CSX River Line (New York State)

Folks,

Its been a while since I was down near the Riverline. So, Friday evening, I take a trip to see old friends, and to catch some trains...

Problem is, there was none!

Years ago, used to be Friday night was prime for several trains between 6pm and say 11pm.

But last night, no avail, except for the Susie-Q switching.

Admittedly, I was kind of disappointed, especially since it was the beautiful "bride to be" who suggested we go and see some trains for a change. (as opposed to finer dining, movies, shopping, etc.)

Anyone know when the best times are to railfan the CP-5/CP-7 area nowadays?

thanks in advance,

Taking a guess I would say mostly at night.

I live near the Riverline at MP13 so I hear them no problem at all.

The morning rush of intermodals is from about 6AM to 10AM.

Things get quiet till around 2PM. Then the general freights with a couple of intermodals mixed in to around 6-6:30 PM.

Things pick up after 9PM with the night time northern intermodals to around midnight.

Example, this past Friday (March 25), I was out for the day with a friend of mine at Ridgefield Park and then 69th street in North Bergen. From 6:30 AM to 3:30 PM we got almost 20 trains with the quiet time from 10AM till 12 noon.

Vincent

if you want to take your sweetheart somewhere she'll actually enjoy go up around bear mtn. sundays are pretty reliable for good train frequency, and theres usually a nice mix of other railfans at the iona island bird sanctuary.

Just to add to what The Missing Link said about Bear Mtn / Iona Island....There are some really nice spots up there if you don't want to sit in the parking lot. You can walk along the tracks both north & south of the parking lot and find some pretty nice (quiet) places to relax and enjoy watching the trains.

Jim F.

One tip to be aware of about the River Line, train frequency can be unpredictable.

njt/mnrrbuff wrote:One tip to be aware of about the River Line, train frequency can be unpredictable.

I don't think Sunday is a particularly good day at Bear Mountain, many or
most of the vans do not run on sundays.
Another important thing in the entire Bear Mountain area is to WATCH
OUT FOR SNAKES. There are many varieties of snakes in the area and
an encounter with just one of them could be quite unpleasant.
Noel Weaver

On Sundays you can still get the morning southbound intermodal rush...just at Bear Mountain youd probaly have to get their earlier. You just wont have Q111 and Q169 coming nothbound. I went down last Tuesday to Ridgefield Park and caught 7 trains on the Riverline between 3 and 8 pm...not bad since im use to seeing 4 if im lucky.

how many frequencies do they have for the riverline?? I only here them talking around CP5 and nothing further north. Are there more available to listen to when there further up into bergen county/ny border?

Back in the 1970's and early 1980's, the River Line had only four radios
which during the later Penn Central years was increased to five.
In 1974 there were dispatcher radios at Alpine, NJ, Beacon, NY, Kingston,
NY and Castleton, NY. All of these transmitters were on high antennas
either on a very high tower or on a mountain somewhere. Most of the
line had reasonable coverage although the area from the north end of
the Haverstraw Tunnel until north of Bear Mountain was somewhat weak.
The Penn Central later added a radio transmitter at the West Haverstraw
station which had had a local radio for the car inspector, signal maintainer
and track department all of whom had employees stationed there.
After Conrail took over the situation eventually changed from a few very
powerful transmitters to many smaller transmitters located generally at or
fairly near control points.
At the present time there are radio transmitters at or very close to all of
the active controlled and non controlled sidings. It would seem to me that
in the Bear Mountain area the dispatcher would be using the Haverstraw
transmitter which is probably still in the old West Haverstraw station.
At one time the Alpine transmitter would carry in some directions for 50 or
more miles, western Connecticut, all over northern New Jersey and most
of southern New York State. Problem was in the Hudson valley where
there are rocky cliffs, blind spots and dead spots. The Beacon radio should have been able to reach the area but that radio was quite trouble-
some for some reason. Again, north of Highland could occasionally be a
trouble area for the radio but putting in a transmitter at Milton probably
took care of that situation.
One more thing, the River Line dispatcher uses chanel 58-58 or frequency
160.98 for everything on the road.
Noel Weaver

Photography off the bridge is unrestricted now. I was up there a few times in the past couple weeks. Another great view if you are bringing a friend for a hike is on top of Anthony's Nose, the peak above the east landing of the bridge. If you go up the Appalachian Trail a few hundred feet, look for blue markers for the side trail up there. It's not as strenuous as it looks. Some great shots possible, don't forget the telephoto. Check the forecast, you dont want get caught in one of these flash thunderstorms we've been getting.

the missing link wrote:Photography off the bridge is unrestricted now. I was up there a few times in the past couple weeks. Another great view if you are bringing a friend for a hike is on top of Anthony's Nose, the peak above the east landing of the bridge. If you go up the Appalachian Trail a few hundred feet, look for blue markers for the side trail up there. It's not as strenuous as it looks. Some great shots possible, don't forget the telephoto. Check the forecast, you dont want get caught in one of these flash thunderstorms we've been getting.

As I said earlier, if you are going to do trails, BE CAREFUL OF SNAKES.
There are lots of Copperheads and Rattlesnakes in this area, if you
accidently stumble across just one of them, it will not likely be very
pleasant.
Noel Weaver

Oh yeah, Thanks Noel. I hate friggen snakes. Theyre pretty rare, but they are out there. On sunny days they "sleep" on the rocks. If you want to play it safe, get some boots w/ leather uppers about shin high, or field gaiters. 'probly find those in Cabellas...

Anthony's Nose has become a favorite vantagepoint of mine....I only discovered earlier this year that trails lead up to the top of it and have been up top about a dozen times since.....I take a slightly longer route that eases the grade...Instead of squeezing into a parking spot tight against Rte 9D and hiking up from near the East end of the Bridge, drive down Route 202 South....on a sharp right hand curve about a half mile South of the rest area parking lot, park in a dirt lot on the hillside side of the curve and hike up the blue blazed Camp Smith Trail toward the left which also provides a couple of additional overlooks of the Iona trestle area on the hike up....Atop Anthony's Nose will provide views from Jones Point to Mine Dock Road at Fort Montgomery....If you hike down the mountainsidel a bit (as if you were continuing East toward the junction between the Camp Smith Trail and the Appalachian Trail,) there is another rock ledge almost directly above the Bear Mountain Bridge that provides views from Fort Montgomery all the way up to near West Point on the CSX Riverline......For shooting pics atop Anthony's Nose, early to mid morning is best for sweet light angle...By midday, light shifts to the other side of the valley and you'll need to get over to the West Shore by then.