Train Log

Trains: both seen and ridden

5/10 - Train Day: no trains

Happy national train day today everyone. National train day is celebrated on the Saturday nearest to May 10th so if you think about it today is PEAK train day. It doesn't get better than this: train day on May 10th. Weirdly enough, even though today is train day I had such a hard time tracking down any trains. I went to north station and for the first time ever there were no trains. Not that there were no trains coming and going, but not even a single train was parked at the station. Needless to say I was devastated.

5/2 - FATE (LSL)

With the squad tonight we saw what is probably the rarest scheduled passenger train into Boston, without even trying. We were walking over the cursed highway in Brookline and saw the inbound Lake Shore Limited which is incredibly distinctive because it has two locomotives and is only half a train. I say it's the rarest train because not only does it only come once a day, it also has a 30% on time rate because it starts all the way in Chicago, meaning it's really hard to nail when it's actually going to show up.

3/23 - Train roundup

Sup gamers. I've seen too many trains recently to keep track of all of them in order but I wanted to highlight a couple.

First, the Lake Shore Limited at Boston South Station. You can tell it's the Lake Shore Limited because it has two really loud diesel locomotives (here they are P42s). It's the only diesel powered Amtrak train to run out of South Station. The first car behind the locomotives here is the named 'Elizabeth River' Viewliner single-level sleeper car. This is part of the new Amtrak Phase VII liverys which they're beginning to outfit on the entire fleet. This includes relabeling sleeper cars as 'first class sleepers.' I've got to imagine there's decent demand for an airplane style lie-flat sleeper that's a bit cheaper than a roomette.

3/12 - Train spotting

I was a bit late to the party but around 10:20pm I saw what I believe was the back of an HSP46 on the grand junction. Couldn't tell ya what the rest of the train was tho cuz I was slow to get over there.

3/10 - Recent trains

Here's a quick snapshot at my recent spottings. On sunday I saw yet another blue GP-40 on the grand junction as I was randomly on my way to the store. The best part of weekends, besides the no work, might be the fact that grand junction equipment moves are during the day, so sometimes they interrupt you. Apologies for the far away stalker photo.

I made a trip out to Riverside to ride the longest branch of the green line start to finish (and back). It was pretty fun. After comprehensive review riding entire length of the D line in each car, I have concluded that the Type 7 is far superior to the Type 8. This is important because oftentimes a Type 7 is paired with a Type 8 in a two-car set because the Type 7s are not ADA compliant; so one must choose between the two. The Type 7 has much more seating, better window view options, a real classy look, and I've heard the drivers like operating them better than the 8s.

2/28 - Blue MassDOT GP40

Sup guys. Today I rode over to North Station on my bike. The parking lot there is not only a good spot to watch trains but also a good spot to practice bunny hops on my bike (I'm slowly getting there). Today was a pretty awesome site, MBTA 1136, one of only three MassDOT branded GP40s (there's also 1125 and 1137 per roster.transithistory.org) pulling a passenger service. Lots of times these MassDOT livery locomotives are reserved as work trains, hence why I saw one the other day on the Grand Junction. So today was a special sight seeing it in passenger service. I also took a video of it leaving, but I haven't posted it here because I'm just not sure niels' 'puter is cut out for short form video content like that--I'll leave that to my instagram.

2/26 - Not so typical Grand Junction

I happened to be standing on Broadway at the time of the daily ~10:30 PM MBTA Grand Junction equipment movement. Today was a pretty neat consist, one of the rare blue MassDOT colored locomotives pulling two double decker passenger cars and THREE HSP46s. I've never seen four locomotives on any Grand Junction transfer so that was a first.

2/15 - a nasty combination

I took the SL1 to south station fare free from the airport and the caught the Red Line. I may have cried on the SL1, but only in part because we were stuck in traffic.

