Fall foliage day trips (Princeton)

[jld]

Next Monday heading out at an obscene hour from NYP to take in this college town via Amtrak Keystone/Dinky and out later that day from PCJ by NJT/SEPTA en route to Philly (unfortunately, no multi-city trip to PHL due to dismal Amtrak hours at the station). I was wondering if anyone had pointers or points of interest about the campus and nearby town or the trip, if undertaken before.

I'd also be keen on hearing of other NEC day/weekend trips that are worthwhile since I've exhausted the "major" cities on the route.

 

[Nathanael]

Dinky station was closed by Princeton U in favor of a further-out station, and you'll have some long hill walking to get anywhere. :-(

 

[PRR 60]

Dinky station was closed by Princeton U in favor of a further-out station, and you'll have some long hill walking to get anywhere. :-(

There is a free shuttle from the temporary Princeton station to town.

 

[jis]

I'd also be keen on hearing of other NEC day/weekend trips that are worthwhile since I've exhausted the "major" cities on the route.

If you are not constrained to traveling only the NEC and only by Amtrak then the possibilities are quite a few.
1. Explore Delaware Valley by the NJT RiverLINE from Trenton to Camden. Stop for lunch and exploration at Burlington. Explore the first railroad (Camden and Amboy) in Bordentown. etc.

2. Explore possibilities along the Amtrak Empire Corridor and MNRR Hudson Line. My favorites are Peekskill (MNRR), Cold Spring (MNRR), Rhinecliff (Amtrak) and Hudson (Amtrak).

3. Explore Danbury and the rail museum there (MNRR)

4. Many wonderfulo possibilities on Long Island - Port Jefferson, the Hamptons, Amagansett, Bay Shore ferry to Fire Island etc.

5. Weekend trips:

o Montreal (Amtrak) with possible side trip to Quebec City (VIA) in a long weekend

o Burlington VT (Amtrak)

o Cumberland (Amtrak and Thruway) and the Western Maryland Scenic train

o Altoona (Amtrak) and Horseshoe curve. requires local car rental

o Lancaster (Amtrak) and Strasburg requires local transportation

o Atlantic City day trip or weekend (Amtrak + NJT)

o Saratoga Springs (Amtrak) and S&NC to North Creek

o Charlottesville (Amtrak)

o Utica (Amtrak) and Adirondack Scenic to Thendera and back. (long weekend)

and I am sure a few more that others can think up.

 

[ne52]

The campus itself is beautiful and worth walking around. Someone there (or online) can give you more details but Nassau Hall has very interesting history. It was fired on during the Battle of Princeton during the Revolutionary War. Washington led that battle in the week following the famous Delaware River crossing. The same building was the site of the Congress for a very short period after the Revolutionary War.

Nassau Street is also the town's main street and nice to walk around.

The university runs a system of buses that run circular routes. I don't believe you need to be affiliated with the school to use them.

 

[jld]

Thanks, all this information is very helpful--and figured there'd be great history to uncover there. It's a travesty about the Dinky from what I'm reading about it, but will try to catch it at least one way. If there's time (and enough courage on my part), maybe I'll risk the Riverline transfer to PATCO/Philly in Camden in lieu of the well-worn NEC routing. h34r:

I agree t that the LIRR Port Jeff line has some fantastic spots, as does MNRR's New Haven line along the sound. Once the current ConEd snafu sorts out, I'll be sure to finally do the Danbury connection to the museum.

Last spring, I did the Hudson line up to Poughkeepsie for the "FDR" express that the NPS was running to Hyde Park, and that was a great trip so I was hoping to re-live it here again. I'll also have to look into some of these other quaint towns along the Hudson.

P.S. when I used to live full-time in Philly, the Chestnut Hill and Manayunk SEPTA stops are also a great reprieve from city life.

P.P.S. @ JIS, off the top of your head, do you know if you can step off briefly from the Riverline and re-board in one of these towns, or should I just get a second ticket then?

 

[Train2104]

P.P.S. @ JIS, off the top of your head, do you know if you can step off briefly from the Riverline and re-board in one of these towns, or should I just get a second ticket then?

RiverLINE is a POP system. The one way fare of $1.50 gets you 2 hours of rides. Once those 2 hours are up, you'll have to buy another ticket if you want to stay in the system (train or station). I'm pretty sure you can ride as much as you want within those 2 hours though.

