Princeton Junction is by far my favorite spot on the NEC to railfan. Fast and unobstructed view of all 4 tracks.
Some history behind the station.
Albert Einstein, who lived at 112 Mercer Street in Princeton, used to enjoy sitting at the station and watching the trains go by. More than once he employed trains to explain the practical effects of his General Theory of Relativity.
In 1965, a prototype for the Metroliner passed through the station at the record speed (at that time) of 164 mph on a short demonstration run. Very few sections of the Northeast Corridor were capable of handling that speed, and most had to be upgraded before Penn Central's Metroliner service was introduced in 1969.
Instead of driving up I decided to do what I usually do. Make it a full on rail trip. Drove to Woodcrest station to hop aboard the Patco HighSpeed line to Camden.
Once in Camden, I hop aboard the lovey Riverline Line all the way up to Trenton New Jersey
Once in Trenton I hop aboard a NJT train to Princeton Junction on tried and true Arrow III's
Once at the station I cross under all 4 sets of tracks of the NEC through the creepy pedestrian tunnel to get to my usual viewing location.
Here we are... The lovey Northeast Corridor!
Comet V cab car
The King of the NEC! AEM-7
My second favorite locomotive NJT ALP-46
Acela roaring by
NJT Alp-44
NJT Arrow III set pulls up as a NJT Multilevel set gets pushed out by an Alp-46
Amtrak cab control car with an AEM-7 in push mode. For those who don't know these cab control cars were converted from the old Budd Metroliners.
The highly underrated HHP-8
Comet V cab control car out in front approaching the station being pushed by an Alp-44
Another Acela blasts by
Alp-46 with a rake of Multilevels approaches
First and only electrical arc caught today. I'm usually good at getting these but today was a rough one.
Double headed!
Some cool history passed by. ALP-46 #4600. This was the very first ALP-46 built as part of the "preseries" for testing and was first tested at the TTCI test plant in Pueblo, Colorado
Time to go home and my ride home is a lovely set of Multilevels
Arriving back at Trenton one last Acela blows by.