2/9 - CRASH

No, not the Charli album—the green line crashed the other day a bit after the snow started falling on the inbound track at the East Somerville station on the GLX. Rumor has it the operator came in too hot, and with the snow, crashed into a train already in the station. Hopefully the driver is okay, I heard she got a bit banged up.
When I heard it was at the East Somerville stop I knew I had to check it out on my run, because it's right on the community path. I went on my nightly run and saw the crews doing their darndest to move the wreakage. I witnessed the moment when they successfully began to tow one of the type 7 cars towards the (thankfully nearby) MBTA maintenance shop.

2/5 - Green line rarity

This is a short one, but on a bike ride earlier today I saw a single type 9 green line car heading outboundon the B branch near Boston University. Normally they come in pairs! (go get ur mans girlie) and normally it's not a type 9! Fun stuff.

1/11/25 - Green line extension

This trip was sorta fun because I went to the MFA with Hannah. Vince and I caught the red line from Kendall on snowy and dead Saturday morning. When the train pulled into the station I saw the first car was #1500 (the lowest numbered on the red line!) and I made Vince sprint with me to the front so we could ride it. Then I caught a green line to Northeastern and walked to the museum. The real highlight though was on my trip back I decided to railfan by riding the entire green line extension (GLX). I live near the Union Square station, so I've never had to go out to the Medford/Tufts direction, so I decided to right my wrongs. I originally caught a googly-eyed Type 9 D line to Union Square but got off at Lechmere to switch to an E line which I rode to the end and back to Lechmere to catch a D back home. At Lechmere the weirdest thing happened. An E line pulled up shortly followed by a D line, then everyone in both trains switched places, including the operators!! Like, huh??? The E became a D and the D, an E. Once on the trolley I ran into Maxine who I hadn't seen in a million years tbh.

On this journey I saw a really weird consist sitting in the Somerville yard with its headlight on. A diesel freight locomotive ready to pull some miscellaneous cars (I think some with MassDot branding?) and a caboose. If anyone knows what locomotive this is pls let me know. I think I've heard of this caboose before.

12/28/24 - Trip back for the holidays

Hey whats up gang. I'm back with some more train trip. So just like most everyone else, I went home for the holidays. In particular there was Christchanukka so I took a festive (not really) Amtrak #67 from South Station down to Moynihan train hall. This is one of those peculiar "night owl" services that Amtrak runs now where you can book an overnight trip between Boston and DC. A trip which in a proper country would only take three hours. Anyways, I only did the Boston to New York segment, but if you were to do the whole thing, you would have a couple hours break at Philadelphia's 30th st. station in the middle of the night. You can either choose to be locked in or locked out of the train during the layover. Anyways, I mention this because the one downside to these overnight "night owl" routes like the #67 is that the cafe car uses a bizzare half cafe-half business class car. There isn't enough cafe booths and they dont let you sit in the cafe car unless you're eating. So for a mac 'n cheese eating cafe car enjoyer like myself it's less fun. The fellow emo cafe car attendant explained this all to me (obsessed w/ her).

Once we pulled into NYC I snapped a quick pic of the famed Budd Metroliner before making it to my parents' in record time from Penn station. I caught all my transfers immediately, including the slightly rare M22!! The Metroliner is cool because it was supposed to be like the American version of the original Shinkansen, but it never really took off like the Shinkansen did. It might be easy to trash on it (american trains hur dur) but it had an operating speed up to 120mph (later 125mph) in 1969! For comparison the Shinkansen 0 was like 135mph. Now, the metroliners have been relegated to cab car status on the Keystone service.

For my trip back to Boston the thorn was consuming the cafe car's avocado chicken salad sandwich (stick to the mac 'n cheese). The rose was riding the train I think, and the bud was coming back to Boston!

