Harlem Farming. On Wednesday, August 16, 2023, MTA Metro-North Railroad operated an Inspection Train with recently wrapped heritage units MNCW 201 (Conrail/MTA) and 208 ("Beachball") and its 3 office cars. The cars are in fact old, one former New York Central and the other two former Lackawanna Railroad. The locomotives are contemporary models, but "wrapped" in the paint scheme of predecessor railroads. The train headed up the Harlem Line to Wassaic, where the locomotives ran around the cars for the return trip to Grand Central Terminal, giving railroad executives and management the opportunity to inspect many ongoing, completed, and needed improvements on the line. This field is reminiscent of what the Harlem Line looked like in old photos, a rare unimproved area, the crossbucks on a post at a crossing without warning devices like a shortline. When this track was abandoned after the southbound trains passed on March 20, 1972, it was difficult to imagine that on July 9, 2000 service would be restored.
Disclaimer - The location is on private property and accessed with permission.
Not
just heritage schemes, not just commemorative schemes - this album is devoted to some of the world's most interesting paint schemes, past or present.