40 years of North American photography

[ChrisH-UK]

A fair chunk of the damage to the ferry slips was done by hurricane Sandy in 2012, I believe those were the slips the Ellis/Liberty Island ferries used the first time I went there in 2001, when I went back in 2015 it was from new slips but I'm not sure I realised the big cause until researching car float operations three years ago because of the toll the storm-surge took on their slips - iirc the few that are still in operation were the best survivors of Sandy

 

 

[Johann Marsbar]

12 hours ago, ChrisH-UK said:

A fair chunk of the damage to the ferry slips was done by hurricane Sandy in 2012, I believe those were the slips the Ellis/Liberty Island ferries used the first time I went there in 2001, when I went back in 2015 it was from new slips but I'm not sure I realised the big cause until researching car float operations three years ago because of the toll the storm-surge took on their slips - iirc the few that are still in operation were the best survivors of Sandy

 

 

 

I hadn't thought of some of that damage being done by "Superstorm Sandy" in 2012, but on checking, the station itself was severely damaged by flooding at that time and didn't actually reopen to the Public until 2016.

I missed the worst of Sandy as I was in Maryland at that time, but my plans were still disrupted by it (see umpteen pages back in this topic...)

[Johann Marsbar]

Having seen the notices for the "Classic Car & Beer Festival" at Princeton Junction when there on the Saturday, I decided to change my plans for the Sunday to go and give the event a look.

The morning dawned rather grey, though it was 70F at 05.30, and it took until mid day before the sun burned its way through.

I initially caught a train south along the main line as far as New Brunswick to have a look around, not that there was much to see on a Sunday morning other than some rail and bus activity, though there were a few historic buildings - mainly churches - to look at in the vicinity of the station.  The station building itself dates from 1903 and was built by the PRR when the tracks through town were elevated above street level......

 

 

I'd planned to have a couple of hours there, but ended up staying there about 3 hours as the NJT rail service had become a bit of a shambles that morning with my train running about 50 mins late - not bad on an hourly service headway. Timekeeping seemed to be fairly abysmal on NJT though the whole week, so I didn't actually do as much travelling as I could have done as a result.

 

Some views of passing traffic at the station....

 

 

 

 

 

As well as buses provided by NJT in the City there are a few other bus operators that serve the place, the main one being Rutgers University who opererate (or rather, First Transit do on their behalf) an extensive free bus system for University students....

 

 

I eventually got to Princeton Jn and discovered that the event there at that time consisted of a tent with about 6 beers on from a single brewery and a solitary classic car parked up, so decided not to waste any more time there and headed back to New Brunswick for an early lunch at Harvest Moon Brewing, located close to the station.

 

After lunch, I headed back north as far as Rahway to pay a visit to Wet Ticket Brewing, again located close to the railway station. The place was very busy as there was a live band performing and their beers were rather good (5.8% ABV was their weakest product...), so I decided to stay there a lot longer than planned and postpone the planned late afternoon visit to Demented Brewing in Middlesex until later in the week. I had quite a long and interesting chat with the Brewery owner about the problems in running a brewery in New Jersey compared to other US States - the difficulties being echoed by a few of the other ones I visited during the week.

 

After eventually leaving in the late afternoon, I carried on to Elizabeth for a photography session at the station and the S-curves on the main line after having a walk round the place in search of the few Colonial era buildings that survive there. I did find them, after a longish walk, but didn't rate the rest of the place particularly highly.  Adjacent to the NJT station on the former PRR line is the former CNJ station on the lifted low level main line that ran to the Jersey City Terminal that I had explored the previous day.......

 

 

There were plans for that to be the terminus of a light rail line to EWR Airport in recent years, but it now seems to be going to be a busway of some sort instead.

 

On the main line, this ALP-46 with a NJT Military Salute sticker on the bodysides came round the S-curves into the station.....

 

 

Whilst this Amtrak ACS-64 headed south with a Regional train.....

 

[ChrisH-UK]

7 hours ago, Johann Marsbar said:

 

I missed the worst of Sandy as I was in Maryland at that time, but my plans were still disrupted by it (see umpteen pages back in this topic...)

I was in Vineland, NJ. The Eye went right over the top of us but somehow didn't do any significant damage to the city, surprising considering the mess it made across a large swath of New Jersey. 

 

Quote

 

There were plans for that to be the terminus of a light rail line to EWR Airport in recent years, but it now seems to be going to be a busway of some sort instead.

 

 

Do you have any more info on that, I'm a frequent user of Newark which is undergoing a redevelopment, yet I'd heard nothing about this.

