Amtrak Autumn Express Thread

Will anyone on this train NOT be a railroad.net poster?

Noel Weaver wrote:I was living in New York City at that time and drove up to Pittsfield where I arranged for the RRE train to make a special stop for me to board.
Noel Weaver

This is great !

This morning shows only 2 tickets left for Saturday and greater than 10 tickets left for Sunday.

I understand that one or more of the anti-rail, anti-crude oil train groups is planning some kind of protest trackside in Dumont - be sure to wave to them from the train!

Any sort of a negative response from people in New Jersey would be no surprise to me. Back in the 1970's these people hated the railroad no end and would stop at nothing to harm or its employees. I know, I went through it along with a number of others. Another reason not to like New Jersey.
Noel Weaver

During a portion of one of the previous Autumn Express trips, I had the misfortune to sit next to someone who was one of those anti-train, anti-crude oil by train types. She called herself an environmental advocate, but after listening to her rant about CSX trains and oil trains, the only thing I could surmise from her was that she was only against it because those trains ran next to her two homes, one a townhouse in Philly, the other a country home in Ulster County, NY. I didn't once get the feeling she was genuinely concerned either with the environment or the well-being of other people who potentially could have been affected by any rail mishap. I think if those trains could have been re-routed, she'd have been quite satisfied with that she wouldn't really have cared any longer.

She did not live in New Jersey.

Saturday's trip is now sold out.

So coming up north it is taking the CSX river line and back down south on the hudson line?

That's the intended plan!

ok thanks

Noel Weaver wrote:

phoebesnow wrote:This morning shows only 2 tickets left for Saturday and greater than 10 tickets left for Sunday.

I understand that one or more of the anti-rail, anti-crude oil train groups is planning some kind of protest trackside in Dumont - be sure to wave to them from the train!

Any sort of a negative response from people in New Jersey would be no surprise to me. Back in the 1970's these people hated the railroad no end and would stop at nothing to harm or its employees. I know, I went through it along with a number of others. Another reason not to like New Jersey.
Noel Weaver

Same can be said for the community that you live in....

Pertaining to the anti-rail group I was going to go to Teaneck but I wouldn't mind going to Dumont to mock the anti railroaders. Always get a laugh out of protestors. Waste of time and space on this planet.

A majority of people in NJ unlike Noel Weaver's GREAT knowledge support rail service,("back in the 1970s" 40 plus years ago most of those people are dead or are long gone from NJ) the problem is that it is poorly financed and run and receives a lot of backlash for that. Yes communities like Tenafly and Dumont are against it and make news waves about it (Tenafly is because they think it's going to bring crime to their town, like crime can't ride a bus right) but many rich communities have been demanding better service for years (summit, milburn, ridgewood, glen rock).

Now if someone said that Florida HATES rail service I Can attest to that because I live in both NJ and Florida and in Florida a lot of old hags and boat lovers cannot stand the idea of Brightline opening among other plans that have been shot down over the years... If it was public money brightline would've been gone already. They've never gone up against private money so this was something new and hit them unexpectedly..

A couple of other items of interest on this trip:
The old passenger station at West Point is beautifully preserved and used for various activities. It will be on the left (land side) a little bit south of the West Point Tunnel.
Highland Falls Station is maybe a mile or so south of West Point and was a residential dwelling at least in my days on this line.
Newburgh Station was an eyesore during my time on this line but today it has been beautifully restored, again on the left (land side).
Alsen had cement plants in years past, I don't know how much remains here today but a couple of them had their own locomotives. In years past there was a lot of freight business here.
Catskill was on the right (river side) but it was a used tire or some sort of business and has had one or more fires on the site, I don't know if anything remains here today.
Ravena station was still there during my time, I think the village was using it as a highway facility of some sort, years ago it didn't look bad, I don't know what remains today but it was on the left (land side).
I think the plan at CP-SK is to head toward the yard, change ends and proceed east and south. This way the seats that faced the river on the NB trip will face land on the SB trip and the seats that faced land on the NB trip will face the river on the SB trip. Crossing the Hudson River the Berkshire Spur of the New York Thruway will be on your north or left side of the train.
incidentally West Point still had an agent as late as the early 1970's. Not much freight if any but they sold tickets for New York Central, Penn Central and later on maybe Amtrak as well for trains on the Hudson Division. The academy had a couple of small boats that they ferried people over to either Cold Spring or Garrison to ride trains somewhere. I might be able to figure from old employee timetables just how late in time this agent lasted, best guess would be around 1975 or so.

Noel Weaver

anyone have the scanner frequency and the change locations

AAR channel info as well

Only one seat left for Sunday--none for Saturday.

Any thought on the motive power for the excursion?

Both days are now sold out.