Good railfanning within 2 hours of FRG?

[mirrodie]

So 10 years ago, the LIRR got rid of its good working equipment and got this crappy diesel trains with are prone to breakdown. (I say this as much of the older equipment is in use on other railroads.)

But back in the day , I loved seeing passenger diesel trains doing 65-75 railhunting down the tracks.

You can't get this on Long Island anymore but where can we spot some fast paced diesel action these days?

[megatop412]

NE Corridor is now totally electrified but you can see Acela on it. They do about 130-150mph. I'm not sure if the entire Keystone Corridor has been electrified yet, I think they use those hybrids on it. As you know LIRR ran beautiful E and F Units east of Babylon back in the day but those are long gone.

[mirrodie]

I rode every piece of diesel territory, from Hunterspoint, Long Island City, Port jeff, MOntauk and Greenport and even the yards. Great times on the Geeps and FAs.
You can see fast electric service anywhere, but diesels at pace are fascinating. I'd even take diesel freight...

[Planesntrains]

NE Corridor is now totally electrified but you can see Acela on it. They do about 130-150mph. I'm not sure if the entire Keystone Corridor has been electrified yet, I think they use those hybrids on it. As you know LIRR ran beautiful E and F Units east of Babylon back in the day but those are long gone.

The exception on the Northeast Corridor is the Bay Head expresses during rush hour, 23xx series trains. Good for 100mph (104mph if you account for the inconsistencies in cab signal governor accuracies), best spot for speed period is Linden. Bay Head express runs can rate anything from a pre-teen PL42AC junker to a 40 year old EMD GP40 variant.

Then of course there's Roselle Park on Conrail. Not exactly a speed locale, but you have four roads on two tracks...NS, CSX, CP, and NJTransit.

[megatop412]

The exception on the Northeast Corridor is the Bay Head expresses during rush hour, 23xx series trains. Good for 100mph (104mph if you account for the inconsistencies in cab signal governor accuracies), best spot for speed period is Linden. Bay Head express runs can rate anything from a pre-teen PL42AC junker to a 40 year old EMD GP40 variant.

Then of course there's Roselle Park on Conrail. Not exactly a speed locale, but you have four roads on two tracks...NS, CSX, CP, and NJTransit.

I knew we would have a real expert on here....Thanks for the info!

[mirrodie]

THanks! Gonna trry looking those up on googlemaps!

[LGA777]

Mario, the speeds are much lower but I know of multiple safe area's in the Bronx where you can view/photograph MetroNorth's Diesel fleet in action, and during the weekday morning/evening rush hours they are very frequent ! As a bonus they have really nice Amtrak sounding air horns !