Port Jervis Line - Graham Line changeover

Otto Vondrak wrote:The RDCs were purchased by the NYC and the NH in the 1950s and continued on through Penn Central and Conrail, and then Metro-North. They were reaching the end of their service life, and were given minimal attention, though Megro-North managed to put a little more money into maintenance. The Budd cars were retired from East of Hudson service by 1990, though I know I photographed them running in Port Jervis in 1991... They were retired not long after that.

Three of the RDC's assigned to Port Jervis were rebuilt in the mid-1980's. In 1991, a friend and I took a trip to ride the mid-morning RDC round trip from Suffern to Port Jervis. Or at least we tried to. Thanks to a 30-minute delay on the PATH from Newark to Journal Square, we missed our NJT train to Suffern by 5 minutes, and thus in turn, the RDC's to Port Jervis.

Then it got a bit odd. About 15 minutes later, a pair of RDC's arrived in Hoboken Terminal, unannounced and not on any of the schedules we had for either NJT or Metro-North. It discharged a crowd, changed ends, and slipped back out of the terminal. My friend and I took the next train to Suffern just to kill some time since Port Jervis was now out of the running, but we never saw them, and we never found out what they were doing all the way in Hoboken. And then they were retired later that year.

I rode this RDC shuttle in the late '80s for a leisurely round-trip joyride, Suffern to Port Jervis and back. I remember a conversation I had with the engineer about the shuttle ever going to Hoboken, and was informed by him that if the (eastbound) shuttle from Port to Suffern missed the connection due to some delay, the shuttle would then proceed on to Hoboken....

Perhaps this is why the shuttle was in Hoboken that day....

K

kman73 wrote:I rode this RDC shuttle in the late '80s for a leisurely round-trip joyride, Suffern to Port Jervis and back. I remember a conversation I had with the engineer about the shuttle ever going to Hoboken, and was informed by him that if the (eastbound) shuttle from Port to Suffern missed the connection due to some delay, the shuttle would then proceed on to Hoboken....

Perhaps this is why the shuttle was in Hoboken that day....

K

That would explain it. And it still had enough time to deadhead back to Suffern to make the westbound (albeit very late) trip that we missed before the next connecting Bergen/Main local got there.

Much discussion early in the thread about whether NJT, MNRR, or a NYS topic. I've merged the older topic into the newer topic (someone posted the thread link; thanks!). For now, I'm going to move it to MNRR, just to get it some exposure. After a bit, we can move it to NYS. Shadow topics will remain.

Otto Vondrak wrote:I found a timetable issued by Metro-North for April 1984, and it already lists the "new" stations, so it must have happened between the October 1983 and April 1984 timetable changes? I guess what I'm really looking for is a Metro-North issued timetable that lists the original Main Line stations!

Otto,

http://railroad.net/forums/viewtopic.ph ... 21&start=0

This should jog your memory.

Another thread merged. Thanks for finding it.

I know the Erie Main Line was double-tracked prior to its abandonment, but what about the Graham Line? It looks as if there were two tracks running from Tuxedo to Harriman; when was the other track taken up?

TDowling wrote:I know the Erie Main Line was double-tracked prior to its abandonment, but what about the Graham Line? It looks as if there were two tracks running from Tuxedo to Harriman; when was the other track taken up?

Graham 2 was taken up in 1953. Graham 3 and Graham 1 remained in service I believe until the ML abandonment. Graham 1 is the current track, stitched a bit, and Graham 3 is now abandoned in the woods.

Wow, you're very well-informed.

Erie-Lackawanna wrote:OK, a little digging in the archive found me this single-sided sheet:



Service via the Graham Line, which had begun accidentally for one day on April 4, 1983, was formally and permanently inaugurated effective April 18, 1983. Note the Middletown shuttle service continued to turn at Middletown, but the October 30, 1983 timetable has the runs extended to Port Jervis, and the number of trains almost doubled, to 9 trains each way on weekdays, and three each way on Saturdays.

Interestingly, the April 24, 1983 Main Line/Bergen County Line NJ Transit timetable shows service via the Main Line to Port Jervis. The sheet shown above superseded the full Main/Bergen timetable for Port Jervis service until the October 30, 1983 timetable took effect.

Jim

This is a great thread. I have learned a lot. I have a few random thoughts. First, I think that the village of Goshen still suffers from the removal of the ML. There are many unde-rutilized store fronts which I believe would be better served in the Village if the train still ran, not to mention the taxes that were lost. I live in the village, but I drive over to Harriman to catch the train as it really is faster. I leave my house 15 minutes later and spend a half hour less on the train then when I used Campbell Hall station.
The Orange County ridership is a lot larger then MN knows. I know lots of people who live in Orange but who drive over to Beacon to catch the train to GCT because that line offers more choices.
Now since the ARC is dead ( I really didn't think that would help the PJ line a lot) I wonder how they will increase service now? I would love to see a double track, but I know that's not going to happen anytime soon.
Looking at the above schedules its nice to see train 54 still running at the same time out of Harriman ( but a longer trip).

From Goshen, it probably is a good idea to catch the train at Harriman as opposed to Campbell Hall. The fare is lower and the ride is shorter to New York.

Definately, for heading points south, Harriman is better, especially since 17 passes through both Goshen and Harriman.

I've noticed recently that eastbound trains (at least off-peak ones) arrive at Harriman ahead of schedule. Is this a result of infrastructural improvements? Schedule padding? Both?

It appears that there is a typo on the schedule Jim posted: train 60 ran in the pm not am....

Some additional photos (not mine) of the Main Line for those interested:

https://flic.kr/p/cYvPAw" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
https://flic.kr/p/cYw3Z1" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
https://flic.kr/p/cYw48q" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
https://flic.kr/p/cYw45u" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;