sets of high voltage electrical lines.Looking west from Secaucus Junction. Fuji X-T1 photo.Look trees!Signals at Secaucus Junction.
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