Empire City Station Beautification, Part 1

Construction crews are hard at work adjacent the right of way below the Empire City Train Station parking lot access road. Trenches for drainage pipes and electric lines to and from the tunnel adjacent the right of way are being dug in. The Mayor of Empire City has decreed that this area leading from the new bore under Empire City to the newly opened Empire Station be landscaped and beautified as soon as possible. While the whole project is way ahead of schedule with Empire City Station open and operational a full eight months before it's scheduled completion and the parking lots have an 80% availability rate at the beginning of each day the Mayor knows it is an election year and wants to tout this monumental achievement during his campaign.     

 Construction crews are gearing up bright and early

 A NYC SW8 with two gondolas and a shoving caboose is ready to haul the last of the dirt and debris from the tunnel and along the right of way. Commuters are starting to fill up the adjacent parking lots.

 Parked cars and construction equipment sit in the commuter parking lot while heavy equipment digs adjacent the Railroad right of way.

 A view from the street overpass

 Workers working

Construction materials await their call in the commuter parking lot

 Empire City Station has an eclectic fleet this morning. From left to right, Two CB&Q F3s, a NYC E8, a VGN gondola, a Clinchfield caboose and the tail of a New Haven train. The CB&Q locomotives are running off mileage owed as part of the joint NYC & CB&Q motive power pooling agreement. The specially designed and outfitted Clinchfield Caboose was a gift to the railroad from it's creator. 

That's Engineer Sam on the rear step of his custom designed and built Clinchfield Caboose. Sam is busy watching the action as a passenger makes her way down the platform and a NYC Pacemaker truck loads up some express packages into a waiting baggage car.