100 Years of LIRR's Jamaica Station

On October 23, 2013, the Long Island Rail Road’s Jamaica Station celebrated its 100th Anniversary as the main hub of the railroad. Used by 150,000+ commuters daily, the station is the nerve center of the railroad. MTA and public officials cut the ribbon to the newly renovated station and celebrated it with gifts for the station, speeches, live music, and even a cake! I was on hand to witness the reopening of the iconic station and filed this report.

LIRR President Helena Williams led a host dignitaries at the ribbon-cutting ceremony outside the restored ticket office on Sutphin Blvd. 

The November program can be seen at your convenience on YouTube. The report begins at about the 14-minute mark of the program at: http://www.youtube.com/mtainfo


To see some of my other reports, click on the April, May and October 2013 as well as the January 2014 shows!!!

Ringling Brothers, Barnum & Bailey Circus Came To Town

March 3, 2014 - The circus came and went. On a cold, windy day, the Ringling Brothers, Barnum and Bailey Circus rail caravan was on the move from Long Island City to Hempstead LI for the show at the Nassau Coliseum later this week. When the circus moves from city to city, it is normally over a mile long.

 

The photo was taken at LIRR's Queens Village Station. A pair of Long Island Rail Road SW-1001 diesel locomotives that are normally used for switching operations, move the Ringling Brothers, Barnum and Bailey Circus to Uniondale, LI. A week later, the train hit the road again - this time to New Jersey for the final New York-area dates in the region.

Joseph M. Calisi To Deliver Rousing Presentation On Transportation In Italy For The North Jersey Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society

Wednesday, March 26, 2014, Bloomfield, NJ – The North Jersey Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society will host the renowned International Transportation Photojournalist Joseph M. Calisi for a two-hour presentation about mass transportation in northern and central Italy at 7:25 pm. The focus of his Powerpoint presentation are images that were taken during the fifteen-day Electric Railroader’s Association (ERA) ‘European Extravaganza’ this past May, 2012. 

The photography shown is spectacular in that the images are totally iconic of the places where they were taken as everyday tourist locales were included to show that transportation is in the fabric of everyone’s daily lives – in effect, the images themselves told a story that supplemented the discussion at hand.

The official ERA trip began in Torino on May 10^th, 2012 with a welcoming dinner and was ‘bookended’ with a farewell dinner in Rome on May 25^th. The group of 34 men and women chased after high-speed Frecciarossas, trams, ropeways and other forms of Italian mass transportation. The presentation could not only be summed up as ‘a snapshot’ of the trip but as a thorough discussion that included history, economics, artwork and design.

The photographic essay had a special surprise – the public debut of his unique website, JosephMCalisi.com which features iconic images taken in Italy at that time.

The North Jersey Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society is located at:

84 Broad St (Bloomfield Civic Center)

Bloomfield, NJ

(parking is free after 6 pm)

Media editors: Mr. Calisi can be reached for interviews via e-mail at JMCalisi@verizon.net.

Japan Invades Grand Central Terminal

March 6-8, 2014 – Grand Central Terminal hosts various events in Vanderbilt Hall and these three days were no exception. The annual Japan Week exhibit made its way into the grand hall with food (you need to pay for) airline and railroad exhibits.

JR East with their high-speed train models had a booth to show off their latest wares. The Series E-7 high speed train model was on display in advance of its Spring 2014 debut. A video detailing the design – inside and out – made for interesting viewing.

An N-scale model railroad club that specializes in Japan scenery came prepared with a running layout that featured Godzilla at its core. The Japan Rail Modelers of Washington DC certainly made a good accounting of themselves with this varied layout showing hillside and urban areas completely in scale. As an experienced HO-scale scratch-building modeler, it was cause for me to take a long look at this one.

It was interesting not only to see trains this small whizzing around, but these models of Japanese equipment was certainly unique for something on display within the U.S.

Other vendors were also there including Delta Airlines that offered a prize if your entry was chosen out of the many entries. In case you’re interested, I didn’t win and would have to pay for my own flight there should I choose to go there.

All things considered, it was an interestingly-spent lunch hour in one of the grandest railroad structures in the world – Grand Central Terminal.