# Looking for a cheap scenery trip



## Green Maned Lion (Mar 27, 2008)

Does that train use the bi-levels?

We're looking for a cheap, scenic trip. We took the Montauk branch back in the end of the summer. My G/f is from Florida and has never seen spring floral bloom, so I want to take her on a ride that would best showcase it. Does anyone have suggestions?

It needs to be cheap, somewhat long, and be scenic in regards to spring flowers. Must be accessible from NYP, GCT, Hoboken, NWK, or SEC.


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## AlanB (Mar 27, 2008)

Greenport does indeed use bi-level cars, but it is a difficult run to make especially on a weekday as it has a very, very limited schedule mainly orientated towards rush hour. It's a bit easier to ride it on a weekend, but still not gloriously easy.

It should also be noted that you must ride the single level Ronkonkoma branch trains from NYP to Ronkonkoma, where you then transfer to the bi-level Greenport train.

It's not a bad run, but frankly I don't wonder if you might not be better off with a run out to Port Jervis. That would be easier to get to, probably more scenic, and it would have the advantage of showing you the different levels of bloom as you climb from the low points of Hoboken/Secaucus Junction to the high mountains of lower NY State on your way to the Delaware River.


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## jis (Mar 27, 2008)

Green Maned Lion said:


> Does that train use the bi-levels?
> We're looking for a cheap, scenic trip. We took the Montauk branch back in the end of the summer. My G/f is from Florida and has never seen spring floral bloom, so I want to take her on a ride that would best showcase it. Does anyone have suggestions?
> 
> It needs to be cheap, somewhat long, and be scenic in regards to spring flowers. Must be accessible from NYP, GCT, Hoboken, NWK, or SEC.


Yes, all LIRR diesel trains use bi-level equipment AFAIK.

BTW, another trip you might consider for scenery would be Hoboken (or SEC) to Port Jervis, which would include crossing the Moodna Viaduct near Salisbury Mills-Cornwall station.


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## Green Maned Lion (Mar 30, 2008)

Yesterday, we took a small rail excursion, due to some domestic issues that made us want to be out of the house for a while. So we went to Hoboken, and then took the Pascak Valley Line to Spring Valley. It was a relatively boring route, but it did bring up a question in my mind.

We went out on the 3:20 departure, arriving more or less on time to Spring Valley at around 4:37. And the area I found was... interesting, to say the least. It was completely run down, and downright nasty. It also was all hispanic. I'm not saying that there is anything wrong with hispanics- its just that I was the only white guy in the place, and I didn't seem to speak the language (and I'm talking both verbal spanish, and cultural body language, etc). Which naturally, makes me uncomfortable. In addition, the next train out was at 6:04, and there were no places nearby that I felt comfortable sitting in. No indoor waiting room (or even warming booth), and the only other places to go were a bank, and some clearly inexpensive mexican/south/central american restaurants, and a few crummy looking stores. The Pizza joint in the old station building was closed.

Since I felt like I was in a ghetto, I really didn't feel comfortable going into any of them. I mean, I stuck out like a sore thumb, here. I didn't want to bring any attention to myself, or accidentally trod on anyones toes, or anything like that. Nothing here looked like it was really welcoming/aimed at transients. I'd get the same feeling in the dead center of Harlem, I'd imagine, if I wasn't pretty good friends with a few residents there. And knowing many from that region, and having black housekeepers of the years, I'm better at reading various signals and responding in the appropriate way. Which is one of the biggest problems.

I've gotten two independent recommendations of the Port Jervis line from this board, and several from NJ Transit conductors as well. So when the spring bloom I am referring to comes along, it is my intention to take that line. However, I definitely want to avoid going through the same problem. So what I'm asking is, what is it like at the end of the Port Jervis line?


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## AlanB (Mar 30, 2008)

PJ is nothing exciting either and you're not really downtown at PJ when the train arrives. However there is a Burger King right across the parking lot where you can grab some lunch and sit down and relax for a bit. A little bit further walk will bring you to a pizza place and a chinese resturant, assuming that they are still in business. The strip mall those places where in was looking a bit rundown last time I was there.

