Oak Island and Newark Penn Station

Finally, caught up! This past Tuesday I had to head down to NJ for work, and like I usually do, I took the Acela from New London down to Newark Penn Station. On my way back to drop the rental car off in the afternoon, I decided to check things out at Oak Island Yard just south of Newark proper. Luckily, I wouldn’t have to get off of the highway to do it – my route to Newark Penn took me right over the west end of the yard. And of course, I took a few pictures from the platforms while waiting for my train to arrive.

So, on my way back to Newark Penn to drop off my rental car, I followed my usual path – I-78 east to Route 21 north. Well, 21 heads over the west end of Oak Island Yard, and as I was approaching the overpass, something caught my eye – a pair of CSX engines. So I made my way into the breakdown lane to get a better look. What I saw sitting there in the distance was what looked like an empty rail train, with the Manhattan skyline in the background. So I grabbed my camera, threw the 70-200mm lens on it, and got this shot of the rail train, with the Empire State Building in the background.

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With nothing else going on, and the fact that I was stopped in a breakdown lane on a quite busy ramp, I eased back into traffic, and headed back to turn in the car.

After the car was back in the safe hands of Enterprise, I headed into the station. I had a bit of time before my train was scheduled to arrive, so i headed up to the platforms to get a bunch of shots.

I tried to mix things up a bit this time – I got a few standard shots of trains coming & going, but I also played with blur and pan shots of the trains as they rolled past the platforms. Can’t let myself get into a rut, now can I? Anyways, here’s the shots from the rest of my wait.

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Then I climbed on the Acela, and made my way home. Oh, yeah, as a side note, and I didn’t get a shot of it, but there was an ex-L&N observation car tied to a NJT geep just north of the station. Of course, on the way down it took me by surprise, and on the way back, stupid me sat on the wrong side of the train…oh, well…

Thanks for looking!
Tom