Eastern Railroad Discussion > A beautiful Summer day in the Hudson Valley, NY...

Today turned out to be one of those 'top ten' days that TV weathermen often refer to.....so after quite awhile away from the Riverline due to bad weather over the Summer along with other commitments, I was finally able to spend some quality time railfanning in the Bear Mountain area of NY today......In nearly 12 hours trackside, I saw 15 trains...which was one of the best showings that I've seen along there in quite awhile.

Pic 1.....A Southbound manifest (if anyone knows the symbol, I'll edit it in as I didn't catch it) with Geep, SD60 and SD45-2 power rolls South across the Iona trestle this afternoon....

Dave Williams

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Immediately after that train cleared, a Q433 was right on his heels, with two more EMD standard cabs for power...an SD50 and SD40-2....Dave W.

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A ahort while later, 2 GE's lead a Southbound Q409 through the Hudson Valley....Dave W.

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And an odd looking Q118 makes an appearance at Iona Island this afternoon....the entire front half of the train was empty wellcars today....Dave W.

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But before catching that afternoon Southbound parade, I arrived in the area shortly after 6:30AM and hiked up to my spot atop Anthony's Nose Mountain where I saw 6 trains in 90 minutes...Some highlights of some of that action....

I decided to try 'multitasking' by working with two cameras.....I videoed each train with a tripod mounted camera while I shot digital stills of each train freehand.....My tripod setup with camera mounted and ready for action soon after arriving at the overlook this morning....Dave W.

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Northbound Q169 makes an appearance in the Bear Mountain area this morning...Dave W.

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The Q169 continues North..and then a Southbound Q439, with 2 Geeps in consist appears...Dave W.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/27/09 18:55 by dwi189.

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The Q439 continues South across Iona Island, NY....Dave W.

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The Q439 continues South toward Jones Point....Dave W.

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Beautiful pictures. Thanks for sharing. My wife has seen them and tells me
she will visit the Hudson Valley for some train photography and watching with me next month. Can you recommend a good place to stay nearby? Is that the Bear Mountain Bridge in the background or the Tappan Zee? Congratulations on the pictures.

Gene Bivings (MECBiv)
Snellville GA

I hiked back down to the car around Noontime, drove over to the West side and then hiked back on the bike trail to the South ledges...where the first 4 pics of this thread were taken.

From there, I hiked back to the car and drove up to the top of Bear Mountain where I caught some mafternoon action from the West shore overlook....

Another Southbounder rolls across Iona Island....and a Northbound Q434 rolls across Iona...Dave W.

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That is the Bear Mountain Bridge in the background......There are a few motels in the Highland Falls area near Fort Montgomery...A Comfort Inn...The Thayer Motel if you want to get fancier at West Point.....A Holiday Inn up 9W near Fort Montgomery/Highland Falls....The Bear Mountain Inn at Bear Mountain...and then more motels up toward New Windsor/Newburgh, or other motels 20-30 minutes In Rockland County...Dave Williams




jebnbb Wrote:
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> Beautiful pictures. Thanks for sharing. My wife
> has seen them and tells me
> she will visit the Hudson Valley for some train
> photography and watching with me next month. Can
> you recommend a good place to stay nearby? Is
> that the Bear Mountain Bridge in the background or
> the Tappan Zee? Congratulations on the pictures.
>
> Gene Bivings (MECBiv)
> Snellville GA



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/27/09 18:31 by dwi189.

And finally....The Northbound Q434 rolls across the Iona trestle....followed by a Northbound C712 local powered by an older GE running long hood forward......Dave Williams

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Wonderful photos! Thanks.

Great shots Dave, the first and the last are old school CSX, nice to see in this day and age.

Dave
Thanks for sharing such great photography with us.
Your ability to climb to the top Of Anthony's Nose
is just great.

Jim H

It's amazing... no matter how many pictures I've seen from this area, they never get old! Nice work

Thanks for the great shots! I lived in Ridgefield, CT, 2000-2003 and hiked Anthony's Nose and Breakneck Ridge many times. I never saw that many trains on the Westside line in one day. Hopefully, it's a sign of improving times.

MarsLight Wrote:
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> Thanks for the great shots! I lived in
> Ridgefield, CT, 2000-2003 and hiked Anthony's Nose
> and Breakneck Ridge many times. I never saw that
> many trains on the Westside line in one day.
> Hopefully, it's a sign of improving times.


Thanks....I was impressed with the amount of train traffic also...It's been a couple of years since I've gotten a 15 train or more train count in daylight on the Riverline.
I've been averaging more like 8 or 9 in most cases in recent times...

Had I stuck around for another hour or so, I probably could have added at least another 1 or 2 trains to the total, as the Q434 and the C712 were instructed to both go in on the siding at Newburgh...which likely meant that they were meeting another train(s)...

Dave W.

NH2006 Wrote:
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> Great shots Dave, the first and the last are old
> school CSX, nice to see in this day and age.

Thanks......I didn't realize until getting home and working on the pics on the computer that there was an SD45-2 in the consist of the 3 unit EMD consist in first pic...Dave W.