Would anyone happen to know the schedules of any of the freight lines that run up and down the West side of the Hudson River, by the Bear Mountain Bridge? Someone's in control of the tracks, and must know this, right? I keep bringing the kids to watch the trains and missing them.
CSX operates that trackage. They do have schedules for their merchandise trains. Those schedules are for employees and not for the public. The schedules all over the CSX System are changed on a weekly basis in concert with MofW Curfews and other projects that will affect the passage of trains on particular territories.
Even with schedules, trains don't always operate On Time.
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
There's a number of railfan videos featuring the West Shore, now known as the CSX River Subdivision. You can search for and easily find them on YouTube and ask the question to the the posters who will answer you (most anyway) but what I'd suspect is all will tell you what you really need to railfan the River Sub is patience, and lots of it.
This gent's shot quite a few West Shore videos, he's a good guy and I'm sure will reply to you when he can.
https://www.youtube.com/c/LibertyRailfan
And here's a Bear Mountain River Sub video shot by that nice young Mr. New Jersey Transit. Maybe he can give you some pointers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhvgGHplvNE
From what I know the River Sub is fairly busy in the mornings with the "hot" trains and again in the afternoon, but railfanning is a lot like hunting or fishing, you really need patience and a little luck.
For more predictable rail action you may want to go further west to the Metro-North/NJ Transit commuter rail lines. Rail traffic there is scheduled and much more intense, if that's the right word. Or you can ago across the Bear Mountain Bridge and railfan the Metro-North Hudson River Line. Again, fairly predictable action. You'll see Amtrak there as well.
And aboard!
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