Amtrak Grand Central Terminal Operations

It's also referred to as the "Empire Connection."

It allowed Amtrak to save a ton of money by consolidating all operations into Penn station. Before that, Amtrak had to maintain two separate stations in New York.

Amtrak lost money the first year of the Empire Connection service, when two children were struck and killed by a train, and Amtrak subsequently had to erect a fence around the previously-inactive former freight line.

I split off the follow-up posts regarding the Empire Connection here:

http://railroad.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=35042

Now we can continue the discussion of Amtrak's operations in Grand Central Terminal in this thread. Thank you!

-otto-

gprimr1 wrote:It's also referred to as the "Empire Connection."

It allowed Amtrak to save a ton of money by consolidating all operations into Penn station. Before that, Amtrak had to maintain two separate stations in New York.

That and connecting passengers between NYP and Grand Central had to take an Amtrak bus.

To respond a little more fully to the original question --

Until May 1, 1971, most NY to Boston trains ran out of Grand Central. Amtrak shifted all these trains to Penn Station (via the Hell Gate Bridge) either on May 1 or very shortly thereafter. This also allowed Amtrak to increase the number of through WAS - BOS trains (historically there had been about four each way, three day trains and an overnight train).

Other trains running via the former New York Central to Albany and beyond had to remain at Grand Central since there was no way to reach the former NYC from Penn Station. They remained there until the Empire Connection opened in 1991.

Interestingly, in the Penn Central merger filings, NYC and PRR proposed to build a connection between Penn Station and the West Side Freight Line and consolidate long distance trains in Penn Station. This was in 1967. But following the merger in 1968, passenger service continued its rapid decline and Penn Central decided not to spend the money.

Did Amtrak do its own switching in Grand Central Terminal? Did they have their own crews and switch engines, or did they contract with whoever was operating the terminal at the time (PC, CR, or MN)? Did Amtrak have their own storage tracks, or were they fairly confined to storing trains on the platform?

-otto-

My understanding is that MNR crews yarded the trains. I know a MNR engineer who has told me about having run the Turbos to and from the yards.

I wonder what yard that was... Mott Haven (the traditional coach yard for New York City) was long gone. Maybe he was referring to "Madison Avenue Yard," which was more or less a couple of non-platformed storage tracks on the Upper Level...

-otto-

I remember when Amtrak ran into Grand Central. Back in the 80's, I would take the Turbos to Albany because I liked the ride along the Hudson,plus I would take the Lake Shore Limited in when I was coming from Chicago. I have a friend who is a Passenger Attendant and he worked the Lake Shore when the Chicago crew base had it in the late 80's and I would meet him at Grand Central. I would layover with him and when he had to report back to the train, I would go with him down to the bowels of GCT where the train was laying over on the turn around loop which was dimmly lit and damp. After the train pulled into the platform,pick up the passengers and I would ride on it till Croton Harmon and then take Metro North back in. I did that numerous times until Amtrak re assign the Lake Shore to the New York Crew base. It was interesting. The good old days.

Otto Vondrak wrote:I wonder what yard that was... Mott Haven (the traditional coach yard for New York City) was long gone. Maybe he was referring to "Madison Avenue Yard," which was more or less a couple of non-platformed storage tracks on the Upper Level...

-otto-

Otto, I was having this discussion with another rail buff friend of mind and he thought that some of them may have been stored at Sunnyside yard, but I don't recall seeing Turbos at Sunnyside, plus it would have been alot more work. I think you are right about the "Madison Avnue Yard" which makes alot more sense.

Sunnyside? That can't be. Why would you house a train all the way in Sunnyside? It would take an hour to get the train from the yard to the platform at GCT.

Otto Vondrak wrote:Did Amtrak do its own switching in Grand Central Terminal, etc.?

[Copied from "The End of Amtrak @ GCT" in this section. There are more informative replies after mine.]
> Posted: Wed Aug 23, 2006 7:23 pm
I rode private car "Blue Ridge" on the end of an Amtrak train into Grand Central on the next to the last day. A Niagara Jct. electric loco pulled our entire train, FL-9 included, around the loop and pushed us into a non-platform track on the East side of the Upper Level. <
The switch engine was owned and crewed by Metro North at that time.

Madison Avenue yard at GCT is on the lower lever and to the best of my
knowledge was not normally used by Amtrak. I do not recall, in the time
of my working at GCT, ever even seeing Amtrak equipment in this yard
although in its earliest days, there may have been occasionally.
Madison Avenue yard in the earlier days was used for passenger car
repairs that formerly took place at Mott Haven after Mott Haven yard was
closed in the 1960's.
Noel Weaver

L'mont wrote:Sunnyside? That can't be. Why would you house a train all the way in Sunnyside? It would take an hour to get the train from the yard to the platform at GCT.

Thats exactly what I told my friend, L'mont. Can you imagine that? Leaving Sunnyside, going across the Hell Gate Bridge then up to where the switch was at and then backing tracking all the way back to GCT. That would take at least an hour, if not a little more time.

Going from Sunnyside to Grand Central would take well over an hour as
a runaround move would have to be made at New Rochelle and this would
take a lot of time. Such a move would also require two diesels operated
back to back whether it was for one or a dozen cars.
Such moves would take place only if there was an urgen exchange of
passenger equipment necessary.
Under normal conditions, Amtrak is not likely to ever go back to Grand
Central Terminal again.
Under emergency conditions, Amtrak can terminate a train at New Haven
or Croton-Harmon and transfer the passengers to Metro-North at those
points.
Noel Weaver