From Pennsylvania to Penn Station, NY

Last week, after attending a friend’s wedding in Philadelphia, I had a chance to take the rails to New York City. Here is the connecting  SEPTA electric MU train (ex-Pennsylvania Railroad Budd Silverliner II cars) waiting at the 30th Street-Station in Philadelphia. 

Notice the nice web of steel girders and the “ADA warning band” on the train platform.

The 30th Street classical columns and clock face on the east side conceal an art-deco interior. The tracks run under this Pennsylvania-Railroad-designed structure.

Amtrak’s Keystone train took me to New York's Penn Station, which now looks like an airline terminal. I returned on a late-running Acela Express Train, No. 2257. On the left of the train board my train is currently listed as “On Time.”

Hopefully the construction of the new Penn Station will replace this low ceiling and uninspiring environment.

Here is Grand Central Terminal, an essential stop on any rail fan's visit to NY. It’s indeed grand, breath-taking and very majestic. Behind the terminal you can see the Met Life (ex-Pam Am) building.

Inside Grand Central, the mural of the night sky in green-and-gold (barely visible at the top) is painted from the perspective of God’s view looking toward the earth. In the center of the Main Concourse is the famous four-sided clock at the information desk.