 

 

Edited February 3, 2023 by ChrisH-UK

[Johann Marsbar]

1 hour ago, ChrisH-UK said:

I was in Vineland, NJ. The Eye went right over the top of us but somehow didn't do any significant damage to the city, surprising considering the mess it made across a large swath of New Jersey. 

 

 

Do you have any more info on that, I'm a frequent user of Newark which is undergoing a redevelopment, yet I'd heard nothing about this.

 

 

 

It was originally proposed as Union County Light Rail, which I remember reading about in either Railpace or Tramways & Urban Transit at the time.......

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_County_Light_Rail

There is a link in that Wiki article that takes you to details of the Union Go Bus Expressway though it's just one of a list of "proposals" that have yet to see anything concrete happening with them.

 

The few times that I've stayed in the Robert Treat in Newark, I've just caught the normal Go 28 bus (or one of the other regular routes) to downtown Newark.  Certainly I have never used that expensive Airtrain link to the NEC station!

[ChrisH-UK]

I have used the NEC station a few times back when it just added $4 or 5 to the train ticket cost, one time I caught the late Virgin flight which left Heathrow at 20:30 and got to Newark around 11, dossed down in the airport for 3 hours then headed to the station to catch a train to Trenton that connected to the first SEPTA service of the day to Philadelphia before ending up in another Newark (Delaware). No way would I use it purely to get between the airport and downtown Newark.

 

As much as my heart says linking Elizabeth to the airport would be a handy thing my head says it's unlikely to happen.

 

[Johann Marsbar]

With the rail season ticket being valid on the NJT light rail routes it covered the diesel line from Trenton to Camden which put Philadelphia a short ride on PATCO away, so the next day was spent with an Independence Pass travelling around that City.

 

Big Bus were still using a couple of Bristol VR's on their tours at that stage, plus another as a downtown booking/information office.....

 

 

Though my first move of the day was out to Eastwick on tram route 36.......

 

 

....returning back to the City and then catching the local train service out to Chestnut Hill East (former Reading RR route)........

 

 

........travel being, appropriately, in a former Reading owned Silverliner IV #117 of 1973.

 

Until 1992, Chestnut Hill was the terminus of a very long tram route - the 23 - that ran from South Philadelphia through Center City, Wayne Junction and Germantown, the route being replaced by buses that year. Odd sections of the route have seen sporadic localised tram operations since then, particularly in the Germantown area as a "Historic Trolley" and the tracks and most of the overhead wiring does remain along the route, as seen here in Chestnut Hill........

 

 

Chestnut Hill was actually a much nicer area than "Historic Germantown" which looked a bit down at heel in places, which I observed when I caught the 23 bus as far as Wayne Junction, from where I took a train to 30th St............

 

 

...and then another train out along the "Main Line" as far as Ardmore to pay a lunchtime visit to Tired Hands Brewing.  Thee place was devoid of much in the way of obvious signage and coupled with the lack of relevant stret names/numbers in that section of town, it took a while to actually find the place!

 

After lunch, I headed back on the train to 30th Street and then took the No.10 tram out to the terminus at Overbrook (63rd/Malvern)..........

 

 

.....and took a walk back along the route..........

 

 

...as far as the terminus of the No. 15 (63rd/Girard) - a somewhat more depressed area than Overbrook.............

 

 

...from where I took the 15 as far as Lancaster Avenue and the 10 again...........

 

 

With the almost 3 hour journey back to Newark via the PATCO/NJT River Line/NJT Trenton line route, I then called it a day and caught a tram on the 10 back to Market Street and getting a PATCO service from 8th/Market over to Camden, where a coupled pair of River Line trains are seen at the Walter Rand Transportation Centre there.....

 

 

...arriving back in Newark just after 21.00, concluding what had been a long 16 hour day of travelling.

[Johann Marsbar]

Tuesday started off with an early morning run out to Bound Brook, the first time I'd ever been there, in the hope of seeing some freight activity on the adjacent lines to the route used by the NJT passenger service out to High Bridge.  I had about 90 minutes there, but only one freight put in an appearance, headed by a UP loco of all things......

 

 

It's quite a popular Railfan photo location, though there was only one other gricer around at 08.00 in the morning, and, as I found on my few visits there, he seemed to be a permanent resident at the station!

 

I caught a train back to Newark and took PATH over to the WTC station on Manhattan, being suitably impressed by the newly built World Trade Center "Occulus" station house - though as it cost $4 Billion, one would expect it to be so.....

