I live in central New Jersey, about a mile from the northeast corridor. On the NEC where I am, New Jersey Transit and Amtrak runs through. Every 10 minutes, a horn in the distance. Don't even think about it's presence.
I also live 30 miles from New York.
West Side Yard(owned by LIRR) and Penn Station. Penn station is underground and is under Madison Square Garden, as you can see MSG in the photo. It's too bad I don't have my better photo from a cruise ship.
Arial view, red line being WS yard, green line representing the "trench", and blue line representing Penn Station/MadSqG
Note: Lines are not real location, just running parallel to the tracks.
Note: The trench is an opening between the Hudson tunnels and the post office(building before Penn Station). This trench is for sale and in many years to be covered up.
Amtrak
Amtrak, the most important passenger railroad of the United States, has almost 750 miles of track. The Acela, Amtrak's fastest train, runs from Boston-Washington D.C. including New York.
Below New York, Acela's speed limit maxes at 125. Above NY, Acela is allowed to go 150 for some time. The reason for the slower speed south of NY is due to the old catenary wires that are very old. The old wires cannot take the enormous bouncing of a train.
AEM7(AC), typical cars trail
Genesis P-40, superliner cars/typical cars trail
Note: Amtrak owns crappy tracksNew Jersey Transit
New Jersey Transit is a transit system obviously in New Jersey. NJT's main line is a section owned by Amtrak, the NEC. Trains run from Penn Station to Trenton, in under two hours. NJT runs beside Amtrak.
NJT is the 4th biggest railroad by ridership.
ALP-44, clone of Amtrak's AEM7, comet series cars trail
ALP-46, double decker cars trail
Comet V cab-car
Arrow III car, a piece of crap, a disgrace to New Jersey
Long Island Rail Road
LIRR is owned and maintained by the MTA(Metropolitan Transit Authority), which controls the operation of Metro-North, New York City Transit(the subway), and of course LIRR.
LIRR is the biggest railroad by ridership in North America.
LIRR is the oldest railroad to be operating under it's original name.
LIRR runs from 34th ST(Penn Station) to the north and south fork.
The routes are as follows(a second town name means that the second one is a continuation, diesel trains only):
Babylon - Montauk(south fork)
Ronkonkoma - Greenport(north fork)
Huntington - Port Jefferson
Hempstead
Oyster Bay(diesel)
West Hempstead
Far Rockaway
Long Branch
Port Washington(includes Shea Stadium)
Montauk is 117 miles from New York, a great task for the diesel engines that run from NYC out to Montauk everyday. Only DM30AC diesel trains are allowed(DE30AC does not have capibility to run on 3rd rail) into Penn Station, because diesels are banned. Yet somehow Amtrak is allowed to run empire service trains on diesel into Penn.
New Hyde Park is the best action of all of the LIRR. The station includes 3 level crossings in a row, and is the best place considering that it has the highest amount of trains for a station with a level crossing. It is arguable that Mineola is the same ranking as NHP, but at least two trains an hour slow down for the switch to a line that branches off.
According to my knowledge, it must suck to live in New Hyde Park. At rush hour, a minimum of
30 trains go through there. Rush hour is from 6:30-8:00AM, 4:30-7:00PM. Not just ringing the horn once, but a total of 12 blasts, 4 blasts an crossing, and 3 crossings.
DE30AC(diesel-electric)
C3 cab-car, rear of all diesels
M-7 train
M3/M1 train, piece of crap, disgrace
ARC projectA new tunnel will be built for NJT trains.
http://arctunnel.com/map/2 tracks are also added. Matter of fact, they are often working(weekends) on the outbound tunnel(towards NJ), which causes most trains to be stopped before the tunnel, to let another train out. And then, inbound trains use the outbound tunnels.
These new tracks are owned by NJT, therefor getting rid of NJT trains waiting because Amtrak has right-of-way in their tunnels.
Eat that all you other stupid cities.
