Empire Meet On The Hudson Line. Perhaps the only time an MPI GP15D visited the Hudson Line, on April 8, 2018, an Amtrak Rail Train was parked on Track 6 near the MTA Metro-North Railroad Riverdale Station in the Bronx, New York. The train of Continuously Welded Rail arrived in the early morning hours with AMTK 114 (P42DC, GE) solo; it was then sent to Sunnyside Yard to loop and returned with AMTK 579 (GP15D, MPI) added. For a few nights, the rail train would drop its sticks of rail on the Empire Line, which has no sidings, and return here until it was empty. This view from the Rockefeller Lookout in Englewood, New Jersey, catches the Amtrak “Training Train” for the upcoming Grand Central Terminal service, featuring MARC 7745-AMTK 716-AmFleet I Cafe-MARC 7755 passing during the afternoon run. At this time, Amtrak P32AC-DMs did not have emergency escape hatches in the nose. While those were being added, Amtrak leased eight Nippon Sharyo MARC-IIA Cab Cars from MARC to run in front of the locomotives, adding a third point of egress from the operating position. Double-ending the train allowed for twice as much practice for engineers to adjust to how the train would handle on the road. The cab cars were used for a short period in revenue service before being returned to MARC.

Full resolution pics and prints:
https://www.riverrailphoto.com/amtrakgct/e53e108b4