 

 

A couple of hours were then spent wandering round the southern tip of Manhattan, from where this shot of the Jersey Central Terminal was taken......

 

 

A selection of FDNY vehicles were found whilst walking around, including these two......

 

 

 

...and the Wavertree, built at Southampton in 1885 and now an exhibit at the South Street Seaport museum.....

 

 

I then caught the 12.30 ferry over to Staten Island.........

 

 

...where this 2015 built Nova Bus LFS is seen leaving the bus station at the St George Ferry Terminal.....

 

 

Staten Island is the home of the sometimes overlooked SIRY operation of the NYC MTA, the rolling stock used being R44 cars dating from the early 1970's........

 

 

The position light signals show the lines former ownership by the B & O.

 

 

After a visit to Flagship Brewing, I caught the ferry back to Manhattan and thence PATH to Newark to finish the day by some runs on the line down to Trenton, calling in at New Brunswick for some food, this peak hour service operated by "Jersey Arrow" electric units which date from 1977/78 being seen at the station there........

 

[Johann Marsbar]

On the Wednesday I had originally planned to spend another day in Philadelphia but dropped this to gain an extra day doing more travelling around on the season ticket, coupled with a rearrangement of the plans for the other days as well.

I moved a trip to Atlantic City forward to the Wednesday morning, so heaed off on the 06.28 from Newark to Trenton, connecting there with the River Line diesel light rail line as far as the Pennsauken Transit Center which is where a connection is made with the isolated NJT Philadelphia to Atlantic City rail service.

The Transit Center only opened in 2013, some 9 years after the River Line started service and consists of a low level platform for that line, with a high level two platform station for the AC rail service......

 

 

The River Line is worked by a batch of 20 Stadler GTW units.........

 

 

 

The 34 mile line, being classed as "light rail" has the same fares as the local buses - i.e. $1.60 irrespective of distance travelled - so it's rather a bargain for travellers, though it was covered by my season ticket!

 

My train to Atlantic City is seen in "push" mode coming off the adjacent Delaware River Bridge.........

 

 

The AC line is the home of most of the older diesels used by NJT, namely their GP40PH-2B rebuilds, originally new to Penn Central in the late 1960's, though some of the newer ALP45 locos have occasionally appeared in more recent years..........

 

 

 

Being the end of September, it was a bit "off-season" in Atlantic City - more so than Blackpool or Gt Yarmouth at that time of year - though the promenade transportation was in operation, even if it was suffering delusions of being something more interesting...........

 

 

A Boat Car or Railcoach it certainly isn't!

 

Having been todally underwhelmed by the "Tun Tavern" Brewpub on a previous visit to AC, I had done my research on Beer Advocate beforehand and had picked the "Wingcraft Kitchen" as being a better destination for lunch and it turned out to be a wise choice. The Philly Cheesesteak Sandwich was all of about 14" long and they had 39 beers on tap, 12 of them being from New Jersey based breweries. I could have stayed there a lot longer than I did, but there was an annoying 2.5 hour gap in the train service in the early afternoon (and didn't fancy the NJT bus service over a GP40PH-2B), so had to get out earlier than I would have liked to be able to do much else that afternoon.

I returned to Trenton via the same route as the outward and discovered that the NJT train service was in a mess (again) so had time to wander off the station to get some bus photos, such as this 2001 built MCI D4000......

 

 

My train to Newark finally appeared out of the yard and on arrival at Penn, I changed into an ALP45 hauled service out to Bound Brook where I spend a couple of hours during the evening peak....

 

 

There was a decent amount of freight traffic on the other two lines during the time I was there as well, including a couple of "locals" with older motive power.

 

This CSX GP38-2 appeared on the further away of the 2 lines (ex Reading RR route to Port Reading)

 

 

....whilst NS GP38-2 appeared on the nearer (double track) line (Ex Lehigh Valley RR trackage)

 

 

[Johann Marsbar]

The next morning started with an early run out to Bound Brook again, though this time there didn't seem to be any freight traffic about, so I didn't stay that long before returning back to Newark, where one of the ALP45 dual-mode (diesel & 12.5 KV/25 KV overhead) locos is seen at Penn Station....

 

 

There are another batch of those locos currently in delivery to NJT, so that should see the end of their older examples of motive power that remain in the fleet.

 

I then headed off to New Brunswick again where this NJT NABI 416.15 bus is seen on a route to Woodbridge, obviously driven by one of those happy souls that has a job in full public view, but doesn't want his photo taken!   Having driven a bus full time for 12 years, I found that you had to accept that as part of the job..........

