MNCW/NYC Twin Tunnels on Oscawana Island in Crugers, NY

(Archived Bridge Hunter; Satellite)

MNCW = Metro-North Commuter Railroad

These are the first tunnels that I have seen on NYC's Water Level Route. They are short.

prr4ever via BridgeHunter, License: Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike (CC BY-SA)
Looking South

Dave Blaze Rail Photography posted
Eight Of Eight With a free weekend alone I finally took a trip long on my list and made the trek out to the Hudson Line to hunt Metro North heritage units and pay a visit to a few famous locations that I'd never before seen for myself. Tops on the list was Oscawana Island and the twin tunnels on the legendary former New York Central water level route mainline. The weather was less than ideal and far from comfortable with temps in the 90s, high humidity and thick haze making for poor shooting conditions, but I had fun nonetheless. In the short 90 minutes I spent here I shot eight trains and missed a few others before leaving as massive thunderstorms approached. Not many people shoot going away photos of trains and I'm sure this won't draw much interest. But I take a documentary approach to photography including the bad in with the good because someday once everything has changed, as it inevitably will, this will be an interesting scene for somebody. And I treat this as my trip journal and travelogue so try to include at least one shot of each train at each spot. This was the last of the eight trains I'd shoot, before moving on before the gnarly weather rolled in. Southbound Metro North train 878 the 4:51 PM departure from Poughkeepsie due at Grand Central 1 hr 54 min later. They are on Main 2 of Metro North's Hudson Line at MP 36.8 passing thru the 200 ft long west bore with P32AC-DM 207 (GE blt. Nov. 1997) shoving on the rear. This is the original New York Central Railroad mainline which opened between New York City and Albany in 1851 as the Hudson River Railroad, and the first tunnel here (the one out of sight to my left that Main 1 passes thru) dates from the line's construction through here in 1849 while the parallel one beneath my feet with Mains 2 and 4 dates from 1912 when four tracks were installed (the original tunnel had two). In 1864 the Hudson River Railroad was purchased by Cornelius Vanderbilt along with the New York and Harlem. Meanwhile in 1853 Erastus Corning had assembled a plethora of small local lines as the New York Central Railroad running from Albany to Buffalo and in 1867 Vanderbilt merged it with his road to create the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad and the rest as they say is history. By the 1950s as the railroad was showing signs of weakness but also modernizing under the leadership of A.E. Perlman. Around that era the four track mainline was equipped with CTC and reduced to three mains thru here. If anyone can fill me in the exact dates of the changes here I'd be most grateful. Hamlet of Crugers Cortlandt, New York Friday August 2, 2024 Kilo Gigawatt: Interesting shimmy inside the east tunnel. Laurie Still: That's a cracking picture with much of interest. Does it matter that it's going away? Not at all, I do it all the time. Just record 'the everyday!'

Dave Blaze Rail Photography posted
7 Of 8 At Oscawana With a free weekend alone I finally took a trip long on my list and made the trek out to the Hudson Line to hunt Metro North heritage units and pay a visit to a few famous locations that I'd never before seen for myself. Tops on the list was Oscawana Island and the twin tunnels on the legendary former New York Central water level route mainline. The weather was less than ideal and far from comfortable with temps in the 90s, high humidity and thick haze making for poor shooting conditions, but I had fun nonetheless. In the short 90 minutes I spent here I shot some eight trains and missed a few others before leaving as massive thunderstorms approached. Here is the 7th train I photographed, Metro North train 844, a 4:47 PM departure from Grand Central Terminal scheduled into Poughkeepsie 1 hr 50 min later. MNCR 223 (GE P32AC-DM blt. Jul. 2001 and one of 31 on the roster including four owned by ConnDOT) dressed in standard MTA paint is leading the train out of the north portal of the nearly 200 ft long bore on Main 1of Metro North's Hudson Line at MP 36.8. This is the original New York Central Railroad mainline which opened between New York City and Albany in 1851 as the Hudson River Railroad, and this tunnel dates from the line's construction through here in 1849 while the parallel one at right with Mains 2 and 4 dates from 1912 when four tracks were installed (the original tunnel had two). In 1864 the Hudson River Railroad was purchased by Cornelius Vanderbilt along with the New York and Harlem. Meanwhile in 1853 Erastus Corning had assembled a plethora of small local lines as the New York Central Railroad running from Albany to Buffalo and in 1867 Vanderbilt merged it with his road to create the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad and the rest as they say is history. By the 1950s as the railroad was showing signs of weakness but also modernizing under the leadership of A.E. Perlman. Around that era the four track mainline was equipped with CTC and reduced to three mains thru here. If anyone can fill me in the exact dates of the changes here I'd be most grateful. Hamlet of Crugers Cortlandt, New York Friday August 2, 2024