How Far Do You Think To The Next Gas Station?

Day 2 : 22nd September 1996

“That's not a f*****g Genesis!”

This was a latish “recovery” start and a brisk walk up town with full traps in tow was a good wake up on the way to the must do edifice that is Grand Central Terminal. A wander up the platforms found a very dud Metro North Genesis on the 09.58 to Poughkeepsie but it put us into the Hudson River circuit nicely at Croton Harmon so off we went.

Metro North GE/P32 Genesis at Croton Harmon.

Metro North “real” FL9s get a Poughkeepsie bound service away from Garrison.

At Croton, normality returned as a nice mixed pair of Metro North/ConnDOT “real” FL9s rolled in with the next GCT service and these were taken down to Tarrytown. Aware there was an Amtrak New York service hot on our heels we set up for a phot on the North end of Tarrytown and waited. At this point I have to confess, I barely had the sense to press the shutter as, against all gen, Amtrak FL9 484 appeared round the corner and with a “rumours of my death have been greatly exaggerated” blast on the horn swept past toward New York! Well, there was one still alive then, trouble is with the Amtrak loco whirlpool we’d probably never see it again! Another pair of Metro North real turned up with the next north bound after which a couple of AC FL9 spaceships were caned in before a lunch break of local beers at the Old Station Inn at Cold Spring. From here it was a quick blast on the same dud MN Genesis to Poughkeepsie as we had decided to go up to Hudson and back and scratch in a couple of Amtrak locos.

Amtrak FL9 489 passes The Old Station Inn Cold Spring.

I was just rearranging the contents of my bag at Poughkeepsie when I was alerted by Smurf saying “turn round, your not going to believe this”. doing so I found, joy of joys, an Amtrak FL9 nosing it’s way up the cutting to the station. Excellent, 484 back already, err NO. 488 rolled to a stop and we quickly boarded, so, there were two of them still alive! The run up to Hudson done, we quickly found ourselves heading South again on an Amtrak Genesis to NY Penn where we took shelter in Hulahans Bar to await the arrival of Barry from Nottingham who had just flown in. Meeting and a number more beers done the 2135 Long Island unit got us to Huntingdon for the connecting Geep service to Smithstown and a taxi to our motel (booked in advance this time!) and a deep discussion about how the hell we could re jig our schedule to cover any other “back from the grave” Amtrak locos.

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