12/21 - Weekend of trains

Sunday (ft. Sammy)

I met up with Sammy with the goal of riding ye olde Mattapan high speed line. I started by taking the red line from Kendall to Downtown Crossing to get lunch with Sammy. Then we walked it over to South Station and caught the Fairmount line (the days of Diesel here are numbered!) which we took to Blue Hill Avenue. At South Station they had a hilarious Christmas display featuring a Keolis Christmas tree and Keolis presents (Keolis is the operator for the commuter rail). We did some shopping for only the finest of groceries and snacks in Mattapan, then we caught the trolley which we rode through the snowy landscape to Ashmont. Everyone was taking pics of the ride, it was so pretty. Next, we caught the red line back to South Station. While waiting in Ashmont we witnessed the fabled Red Comet, which unfortunately became a regular red line by the time we boarded. We decided against taking the train to Worcester (another time!) and instead took the blue line to Revere Beach. The pro tip is if you're riding the blue line for kicks, you need to pay again at Wonderland to come back, so you need to transfer at Revere to avoid paying again. Although I wonder what would happen if you stayed on the blue line after Wonderland without telling anyone 🤫. We took the blue line back to Government Center where we rode the green line one stop to Park St. We walked through a red line to cross the platform at park street before catching the Alewife bound red line which I took to Kendall and Sammy took to Charles/MGH. Sammy then did a fliparound and caught one of the new CRRC red line trains back to South Station where they took the CR back to Natick. We had loads of fun and I can't wait for the next weekend pass! Let me know if you wanna join if you're in the Boston area :))

Saturday

I bought the MBTA weekend unlimited pass for the commuter rail and had a blast going round and round the whole weekend. On Saturday I took the green line to North Station with the hope of getting to Rockport, the terminus of the Rockport line. Unfortunately the green line was stuck at Union Square for a little while so I just missed my connection to Rockport. But I was in no rush so I had fun peoplewatching the Bruins fans and chatting with the guy sitting next to me who fed me cheetos and offered me a beer (his favorite type!) to which I declined (the beer, not the cheetos). The next train to Rockport wasn't for two hours, so instead I took the train to Newburyport to Salem, had dinner with the witches in Salem and caught the train to Rockport in Salem. By the time I made it to Rockport it was very cold and dark, and all the fine dining establishments were closing, so rather than wait it out for the next train I decided to take the same train back--but not before making a mad dash to the ocean! The ocean just hits different when it's 10 degrees out. The stars away from the city were beautiful, and looking at the ocean I imagined I could see Africa way on the other side.

12/19 - MBTA Hertiage Loco

A rare instance of the fabled MBTA heritage livery seen at North Station. Normally anything American with a "heritage" descriptor is not something you want to mention but I guess in this case it's sorta cool. I saw this when riding my bike by North Station. I was wondering why I've never seen this one before; I thought it might be because I'm a novice in Boston, but apparently It's a fairly recent paint job. I also didn't know this existed before, so imagine my surprise when I saw it! Always a special feeling.

12/4 - Quick spotting

I was on a bike ride and was lucky enough to see the northbound Amtrak 685 - Downeaster zipping by Ball Square as I was crossing the bridge. Let me tell you, I've never seen the Downeaster cruising like that. I wonder what the speed limit is on that section.

11/30 - Adventure (with Luca!)

BIIG train day you guys. I needed to do some NYC subway riding because I'm barely there anymore :,( so I went on a wide-reaching adventure to find the longest route home from hanging out with Luca. I started at Union Square with Luca, we took an R46 W train uptown, transferred to an R46 Q train up to the 2nd avenue subway extension. Then Luca went home and I caught a legendary R68A Q train back downtown to Times Square where I caught a Wicked themed Shuttle to Grand Central (I am normally anti-advertisment but train wraps especially on short lines like the S are fun). Then I caught an R62A (classic) 6 train to Canal St. where I caught an R160A J train to Essex St. before catching an M14A SBS back to my parents. I feel pretty good about this being the longest route home I've ever taken from Union Square. Last thought: Luca and I discussed and the R68A is better than the R68 because it has only one piece of glass on the rollsign windows vs two on the 68. The operator cab doors also slide instead of hinge which is probs better for the drivers not hitting anyone.