 

 

Somerset County Transportation were also in evidence, being a weekday, one of their (rather infrequent) routes actually running to Bound Brook over a much qucker and shorter route than I had taken on the train.......

 

 

 

After a while there, I returned to Bound Brook again, via Newark, as I had decided to make the visit to Demented Brewing in Middlesex, postponed from Sunday afternoon, that day.

The brewery/bar turned out to be a 35 minute walk in 80+ degree heat from Bound Brook station, but it was certainly worth the walk, as was finding a rather superb Diner on the way, which I stopped at for some food on the walk back to the station.

There still seemed to be a complete lack of freight traffic about, so I headed back into Newark for a trip out on the City Subway Light Rail line to Grove Street, station hopping on the way back, taking some photos on the way.

The cars used on the line are similar to the Hudson-Bergen ones used in Jersey City/Hoboken, with this example being seen at the former terminus (prior to 2002) of the line at Branch Brook Park.....

 

 

The line passes through the park south of there and it's hard to visualise your location in a heavilly built up area........

 

 

The line was mainly constructed on the bed of the former Morris Canal and opened in 1935 and some of the stations have canal themed artwork panels dating from that era.......

 

 

 

In addition, some of the normal signage is in the style of that era.......

 

 

The evening peak was spent on the main line south as far as Princeton Junction, the only item of note being this NS short local freight that put in an appearance at New Brunswick as the light was fading......

 

 

.......tailed by a rather battered Conrail caboose..........

 

[Johann Marsbar]

Last day of the trip and Amtrak/NJT managed to restrict what I had planned to do due to shutting down one of the four tracks between Newark Airport and North Elizabeth with an undisclosed defect.  NJT services were severely disrupted with delays of up to 30 minutes on some trains and cancellations of others, so I had to reduce my plans and shorten the day to ensure a wider recovery margin to get back to the Airport.

 

I started off at New Brunswick again where some older vehicles had put in an appearance on the Rutgers bus route network.......

 

 

...along with an occasional Middlesex County operated bus route......

 

 

Despite the holdups, the main line was still very busy with three trains in motion being visible at some times......

 

 

...and there seemed to be more single-deck passenger cars out in service as well - this set with an ALP-46 at each end..........

 

 

As the trains seemed to be a mess, I caught a train back to Newark and headed off to Jersey City on PATH, where I spent most of the rest of the day.  The restored ferry slips and clock tower at Hoboken Terminal are seen below....

 

 

....with a shot of a couple of NJT locos taken through the tram window when I was on my way up to Port Imperial.....

 

 

I was also able to add to my collection of US based Katyn 1940 memorials with this one at Exchange Place.....

 

 

Mid-afternoon, I returned to Newark and took a short run out to Rahway for a final photography session, but the train services were still in a mess. In the event I only spent 40 minutes there as there were lots of cancellations, but I did manage to see this GP40PH-2B on a (by then) rare outing on a service to Bay Head........

 

 

...together with this PL42AC on an inbound run from Bay Head.......

 

 

It was then straight back to the hotel to pick up my bag before using their free shuttle bus to the airport for the first time. This shuttle actually dropped you at one of the remote parking areas so I was able to travel on the Airport monorail - something I hadn't done before either.

 

Little did I know at the time, there would then be a 2 year gap before I went to the USA again.....

[Johann Marsbar]

Any long distance trips were well off the agenda for 2018 due to my Fathers deteriorating health and waiting for the inevitable to happen, which it did, albeit earlier than expected, in early 2019.

After several months of the likes of dealing with Solicitors and the early stages of a house move, I decided I needed a break away from it all, and arranged a trip to the US for that September. 

Initially, I was going to head to the Pennsylvania area with a hire car, but, on realising I could visit San Francisco at the time of the MUNI Transit Heritage Weekend, I changed my plans to that part of the Country which I could also do without a car.

I flew out from Heathrow on a BA 747 in early September, which turned out to be most probably my last flight on that aircraft type, just over 30 years after my first flight on one.  There were several of the BA spectial liveries for their Centenary in evidence at LHR, this BEA one being particularly well done.....

 

 

The outbound flight was fairly uneventful, unlike the farce experienced at SFO airport where it took no less that 2 hours from alighting off the plane to get through Immigration !