PJ also features a far more culturally diverse population. And there are one or two shelters on the platform, no real station to speak of, but at least you can get in out of the wind if its cold out. Also, unlike Spring Valley, the yard is right there at the station. So the train remains within sight and the crew will probably be nearby, if not on the train.

If there is time, there is also a historic turntable a short walk away and I think that there is still a RR musuem by the TT, but it's hours were pretty sparse the last time I was out there.


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## PRR 60 (Mar 30, 2008)

The ride on Metro North from Grand Central to Poughkeepsie is kind of like the poor-man's Lake Shore Limited. With the river-side ride along the Hudson, you see some of the scenic highlights of the Lake Shore route at a Metro North price. Sit on the left heading north out of Manhattan.

As you pass under the Tappan Zee Bridge you can picture Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint having dinner on the Twentieth Century Limited in "North by Northwest". In the famed dining car encounter of the movie, the passing scenery out the window is approaching and going under the Tappan Zee. Sadly, Metro North does not serve rainbow trout on it's trains.


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## AlanB (Mar 30, 2008)

PRR 60 said:


> The ride on Metro North from Grand Central to Poughkeepsie is kind of like the poor-man's Lake Shore Limited. With the river-side ride along the Hudson, you see some of the scenic highlights of the Lake Shore route at a Metro North price. Sit on the left heading north out of Manhattan.
> As you pass under the Tappan Zee Bridge you can picture Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint having dinner on the Twentieth Century Limited in "North by Northwest". In the famed dining car encounter of the movie, the passing scenery out the window is approaching and going under the Tappan Zee. Sadly, Metro North does not serve rainbow trout on it's trains.


Yes, this is also a very scenic ride too. In fact I just took ChrisJ from England on this run, although we short turned at New Hamburg, rather than killing an hour in Poughkeepsie.


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## Guest (Apr 3, 2008)

This is what you would do.

NYP-KO on a single level train..

At KO, a one or two car bi-level train backs up to the electric train. They can't couple. You board the 2 car train out to Greenport. It is pretty senic.

Here is a picture (not mine):


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## Green Maned Lion (Apr 3, 2008)

I'll do all three someday soon. However, NTD has made Amtrak travel accessible for this trip, so thats what I'm gonna do.


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## Joel N. Weber II (Apr 5, 2008)

What's the equipment in that photograph? It looks like the car closer to the camera has two rows of windows, but I don't see windows on the other car; is the far car a locomotive?


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## the_traveler (Apr 5, 2008)

It sure looks like a loco.


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## AlanB (Apr 5, 2008)

That photo has one LIRR bi-level cab car (near) and one LIRR diesel powered locomotive (far).


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## Green Maned Lion (Apr 5, 2008)

What kind of loco is that?


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## Guest (Apr 6, 2008)

Green Maned Lion said:


> What kind of loco is that?


It is a EMD DE30AC (400s)

They are custom-made for the LIRR. Thus, reliability is very poor. (17,998 MDBF in 2007)


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## Guest (Apr 6, 2008)

Here is a picture of a different train, same locomotive (different number):

http://railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=199716&nseq=2


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## Joel N. Weber II (Apr 7, 2008)

The custom for LIRR would explain why the locomotive looks so much like the coach; on the Amtrak and MBTA trains I'm used to seeing, the locomotive really doesn't look anything like the coaches.


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## jackal (Apr 7, 2008)

Joel N. Weber II said:


> The custom for LIRR would explain why the locomotive looks so much like the coach; on the Amtrak and MBTA trains I'm used to seeing, the locomotive really doesn't look anything like the coaches.


Hmm...looks somewhat European.

I still like American-looking freight and passenger engines here. They just look big and powerful. The European ones look faster, but ours look like they can pull _real_ trains...


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