Old New York

We spoke before about the Trolley Terminal at Delancy and Essex Street where the B&QT cars terminated after coming over the Williamsburg Bridge on trackways on the South Side of the Bridge. There was also Trackways on the North Side of the Bridge. These were used by cars on the Metropolitan railroad and later its successor nNew York Railways. Cars operated fro Washington Plaza on the Brooklyn side of the bridge and ran as follows.

Two north-side tracks carried Manhattan streetcars:

    Grand Street Line, 1904-1932

    Post Office Line, 1919-1932 (dowtown manhattan Prk Row area)

    Seventh Avenue-Brooklyn Line, 1911-1919

    8th Street Crosstown Line, 1904-1911

    14th Street-Williamsburg Bridge Line, 1904-1911

    Fourth Avenue and Williamsburg Bridge Line( To Grand Central), 1904-1911

This company was taken over in the 1930s by the Fifth Ave Coach Companywhich replaced its street car routes in Manhattan with Buses. You might remember the distictive double decker busses used on the 5th ave route of that company .

Some photos of this service on the Brooklyn side for your viewing.

And of course , the distinctive double decker on 5th ave in manhattan

Ben, if they want to make that terminal a supermarket why don't they just leave the tracks in place and people could use little miniature locomotives and cars instead of shopping carts to move groceries around the store! LOL!

This is a great thread, thanks guy's

Tin

Hi Folks,

FYI: Here is a neat blog that has nothing but photos of Old New York.

http://onceuponatown.tumblr.com/archive

Ben showed us some models of the IRT Worlds fair Steinways and the BMT Triplex cars at the NJ Hirailers in another post in this section. So here are a few photos of the real thing. The IRT cars, a fleet of 50 handled the worlds fair express service on the IRT Flushing Service in 1939. They remained in service on this line for 10 or so years beyond the fair until the arrival of new cars in the 1949-50 period. They then worked various IRT lines in Manhattan and Bronx and closed out the era on the Third Ave El in the Bronx. The Triplexes arrived on the BMT in the 1920s worked the routes on the Southern Division and were in service into 1964 or so.

Here is a Worlds Fair consist on the Flushing Line ay 52nd st in 1939

A Triplex at Queensborough Plaza in the 1940's . The North Platforms are still in use

We Know the D Types and the worlds Fair cars could be seen at Queensborough Plaza together in the 1939-1949 time frame but havent seen a photo. So Here is a photo from the 1964 Worlds Fair service with the Triplexes arriving at Queensborough Plaza, south platforms on the left and a r-36 Worlds Fair Blue Train on the right

Here is a pic of the last Steinway that I think is in existence  Its sitting in the 207 st yard

This is a great thread! Love the pictures and history.

Ben

Its amazing it even exits . There were only 50 of these built. The intent was to use these cars for the IRT express service to the Worlds Fair. In those days , the Flushing El was Jointly Operated in Queens with the BMT. The BMT Worlds Fair Service was provided by the Q types which the BMT rebuilt from open platform BU cars, known as gate cars. Both the IRT Worlds fair Steinway cars and the Qs worked this line through the 2 years of the Worlds Fair and to 1949 when the joint service was ended. Interestingly.

Both cars went to work on the Third Ave El .  The Q cars went over about 1949-50 running the Manhattan express service.   When the Third Ave El was cut back to the Bronx only north of 149th st, the IRT Worlds fair Steinways found their way to that line, as well as the Ninth Ave 155th st Shuttle and finished out their careers on the third ave El. The Q's came back to the BMT working the Myrtle Ave El until the El closed in 1969. There was a six car set that was painted in the 1939 Worlds fair Orange and Blue and ran a commemorative run on the Flushing line in 1964. It remained in those colors until 1969. Not sure if that the one in the museum.

Third ave El being torn down

Here is a pic of the Q cars at Broadway Junction  The flyover that they are on is fom the Canarsie line  Did they run there also?  Looks like the roofs were already lowered too

I never knew Forneys operated on the Brooklyn bridge also

This is a great pic  Sand street

I think the photo of the El removaal is in the Bronx so it could be from the time when the last piece of the 3rd ave was finally closed.

The Picture of the Q's is interesting. When they returned to Brooklyn from the Third Ave El, The Fulton street El service from Eastern parkway was was already removed with the El in Queens having been tied to the IND A line to the Rockaways and the Lexington Ave El was also long gone. These cars I believe only worked Myrtle Ave. Service. They still had high clerestories when they returned and the cars were painted a maroon body with alluminum roofs i believe from photos i have seen.  These Q's in this photo I am thinkink may be on some sort of a fan trip.Operating on this flyover i think was popular for fan trips in the 1960s

The Brooklyn Bridge service was originally a Cable railway. It soon became a part of the  Brooklyn Els . These were not electrified until about the turn of the century so therefore the Forney. The Long Island RR had a connection with the El at Flatbush ave and some trains ran from Flatbush Ave to Sands street pictured in the photo. Not sure if LIRR went over the Brooklyn Bridge to park Row. We know that the LIRR did operate over the Williamsburg Bridge into Manhattan first to Essex Street and eventually down to Chanmbers street. The Center platform long out of use was I think for LIRR service at Chambers street. This service began in 1908, two years before LIRR service to penn Station was opened.

The photo in the train shed is i believe Park row in Manhattan and not Sand Steet. If you look to the far end, there are two trains in the station and there appears to be a Glass Wall behind them. This terminal was expanded on manhattan so that it reached accross park row as BRT service was expanded. The photo seems to have what appears to be  a date annotation on the bottom right of 1923 or 1933. I think it was taken earlier than that judging by the dress of the person in the foreground on the platform.

Here is a shot of the Park Row terminal from about 1905. In Bens interior photo, we can see that the platform visible in the below photo had been closed in. I think the structure was expanded to the extent of stair cases in the foreground.

Here is a new one  Anybody want to guess where

No clue, but the second boxcar in the foreground looks like a B&O wagontop. New York is my favorite place in the world; the architecture, the parks, the rail system,the people, the roads not so much!

The cobblestones look familiar.  I think its somewhere on the west side of Manhattan.  Between the meat packing district and the garment district.

Richie

Hi Ben

I am thinking that here we are at the Baltimore and Ohio  W 26th street yard  and terminal at on West 25th street looking east. The cars were deliverd by float at W 26th st, crossed under the  West side highway and fed the facility between W 26th and West 24th street. Your photo looks like war time, early 1840s, maybe a sunday morning. Here is another one of the facility and a modelers track plan.

Close   Its date said 1939   The shot is of 33rd street looking east from 11th ave

Interior of a Staten Island car

And another shot of the Perth Amboy ferry

Wow!!!!!  Spectacular pics!!!!!

Peter

Ok Ben you said 1939 looking east on 33rd st. The PRR had a W 37th street yard running from W 37th to West 39th and eventually west 40th. I found a yard photo looking east on 38th street and I cansee the building on the right in your photo with the word MILlS on it .From the attached photo of the PRR yard, this looks like the same spot.So I stand corrected, we are on W 38th street looking east.

That is a great Photo of the Tottenville ferry slip. You can see the boat heading to perth Amboy. Its a good size boat, larger that i remember as a kid.