 

The nice hotel I stayed at on the 2016 trip wasn't available at a sensible price for this trip, but I found a good Motel in Belmont, located on El Camino Real, adjacent to Belmont station on the Caltrain San Francisco-San Jose commuter line, also served by the samTrans 198 bus service from Downtown SF and the Airport, so once I was out of the airport it was a simple bus trip to get to the Motel.  By the time I checked in it was the equivalent of 01.30 UK time, so I ended up just crashing out in the room for the rest of the day, though I did discover it was a good location for hearing the trains accelerating out of the station opposite !

 

On the Wednesday I generally used a combination of a Caltrain day ticket for Zone 2 (valid Millbrae-Redwood City) and a samTrans day bus ticket to get around the immediate area from where I was staying. I was off out at just before 06.00 (having been awake since 02.45) riding various Caltrain services for the next 3 hours.  Electrification progress since 2016 seemed to be at a glacial pace, with a few masts visible at Redwood City......

 

 

...and absoloutely nothing around Belmont station, though some masts are visible in the far distance........

 

 

 

The Motel I stayed in - The Silicon Valley Inn - was just out of shot, about level with the rear of the train with the stock in advertising livery.

 

After the mornings Caltrain ned moves, I ended up at Hillsdale where I caught a service 294 samTrans bus to Half Moon Bay, located on the Pacific coast, which took a very scenic route on highways 35 & 92 through the coastal mountain range to get there.

Half Moon Bay was a lot smaller place than I was expecting and rather tourist orientated, so after having a look around, I didn't have much problem in finding Sacrilidge Brewing for an early lunch, before a final look at the town, where this samTrans Gillig built bus was operating the southbound coastal route......

 

 

I caught the northbound variant as far as Princeton where I was able to make a visit to Hop Dogma Brewing, before taking another norhbound 17 to the Park & Ride site at Linda Mar, the route following the coast most of the way with rather nice views of the Ocean and the coastal rock formations.

The "Park & Ride" site turned out to be more of a bus interchange than somewhere to park your car as there must have been less than 60 spaces available for car parking!

There were quite a few buses parked there, including another Gillig.....

 

 

...and a pair of Gillig BRT 40' buses......

 

 

From Linda Mar, I took samTrans route 112 to Colma BART station............

 

 

...taking BART a far as Millbrae to connect with Caltrain again for some runs with the rail ticket during the evening peak.   

There was rather more evidence of electrification works at Millbrae.....

 

 

....and as I was to find during the next week, the works were patchy to say the least with some parts having zero evidence of works whilst in others they had started to erect the wiring.

[jamie92208]

Some good memories stirred there.  My first 747  flight was Manchester - Toronto in June 78 on my first ever flight that starts off my American pictures thread.  Funnily enough we came home on one in 2019, a BA flight, Denver - Heathrow in Late May 2019. That trip closed, for the time being, my American thread.

 

Jamie

Edited February 11, 2023 by jamie92208

[Johann Marsbar]

2 hours ago, jamie92208 said:

Some good memories stirred there.  My first 747  flight was Manchester - Toronto in June 78 on my first ever flight that starts off my American pictures thread.  Funnily enough we came home on one in 2019, a BA flight, Denver - Heathrow in Late May 2019. That trip closed, for the time being, my American thread.

 

Jamie

 

The first 747 I definitely know I flew on was an Air Canada one LHR-Toronto in July 1989.    As far as I can remember, the 3 US trips prior to that used Tristars or DC10's for the transatlantic legs with 727's and at least one MD 80 for the internal US legs.

I didn't actually start recording the aircraft details (unless I happened to photograph thr planes concerned) until 2009, but, thankfully, a number of the ones in the previous 10-12 years were recorded by people who I travelled with and took very detailed notes on the whole trip, including aircraft, bus, tram, rail and anything else that was travelled in!

 

During the first Lockdown, I did a lot of research online to try and fill the relevant gaps with aircraft types/registrations for all of the flights I had ever made - there being very detailed records of LHR/LGW and to a lesser extent STN arrivals and departures on a variety of different websites out there, mainly from about 1990 onwards. In the end, I was able to identify the aircraft used on 202 out of the 358 flights I've ever made, the majority of the missing ones being European trips from Stansted with the likes of Ryanair/Easyjet/Germanwings etc.

I also had some fun with an airline distance calculator, also found online, and came up with a minimum figure of 591,000 miles travelled by plane since December 1981 to date!!

That's all for pleasure as well - only work trips I ever had to do involved domestic UK rail travel....

 

Once I'd done that, I went through all my worldwide loco haulage details as well, so one day I'll get round to putting it all on a spreadsheet!

