Allow me to preface this by saying that I wrote the vast majority of this last Sunday night on the long ride home, and I am not deliberately ignoring Friday night's unfortunate turn of events on the New Haven line, which is my home line of Metro North. It obviously sucks for all involved, and it is utterly miraculous that there were no fatalities. Healing thoughts with all who were affected, be it crew (luckily nobody that I personally know who works for the railroad was on either train), passengers, and first responders. (In case you didn't know: a Metro North train derailed and was struck by a train going in the opposite direction, and upwards of 60 people were injured.) All I have to say is that all of the FRA naysayers need to stick a sock in it, because if either train consist was comprised of the older cars, I doubt that the casualty count would be as small as it is. Also, I was on car 9310 on the way to the Centennial Parade of Trains, and it was one of the cars involved in the event. I'm a little creeped out to be honest.
Now back to your regularly scheduled programming:
Grand Central Terminal's centennial year is still being marked with special events, and last weekend was no exception. Sprawled across 4 tracks in the terminal, the Grand Centennial Parade of Trains was the largest assembly of privately owned rail cars in Grand Central Terminal. (Clearly it blew 2012's National Train Day display, provided in conjunction with Amtrak, out of the water, and last year's display was pretty impressive.) Actually, I wish Amtrak teamed up with Metro-North for this year's activities, since Amtrak did run out of Grand Central Terminal between its inception and 1991, when the Empire Connection was finished and all operations were consolidated to Penn Station - they're a part of the first 100 years of the terminal...but I digress. (I wanted to look at some Amtrak equipment, so sue me.)
Now back to your regularly scheduled programming:
![]() |
| The program of events :) |
I didn't go to the festivities Saturday - and Saturday was National Train Day, so revoke my railfan card plzkthx because obviously I suck ;) - but I did go Sunday. I'm glad I put it off a day, because some of the stories I heard about 2+ hour waits to see some of the equipment was DEFINITELY offputting. I got to GCT at 9:50am, met up with the person I was going with, and we pretty much waltzed right in. With the exception of an old Pennsylvania Railroad mail car, nothing on the 1st set of tracks was anything you could go on (with the exception of an M8 pair - which was the same thing I rode to GCT in so that wasn't a necessity to say the least) so that went pretty quickly. We waited in line for MAYBE 20 minutes for the Hickory Creek - which was present last year for NTD - but absolutely gorgeous and worth waiting in line for. Let me tell you, if I ever win the lottery, I'm going to charter a train with that on the end and ride it across the country...
I noticed that in the "aftermath" so to speak, of last week, people were criticizing the historical relevance of some of the stuff there, and the accuracy (protip: New York Central never actually had any FL-9's), but it is quite the undertaking to even put on an event like this, so I think everyone should be pretty grateful for what was offered for presentation. My only gripe is that the place that they procured the "New York Central" FL-9 (painted as such back around the turn of the millenium in celebration of the New York Central's 150th anniversary) does have a New Haven FL-9, but I hear rumblings that this silly painted one was in better condition to traverse the rails to get to New York. Oh well, I guess.
Overall, I think that the Pennsylvania Railroad post office car provided by the Danbury Rail Museum was probably my favorite of everything featured though.
Another nice touch was that New York City transit ran a train of old cars on the 42nd Street shuttle in conjunction with the event. As I posted back in December, I thoroughly enjoyed my first nostalgia train ride, so the shuttle was definitely a huge bonus in my book. The consist was an R-12, an R-15, and an R-33 from the New York Transit Museum. Again, it was a lot of fun to zip between Grand Central and Times Square (multiple times, because all the cool kids have to ride in each individual car) in the old cars compared to the relatively sterile experience of the modern-day stuff.
Below is a video of the view out the front of the R33 between Grand Central and Times Square - watch closely and you might see a cameo from a certain Railroad.net forum admin ;) Also, excuse the auto-focus issue. Phone does better quality video than still camera, but phone likes to auto-focus on things it shouldn't...
Here is a slide show of the pictures I took, again, like last year I'm angry at how they came out. My camera lacks in the "performing well under low light" department.
Did you go to the Grand Centennial Parade of Trains? What was your favorite of the equiment displayed?
| Historically inaccurate? Yes. Still a nice display, and it did used to run to GCT |
Overall, I think that the Pennsylvania Railroad post office car provided by the Danbury Rail Museum was probably my favorite of everything featured though.
Another nice touch was that New York City transit ran a train of old cars on the 42nd Street shuttle in conjunction with the event. As I posted back in December, I thoroughly enjoyed my first nostalgia train ride, so the shuttle was definitely a huge bonus in my book. The consist was an R-12, an R-15, and an R-33 from the New York Transit Museum. Again, it was a lot of fun to zip between Grand Central and Times Square (multiple times, because all the cool kids have to ride in each individual car) in the old cars compared to the relatively sterile experience of the modern-day stuff.
Below is a video of the view out the front of the R33 between Grand Central and Times Square - watch closely and you might see a cameo from a certain Railroad.net forum admin ;) Also, excuse the auto-focus issue. Phone does better quality video than still camera, but phone likes to auto-focus on things it shouldn't...
Here is a slide show of the pictures I took, again, like last year I'm angry at how they came out. My camera lacks in the "performing well under low light" department.
Did you go to the Grand Centennial Parade of Trains? What was your favorite of the equiment displayed?