 

[SubwayNut]

NJTs three light rail lines are POP for unlimited rides for the diration of the ticket although the amount of time varies by system. They operate on a buy at a TVM and then stamp at a validator system.

The time

-RiverLine 2 hours

-Hudson-Bergan 90 minutes

-Newark City Subway 60 minutes

The river line and Newark I believe accept each other's (not validated yet) tickets since they both cost $1.50. HBLR has its own tickets since it has a higher fare in NJTs convoluted bus and light rail fare zone system of $2.10.

 

[Jld guest]

The trip was a success, even though I chickened out of the camden river line transfer for Patco, sticking with the slightly more reputable SEPTA,on which I was approached by Jesse pinkman but no more nefarious characters.

Even better was the cold spring ny trip, with a great vista at boscobel after stumbling through the West Point foundry preserve. The depot restaurant (where GW sipped from the cold spring and gave the town its namesake) and other shops were charming.

I'd like to do another Hudson valley excursion. Peekskill near the train station didn't look immediately appealing, but I was wondering about mobility at rhinecliff. Is that area best done overnight/by car/or otherwise necessitating taxi? Thanks!

 

[SubwayNut]

Rhinecliff has nothing. Hudson is a nice little town with plenty of restaurants and art galleries. I've broken up trips to and from Syracuse a few times there stopping for lunch and an extra 100 AGR points. Had an excellent 2 hours there last week (will definitely not bother with Rhinecliff again, the only Restaurant around looks expensive, in a hotel).

 

[jld]

Rhinecliff has nothing. Hudson is a nice little town with plenty of restaurants and art galleries. I've broken up trips to and from Syracuse a few times there stopping for lunch and an extra 100 AGR points. Had an excellent 2 hours there last week (will definitely not bother with Rhinecliff again, the only Restaurant around looks expensive, in a hotel).

Thanks, this saved me an uneventful visit to what google maps seemed also be suggesting was a pretty desolate station. I've stopped in Hudson when visiting the Catskills before and will likely do it again as it is also quite a charming town. I guess maybe I'll branch out now to some of the other routes, or just go further up to Glen Falls or Saratoga Springs.

P.S. maybe I'll find some other ideas from your photo-logue.

 

[jld]

I'd also be keen on hearing of other NEC day/weekend trips that are worthwhile since I've exhausted the "major" cities on the route.

If you are not constrained to traveling only the NEC and only by Amtrak then the possibilities are quite a few.
1. Explore Delaware Valley by the NJT RiverLINE from Trenton to Camden. Stop for lunch and exploration at Burlington. Explore the first railroad (Camden and Amboy) in Bordentown. etc.

2. Explore possibilities along the Amtrak Empire Corridor and MNRR Hudson Line. My favorites are Peekskill (MNRR), Cold Spring (MNRR), Rhinecliff (Amtrak) and Hudson (Amtrak).

3. Explore Danbury and the rail museum there (MNRR)

4. Many wonderfulo possibilities on Long Island - Port Jefferson, the Hamptons, Amagansett, Bay Shore ferry to Fire Island etc.

5. Weekend trips:

o Montreal (Amtrak) with possible side trip to Quebec City (VIA) in a long weekend

o Burlington VT (Amtrak)

o Cumberland (Amtrak and Thruway) and the Western Maryland Scenic train

o Altoona (Amtrak) and Horseshoe curve. requires local car rental

o Lancaster (Amtrak) and Strasburg requires local transportation

o Atlantic City day trip or weekend (Amtrak + NJT)

o Saratoga Springs (Amtrak) and S&NC to North Creek

o Charlottesville (Amtrak)

o Utica (Amtrak) and Adirondack Scenic to Thendera and back. (long weekend)

and I am sure a few more that others can think up.

I thought i'd just update this to say that I did the danbury museum last week and they have a fantastic railyard full of equipment to tour and the volunteers were really informative. moreover, the foliage and ponds along the danbury connection was extremely scenic; i think it has just about hit peak season.

later in the weekend after touring New England and criss-crossing the vermonter's route by car, jumped aboard the ethan allen from rutland to round out the trip on amtrak, though things seemed far more bare up there. definitely a large contingent boarding from Saratoga Springs, so on account of that not surprised NYS pitched in to keep this VT train alive on its current routing. actually, the adirondack was so late it made stops just 5 minutes before us, holding us and a freighter up by half an hour.

i'll do a tarrytown visit soon to see Sunnyside/Lyndhurst via MN-HL now that the foliage change is creeping closer to the city. these were great suggestions