[jamie92208]

My 747 in 78 was a CP Air, solid charter.  The last was a BA one.  They didn't fly much longer after that.the only thing I've recorded is flying hours.

 

Jamie

[Johann Marsbar]

One thing that had become obvious due to the location of my Motel was that there were a couple of freight workings during the hours of darkness that operated up the peninsula towards San Francisco. I saw or heard them most nights I was there, but there was zero chance of photographing the things due to their nocturnal running.

 

On the Thursday morning I was out early (though not as early as the woman with a leaf-blower clearing the station car park at 05.25!) and purchased a Zone 1 & 2 Day ticket, the intention being to ride Caltrain in the morning and afternoon peaks, but spend the rest of the day in San Francisco itself. I caught the 05.52 train to SF and all was going well until we ground to a rather rapid halt between Bayshore and 22nd St stations.  News filtered through that we had hit a trespasser - most probably from one of the homeless encampments that are alongside the tracks in that area - and that's where we sat, with all lines closed, for the next 90 minutes. Various Fire Department and Law Enforcement personnel and their equipment were obseved passing by during that time, and after about 75 mins the signals cleared on the other track and other trains started to pass us. We eventually moved off after a replacement crew arrived and finally got into SF some 2 hours late, righting off any chance of doing anything constructive rail-wise that morning.

 

I ended up just walking to the Streetcar Museum in Steuart St, getting there about the time they opened, and bought my 7-day MUNI ticket. Rather amazingly, the chap in the museum remembered me from three years before!

 

The rest of the morning was spent riding around on MUNI, initially in the Downtown area to see if any different PCC liveries were out, with the Kansas City one being new to me....

 

 

El Paso was another one out, though the service on the F line seemed rather erratic......

 

 

 

A longer run out to Stanyan St on trolleybus route 21 and back into the City provided a chance to ride/photograph on their newest vehicles, the full fleets of both rigid and articulated New Flyers being delivered since my visit in 2016. On the way out, I did spot one of the old Skoda/ETI vehicles in use on another route, but didn't make any effort to look for more on that date and didn't see any more the rest of the week I was there. When the next issue of Trolleybus Magazine duly turned up at home a month or so later, I found that the remaining few Skodas had been taken off the road that very Thursday due to one of them experiencing problems during the day!

 

 

I then headed out along route 1 to rediscover the Richmond Republic pub, visited in 2016, and they were still doing their burger & a pint offer for $12, something of a bargain for the SF area where you were takling about $9 (16 oz...) "Pints" by that date. The place seemed to have become the local Liverpool FC supporters HQ since my last visit as well, judging by the memorabillia adorning the walls!

 

 

From there, it was back Downtown and over to the Caltrain station and the next 5 hours were spent riding the line out as far as Redwood City, making up for what I had missed out on in the morning by covering 8 different services.  I did, however, take an hours break at Redwood City to pay a visit to Ghostwood Brewing, situated close to the station and with a good view of passing trains out of the window. Luckilly it was "Happy Hour" so that at least knocked the beer price down to $7/pt.....

 

The Friday saw an excursion out into the country on the eastern side of the bay, so I caught the 05.52 into SF again, thankfully without delays this time and had a wander and a few tram rides around the waterfront where a Milan Peter Witt in green was out on the F line....

 

 

From there I headed off on BART to Pittsburg Interchange platform to investigate eBART, a diesel railcar worked extension to the BART system using Stadler GTW railcars, that opened in 2018 and runs as far (at the moment) as Antioch........

 

 

Running in the centre of a Freeway, photo opportunities are somewhat limited, so I contented myself with a quick out and back run.  The eBART operation is not physically connected to the main BART network as it is standard gauge, as opposed to the 5' 6" gauge used on that system.  Pittsburg Interchange is just that - an interchange point with one standard gauge platform and one 5'6" gauge platform in an island format......

 

 

.......and I returned as far as Concord, where I got off and firstly had a look round the adjacent bus station where this 40' Gillig BRT of County Connection (Central Contra Costa Transit Authority) is seen with the elevated BART station in the background........

 

 

 

[Johann Marsbar]

There wasn't a lot of interest in Concord so thankfully I didn't have too much time to kill before the EJ Phair brewpub opened in time for an early lunch, the food there being particularly good.

After lunch I took the County Connection bus route 16 - a free bus service - to Martinez where I was going to spend the rest of the day, the bus in question, a 2009 built 40' Gillig being seen at the Martinez Amtrak station when I got there at 12.50.......

