THE HUDSON LINE BEGINS AT GRAND CENTRAL TERMINAL and starts a steep climb in the Park Avenue Tunnel. This part of the line was originally the New York & Harlem in the 1830s. At 86th Street you are still in the tunnel, but you reach your highest point in elevation on the Hudson Line. As you leave the tunnel, nearly three miles from Grand Central, you will ride upon the Park Avenue Viaduct. This structure was completely renovated to allow a smoother, faster ride. On the viaduct you will come to your first station at 125th Street, the main street of Harlem.

As you look west, on the north side of the street you can see the famous Apollo Theatre. After leaving 125 Street, you will cross the Harlem River and divert in a northwesterly direction.

Hudson Line Photos

At Mott Haven Junction (MO), the tracks of the Hudson Line swing off towards the Harlem River. You will pass Yankee Stadium (there is no station there - yet) and follow the river to Spuyten Duyvil. This is where the Amtrak Empire Branch from Penn Station joins the Metro-North tracks. Now your train is heading north along the banks of the mighty Hudson River. This is the former route of some of the New York Central's most famous trains; like The Twentieth Century Limited and The Empire State Express. Try to be seated on the left side of the train to view the Palisades Cliffs on the opposite side of the river. In another customer-oriented improvement, Metro-North has removed many of the obstacles along the river that might block your view.

As you pass through Yonkers, Tarrytown and Ossining (express stops) your train will reach speeds up to 75 mph. South of Poughkeepsie, trains travel up to 90 mph on Metro-North tracks. If that's not fast enough, you can continue your trip to Albany at speeds up to 110mph. What's the hurry? With the views you have on the Hudson Line, you may want to catch a local.

Metro-North's major shop facility is located at Croton-Harmon, at the northern end of third-rail territory. Electric MU's, FL9 locomotives, Bombardier coaches, and other MN equipment are serviced here. There is a highway bridge that brings cars across the yard to Croton Point Park - you can get a good view of the shops from there. It's a good place for photographs, but don't even think of trespassing in the yard. It's dangerous, and illegal. Croton-Harmon is also an Amtrak stop.

(A little sidenote here. The highway bridge that Pierce refers to has, since the time of the writing, been wallpapered with chain link fencing, making photography right near impossible. There is however a chink in the fencing, where there is a stairwell from the bridge for the crew to access the shops. It offers the only really good vantage point for photos in the whole place, but like Pierce said - don't even think of tresspassing - I believe they are very strict about it. I didn't try it). Still they don't mind if you go down a few steps, but DON'T GO TOO FAR!!
Another thing though. If you go to Croton-Harmon, you will find lots of great stuff,Fl-9s, Ex Conrail GPs, Shoreliners, MUs, ACMUs, some of which move very quickly, necessitating quick running (through some tight spots) and swift photo snapping. The temptation to act irresponsibly could be tremendous, and, I'll admit I gave in at one point. You see that photo of the switchers taken through the chain link fence, in 2001? To get that, I had to go across the busy bridge road, to the side with no sidewalk (and lousy visibility, snap the photo and f***ing RUN (That was stupid)!! In short, if you go to Croton-Harmon, plan it a bit better than I did in 2001 and for god's sake, your just going there for some photos. P.S. I planned my trips in 2002 better :-)

Poughkeepsie is the northern terminus of commuter service on the Hudson. The former New York Central station is tucked in between the Mid-Hudson Bridge, the Poughkeepsie Railroad Bridge, the Hudson River, and New York Route 9. The Poughkeepsie Bridge used to carry New Haven freights across the river to the major yard in Maybrook, New York. It was the only Hudson rail crossing south of Albany (not counting the New York tug floats). The bridge suffered a tie fire in 1974 (under the stewardship of Penn Central), and has been closed ever since. There is a switchback interchange that runs from the former New Haven tracks down to the Poughkeepsie yard. While the New Haven main line over the bridge is now gone, several CSX freight customers are still served on these interchange tracks in the City of Poughkeepsie.

The info was (with permission) from Pierce Haviland's website http://www.haviland.org/rail/.