Train journey to "The City" 11/27

That's right. In an unprecedented turn of events I traveled on the busiest travel day of the year to the biggest city in the country. I took a red line (1900 series set) from Kendall/MIT to south station to catch the Amtrak 179 Northeast Regional from South Station to Moynihan Train hall at Penn Station.

The Amtrak boarded so much earlier than usual so I got a good seat on the cafe car to wolf down some nuggets and grind out the last problem on my homework (yuck). It turns out the Amtrak cafe car is the ideal place to do work. For those who know, it's essentially first floor Mudd but even better and with a window view; you're within striking distance of unlimited am-dogs (Amtrak hot dog), you have a big table, you might meet famous Hungarian artists and movie directors who invite you to their house in Budapest, and you're confined to actually finishing your work within ~4 hours before your train gets to the city. You also get to overhear funny conversations between people (potentially government/company secrets if you're on the Acela). This was a weird NE Regional that went between Boston and Philly so the crew change was in New Haven instead of New York like it usually is. The first set of crew was having an amazing conversation about their favorite foods or something: mcdonalds, cheezits, you name it, and sounded like such a good squad to hang out with. The second crew was three men, two regular people and one fascist ("I can't wait 'till January, he's gonna drop the hammer"). Dog. Anyways, they were having some wild conversations about among other things, drugs and Amtrak politics. The fascist did admit that Amtrak will be worse under Trump, but I guess pure hate >> trains for him.

Once we got into the City I caught an R160 E train to West 4th where I had to wait a while for my Brooklyn bound F train. The waiting was good for train spotting. Three different R68 (aka the best trains ever made) D trains and the trash train rolled through before the F did. You know it's a rough night when you see the trash train before your train comes. For those who don't know, the trash train (pictured below) is a big vacuum cleaner that sucks the trash (and rats I bet) out of the tracks to prevent fires. Once the F came it was pretty busy even though it was ~1am. It made me bummed that the T in Boston isn't open that late (because people would ride it!).

Close up with the Downeastah 11/24

On my way back home from Chinatown I wisked by North Station and witnessed both pre-Celtics game hullabaloo and a closeup of Amtrak's Downeaster (the route from Boston to Maine). Normally when I'm here the train on the closest track is an MBTA consist and Amtrak is a few platforms down, so today was a treat! I also saw an inbound MBTA train bringing Celtics fans to the game. I really don't know why the Downeaster always has one Horizons series passenger car (here, just behind the locomotive) with the rest being the more common Amfleet. Trainheads lmk!!

Bike ride to North Station 11/18

My leg was hurting so I couldn't go on my usual run; instead I went for a bike ride to North Station. There's always good train spotting there because you can either post up in the parking lot right next to the tracks (my favorite), or you can go near the draw bridge, or on top of the pedestrian bridge to get a birds eye view. The only bummer is you can't actually go onto the North Station platforms without a ticket, something you can do at South Station. Anyways, I saw some late outbound rush hour commuter trains. Pictured is the MBTA locomotive that was closest to the parking lot. The highlight of this outing was a fellow biker complimenting me on one of my hill sprints: "nice shit man!"

POLAR EXPRESS spotted 11/11

On a stroll with Brandon and his friend Evan, we were treated to not one, but TWO trains. The first was spotted at the Mass Ave. crossing traveling west. The consist was an Amtrak P42 locomotive pulling one "Polar Express" branded Horizons fleet passenger car and a Downeaster cabbage car. I imagine they're dusting off the Polar Express now that Halloween is over. I looked pretty close and am pretty sure I saw Tom Hanks setting up those creepy dolls in the back of the cabbage car. The second consist was three MBTA locomotives. Some of the guys were chilling in the middle one which I thought was a funny choice.