My Trips and Adventures

This trip I went on was to see the Adirondack Scenic Railroad in Utica, New York. It was Me, Ronnie, and Elliot. There was a lot of stuff going on leading up to this trip. First, Elliot and Ronnie wanted to leave around 3:30 in the afternoon on Friday, but I had work and they told me to take off. I almost did, but when I talked to my family about it, they said that it would not be a good idea to do that because, I just got a job about 2 weeks prior to this and that I should do everything in my power not to loose it. So after much discussion, I convinced Ronnie and Elliot that we would leave after I get out, around 8:30 at night. My father then proceeded to object to this and said that we have to leave Saturday morning. Another thing that was happening was the fact that we were taking my car. There was much objection to this by my family at first but eventually they gave in. Ronnie's car was due for inspection and Elliot's family only had one car at the time. We finally decided that we would leave at 3:30 A.M Saturday morning to get to Utica around 9:00 A.M and come home Sunday.
        We left Saturday at 3:00 A.M and took turns driving. Elliot drove to Suffern, New York to take night pictures. There was an old “Search Light” signal that Conrail put up to replace the old Erie Railroad signals. The “Search Light” Style signals are being replaced fast. We took pictures of that and then we headed over to the Suffern Railroad Yard. We ended up pulling over on the shoulder of the New York Thru-Way and as cars and trucks were racing by. We got out and took a few pictures. From Suffern, I took over to Saratoga, New York at a Bagel place called “Uncommon Grounds”. The Bagels were awesome!From there, Ronnie drove to Utica, NY. Arriving at around 9:00, We got out of the car and it started raining. Once we got or went over to the station and looked around abit and went out to the yard. There were Montreol Locomotive Works(MLW) RS18u’s that were in charge of a passenger train and were due to pull out soon to head over to Thendara, NY. About 30 minutes after we arrived, the train left. It had an old Canadian Pacific horn which was awesome! Once the train was gone we headed over to the storage yard and looked around. After that it was time to head over to Thendara.

        Once at Thendara , the RS18u’s pulled in and we watched that. We got on the train and the train went to Big Moose and had lunch. At the restaurant, they had a Buffet that had nothing I liked, So I politely asked the waitress “Do you guys have any bread, I saw you had sub sandwiches and I was wondering if I could just have the bread.” And with a very snobbish attitude she said “No, you cant have bread. We are not serving that right now plus we have no more bread.” And just as she said that, a man with a trey of cut up sub sandwich bread passed by. I then proceeded to say “Really? You don’t  have any more sub sandwich bread like the bread on that trey.” And even though she saw it she sharply replied with “NO! WE HAVE NO MORE BREAD!” and left. Eventually, Elliot got me some bread, a different bread that tasted like plastic, and I ate some of it with warm butter that had been sitting on the table for a few hours(I would pay for that stunt later that night). Anyways, after lunch we got back on the train and went back to Thendara. On the way back, Elliot and Ronnie went to a private car while I went to the first car on the train. It was awesome. Seeing those MLW’s smoke out the forest was cool.

        At Thendara, we disembarked from the train and watched it head South back to Utica. About a half hour later a second train was to leave from the station and head South a bit and return after the RS18u’s came back to Thendara to head North. We got onto that train which had an Electro-Motive Division of General Motors (EMD) F10 on one end, and an ALCO RS3 on the other. Heading out of the station, the F10 would lead. It also had an awesome horn and our top speed had to have been 30 MPH on the Jointed rail and decently maintained track. The Passenger Cars were rocking pretty violently however, but I was having a lot of fun. Once we were heading back, we went to the car closest to the RS3. Well it turned out that that car was a pile of junk. The doors for the car were welded so that you had to completely open the door to look out, and that’s exactly what we did. I sat on the steps to the car, my feet dangling over the ground that was rushing past them at 30 MPH.

ABOVE: Me in front of the (Left to right) ALCO S1, MLW RS18u, and EMD F10 at Thendara.

        Back at Thendara again, we disembarked and waited for the RS18u’s to come through with a train. After that, we hung around for a while. Me and Ronnie went over to the bar across the street to get something to eat, and right after, we headed over to watch a slide show. We eventually got on the train with the F10 and headed North, Back to Big Moose for a Night Photo shoot. While Elliot had dinner that he paid for earlier in the day, Me and Ronnie sat at another bar and had more Drinks(I had coke, He had a beer). We eventually headed out side and he was showing me how to use his camera. Noticing what we were doing, one of the volunteers watched as he explained to me how to work his camera. He tried to take some pictures of the F10 and the pictures were too dark. The volunteer then said “Lemme see if I can help. She turned on her flash light and he turned his camera to the exposure setting and she outlined the front of the locomotive with her flashlight. It ended up working eventually. He then tried to take some pictures of the SW1(Shown Below) and his pictures were dark again. And again she helped us out. She went to the cab of the SW1 and turned all the lights on as Ronnie took another exposure shot. She turned on the Walkway lights, the head light, and the cab light. We started seeing lightning in the distance and we decidied that we would try to get that in the back ground with the SW1. All those efforts however would be in vain. After about an hour of messing around, it was time for the photo line up. During the photo shoot, It started to rain and people got mad that the guy in charge of the lights was taking his time. Eventually, everyone got their shots and was happy. We all got back on the train and went back to Thendara and Me, Elliot and Ronnie went to the motel room and called it a night.

ABOVE: The picture I took on my iPhone during the Photo Shoot at Big Moose. Note the stars in the Photograph.