Photo location

There has been some discussion as to the location of this photo & it seems time to open it up for more insight.

Date: unknown.
Location: unknown.

Location guesses:
1. Stamford east of the station before Glenbrook (triangle catenary )
2. Between New Rochelle & Rye (6 track NYW&B north 2 tracks making it pre 1937)

Some facts - catenary pole number in the 300s maybe 344.
- station roof appears above 3rd coach.
- interlocking (distant?) signal for tracks 1 & 3
- dwarf signals on track 2 & 4 (universal crossover?)

Photo credited to BUD_CAR

That pole looks like it might say #366, which is just west of the Stamford WB platform. Perhaps the photographer was standing at the foot of SS37?

I second the motion, Stamford west end. The semaphores lasted there until replaced by Penn Central in the early 70's. They were the last semaphores westbound to Grand Central Terminal although there were plenty of semaphores on the Harlem River Branch and some of them lasted even later.
Noel Weaver

A photo in "A Fond Look Back" has the location identified as Stamford.

Mystery solved!

The house became part of I-95 apparently.

Nappy Yew Hear!

Speaking of photo identification, I came across this NH yard photo from around 1907. Could this be a shot of the Port Chester Yard looking West? Those houses in the background could be Henry Street and the main line might be to the extreme right.

None of the cars in the picture are MUTs. Plus, I don't believe the East Port Chester yard had a wye (visible on the left side).

New Rochelle Yard, however, appears to be a more likely candidate. The cars are engine-pulled cars. The Harlem River Branch service was originally steam pulled by Forneys. The cars don't appear to be full ten-feet-wide cars.

Of course, I could be wrong.

I think it is very possible that the photo is Port Chester (actually East Port Chester). I suspect that before the advent of the MUTS the locals to New York ran with small steam engines that would need to be turned at Port Chester so a wye is probably not out of the question at this location. I have not made any effort to collect employee timetables that old so I can't be sure whether there was a wye at Port Chester or not. I can say that the East Port Chester Yard was bigger than it looked at the time and today as well. There were a good number of MU trains that tied up there at night.
Noel Weaver

Noel Weaver wrote:I second the motion, Stamford west end. The semaphores lasted there until replaced by Penn Central in the early 70's. They were the last semaphores westbound to Grand Central Terminal although there were plenty of semaphores on the Harlem River Branch and some of them lasted even later.
Noel Weaver

Not only that, the semaphore seems to be dropping from Medium Clear, suggesting a crossover move from 3 to 1 after leaving the station, the most likely move for a train running express from Stamford.

East Port Chester Yard it does appear to be. An old USGS map doesn't show the yard, but the topography appears to match that shown in the picture.