 

 

Several bus operators run routes into Martinez to connect with Amtrak so the bus station part of the complex was rather busy.  Amtrak run their own connecting services into the San Joaquin rail routes as well......

 

 

...with Tri-Delta Transit - based at Antioch and covering eastern Contra Costa County - running an express service 200 from Pittsburg BART station to Amtrak at Martinez, again using Gillig built vehicles ........

 

 

On the rail side of things, I was hoping to see some freight activity whilst I spent the afternoon there, but train services seemed to be badly disrupted by signal problems and it was only rather late running Amtrak runs I saw until almost the time I left the place at 17.42.

 

One train that wasn't running late was this former SP 0-6-0 which was on display on the northern side of the fairly newly constructed Amtrak station.......

 

 

...and to the east of the current station, the old wooden station survives in other uses........

 

 

Whilst there wasn't much in the way of freight seen, there were a decent number of passenger trains in the time I was there with a variety in loco types/colours......

 

 

 

The footbridge in the photo above was still under construction at the time, but must now provide a good photo vantage point. The new station has 3 platform faces and was opened in 2001.

 

 

Even a former F40 "cabbage car" put in an appearance.......

 

 

By this time it had become seriously hot - high 80's F - so I wandered away from the station to find Del Cielo Brewings premises in the downtown area for some refreshment before returning to the station.....

[jamie92208]

Once again some good memories stirred there. I spent a pkeasant hour onnthe station with my good friend Dave en route to the museum  at Sacramento.  At the time hevlived in Walnut Creek. Now he's in Roseville. 

 

Jamie

[Mike_Walker]

Here are some nostalgic views of the old station whilst still in use as such.

 

F40PH 392, arriving at Martinez CA on #704 'San Joaquin' on 26 April 1991.

 

Reliving the glory days 4449 passing the depot at Martinez CA on 25 July 1992.

 

SP SD45 7498 leads F40PHs 349 and 304 departing Martinez CA with #6 'California Zephyr' on 26 April 1991.  The new station is in approximately this position.  The nearest line is the connection used by the 'San Joaquin' trains.

 

Back in the 1990s there were also Amtrak Thruway buses to points up the northern coast such as this Neoplan which had arrived from Willits on 26 April 1991.

 

Whilst on 1 July 1999 this example was waiting to go up to Arcata.  I'm not sure if these still run.

 

[Johann Marsbar]

Suitably refreshed, I returned to the station to see what else turned up.......

 

 

....a couple of the latest Charger locos putting in an appearance in a fairly short period of time......

 

 

 

With a lull in traffic, I took a wander down to the riverfront......

 

 

The lower level steel bridge visible off to the right is the railroad bridge for the main line to Sacramento, located at the western end of Suisun Bay, where one of the USN reserve shipping fleets used to be kept until recent years.

 

Back at the station, a local freight that had been lurking to the west of there for the whole of the time I had been at Martinez had started to crawl forward into a photographable position......

 

 

Headed by #1376 and #9992 - both GP40-2's - it slowly headed eastwards through the station.............

 

 

On the bus side of things, a variety of County Connection vehicles continued to pass through, including some more modern Gillig 29' low-floor buses dating from 2017.......

 

 

...plus this Westcat ( Western Contra Costa County) service 30Z route from Martinez to the Hercules Transit Center, operated by a Gillig BRT 40' vehicle....

 

 

Whilst no main line freight activity had appeared, as I was waiting for my bus back to Concord to appear, another local, this time heading west, ran through the station......

 

 

Back at Concord, I was pleased to see that my BART service back over to San Francisco was composed of the new rolling stock......

 

 

These had only started to enter service the previous year and will eventually replace the original rolling stock from the 1970's, though they have suffered considerably from a reliability problems

[Mike_Walker]

That destination display of "200 Eastbound" is of as much use to out-of-towners as the old Eastern Counties destination of "Service" or Reading Corporation's habit of showing pub names only as destinations (no route numbers) back in the day...

[Johann Marsbar]

The Saturday was the first day of the Muni Transit Festival, but as things didn't appear to start happening until after 10.00, the first part of the morning gave me a chance to do some photography on the cable car routes.

I caught the 398 samTrans bus from the Motel into downtown SF at 06.03 - the run taking a rather leisurely 75 minutes, about 10 minutes of which was wasted awaiting time at various points en route, though it was more convenient to get into SF at that time of the weekend on the bus due to a reduced train service.

I took a run on the California St cable car line, travelling on car #49 - on which I was actually the only passenger - out to the end of the line and then back to Powell St for the flat crossing with the other line.........

