Where The Beachballs Still Roam. On the evening of November 5, 2022 MTA Metro-North Railroad/Metro-North Railroad 4902 (GP40FH-2) leads NJ TRANSIT Train 1877 over HX draw from Secaucus, New Jersey to East Rutherford New Jersey at sunset with Upper Hack Lift in the background. Under agreements between the various stakeholders, NJ Transit operates service on both on its is own New Jersey portion as well as the New York sections of the Pascack Valley and Bergen/Main/Port Jervis Lines, in exchange for which they receive both payment and equipment from the State of New York. The equipment is "pooled" out of Hoboken, and so is commonly mixed with similar NJ Transit equipment. This GP40FH-2 is part of the fleet of 15 locomotives and 65 cars owned by MTA Metro-North and operated on West-of-Hudson runs. And while there are not "heritage" units within per se, this "beachball" paint scheme if from the last generation of design and was recently applied to a P32AC-DM in East-of-Hudson service as part of Metro-North's 40th Anniversary.
Two rapid transit lines, PATCO and PATH, take commuters to Philadelphia and New York, respectively. Metro North locomotives and rolling stock often show up on NJ Transit northern lines and SEPTA terminates routes in Trenton and West Trenton.
A continuously growing album of photos that IMHO reveal the awesome and seldom-seen beauty of the railroad world from the dimming of day to dawn's early light! From dusk to dawn, trains roll on! (I'm still finding gems of sunset-to-sunrise surprises!)
