Recently spent a week in New York for a company trade show. Actually, we are in New York for this reason every April and October.

We were showing out of the Penthouse Suite in what was the former Bell Labs building overlooking the Hudson River in Manhattan. So what does this have to with model railroading, real railroading or any railroading?

Even though it was work, work, work from the time I got into New York until I left, I was actually able to do some “railfanning” from our showroom.

So, directly across the Hudson River from us in New Jersey is the former Erie Lackawanna rail terminal. Today it is still used. Ferries from Manhattan dock here and people transfer to the rail lines branching out to the suburbs.

And a little closer to home was the former Highline that runs through lower Manhattan. In fact it cut through the back corner of the Bell Labs building.

First, as viewed from the penthouse:

And then from street level:

And a wider angle showing where the building was built around the line:

The buildings on either side of the Bell Labs building are newer and thus do not have the cutouts for the Highline. I was hoping to carve out a couple of minutes and walk the street to see if there was any buildings around that still had remnants of the line. Unfortunately I didn’t get time to do this. Although it does sound like we will be showing there again in the fall. Maybe next time I can track down a little more of the line.

It was a lot of fun to see a little railroad history as I was working in New York.

Next time a little more traveling, til then…