 

 

Cable car services were fairly sparse at that time of a Saturday but I was able to get some decent photos without much other road traffic for a change.......

 

 

 

 

The Cable car signal/control box at the junction is just visible to the left of the second photo above.

 

A short walk took me to above the northern entrance to the Stockton Street tunnel, with a considerable weight of trolleybus overhead line equipment being clearly visible in the photo......

 

 

I then headed down to FIshermans Wharf, where the Pittsburgh liveried PCC car is seen.........

 

 

...the area being rather devoid of the usual tourist crowds at 09.00 on a Saturday.   The F line services seemed to be fairly erratic as well, something that was apparent over the whole of the weekend, with the service being turned short at the Ferry building on the Sunday.

This SFFD fire engine passed me whilst I was in the area.....

 

 

....and I then caught a Cable Car back to Market Street, where this view was taken........

 

 

....before walking down to Steuart St and the Streetcar Museum/Embarcadero Plaza area where the Transit Festival was taking place.......

 

[Johann Marsbar]

Having not been to one of their Festivals before, I waan't sure what to expect, but, at the end of the two days it was certainly an event worth attending.  One freshly restored cable car was out for the first time since 1942 and there were a selection of preserved buses, trolleybuses and historic trams out giving rides on special routes. Whilst a regularly updated whiteboard was on display at the control point, it did pay to loiter in the area when not out for a ride as there were a lot of changes made to vehicle workings over the weekend, plus there were some extra attendees that just appeared without warning!

 

There were three motorbuses diagrammed to work trips, all from the official MUNI vintage fleet.....

 

A 1956 built Mack that lasted in service until the late 1960's........

 

 

A 1970 built  GM "New look" bus, fitted with a V8 diesel engine to cope with San Francisco's hills.......

 

 

...and this rather nice White bus of 1938, fitted with a petrol engine.......

 

 

...which actually lasted in service on the restricted vehicle length route up to Coit Tower as late as 1975!

That was the first vehicle at the event that I managed to get a ride on for a circular run around the City centre and made an interesting contrast with the equivalent vehicle of that size that was being built in the UK at that time, such as the Dennis Ace......

 

 

I even ended up being interviewed by a reporter from the San Francisco Chronicle during the trip, and he seemed to be rather surprised when he found out how far I had come to the event!

 

A couple of preserved trolleybuses were also out on a special route 41 as far as Union Street by Washington Square. The oldest one was this 1950 Marmon-Herrington example, seen through the rear window of the 1938 White.......

 

 

.......and this 1976 Flyer built vehicle........

 

 

On the tram front, an effort had been made to put as many of the PCC's out on the F line as possible, which included some of the ones that I hadn't seen before like this Detroit liveried one.....

 

 

...and the Philadelphia Rapid Transit one....

 

 

A couple of historic SF cars were diagrammed to be out on special trips from the Museum to Fishermans Wharf, though the only one that actually appeared was this 1896 built car from the Market Street Railway, originally constructed by the Hammond Car Co in San Francisco.......

 

 

The similarities with the cable car design of the era will be noted.

MUNI #1, a bogie car dating from 1912 was also supposed to be about, but that failed en-route to the event so they had to dig out a substitute vehicle to replace it which will appear in the next batch of photos.

Just to add a bit more variety, some of the infrequently seen trams from the MUNI "Wheels of the World" collection had also been put out in service, particularly the ones that demand a two person crew and these were out on the regular E and F line services.

One which didn't need a two person crew was "Zurich 737" - which doesn't even come from Switzerland!       It's actually a Brussels PCC car dating from 1952 and currently runs in Zurich livery for the reasons explained on the side of the car. Zurich trams are narrow gauge, so no chance of running one of those in SF, unless they obtain one and put standard gauge trucks under it!

 

 

I did see that car out on normal weekday service a few days later, so it does run on dates other than the Festival.  It is apparently likely to go back into its proper STIB livery at some point in the future.

[newbryford]

Great pics - bringing back a few memories from a very recent holiday there last year.

 

I think I may have posted this before - heading towards the flat crossing on the cable car lines.

Watch out about 1min 50!

 

[jamie92208]

My friend Dave was a reporter then sub editor on The Chronicle until he retired. His dad worked for MUNI and he was a great fan.  He would be p,eased that someone  actually got out of thevoffice and did some reporting.  One of his folleagues was thevson of one of the well known photographers of the SF rail and transit scene.  I'll have to dig out his name.

 

Jamie