Old New York

Hi Richie

 

See you liked he BMT . Standards running in the 1950s. I made the same trip at times. Would get on at Marcy Ave and change at Canal but would take the express trans from Canal up to Union Square or Herald Square. Sometimes we would walk up  to North 7th street and take the Canarsie to Union Square . The Multi's ran in those days. At Union Square you could take the Broadway Local up to 28th street and walk back to Lionel at 26th street and American Flyer at 25th street.

 

I can remember riding the trolley car across the Williamsburg Bridge to get to Manhattan and Delancey street . The Trolley fare was normally 5 cents but you could board the trolley on the Bridge at Bedford Ave and ride to Delancey for a mere 2 cents . When Buses replaced the trolleys on the Bridge, this service from Bedford ave was eliminated.

I don't think anybody mentioned this already...do people remember Bob Diamond who used to give underground subway tours in Brooklyn and thought there was an abandoned steam locomotive buried down there??? If yes, anyone actually take one of the tours?

 

http://www.nydailynews.com/new...dy-article-1.1227820

 

Tom  

Bob Diamond was certainly a character.  I took the tour of the Atlantic ave tunnel before the locomotive was "found"  ( Still don't think any was found ) It was basically like walking in a sewer.  Nothing spectacular.   Mr Diamond had a plan to reinstitute trolley service in the Red Hook and Boerum hill neighborhoods  He had a number of PCC cars ready to go but the city shot it down

http://ny.curbed.com/archives/...ed_hook_trolleys.php

https://www.facebook.com/photo...635718751&type=1

This is a facebook link, there is one picture. I'm not able to copy the image.

Don

It worked this time.

Don

Here is one from the nytimes paper this weekend. The car jumped the tracks in Brooklyn at Nostrand and Putnam in 1931. They are digitizing old police photos.

I found this one of the Ninth Ave El in Manhattan from September 11, 1905 which resulted in 13 deaths.

 

Tom

Here is another from the paper. The 1955 Pennsylvania Station bombing. Linked to the "Mad Bomber".
I'd never heard of a bombing at Penn Station.

http://unclelew.tripod.com/id9.html

Eight foot law explained.

More on the Eight Foot Law from the NY Supreme Court, Bronx County, relating to vehicles:

 

…This gave rise to the so-called “eight-foot” law applicable to street-cars and which might at the same time have equally been made applicable to other public conveyances.

   The following is from the prevailing opinion…178 App. Div…Second Department, 1917, after the enactment of the eight-foot law.

   The plaintiff left the sidewalk with the intention of boarding a trolley car which had stopped for the purpose of taking on passengers and when within eight feet of the car was run down by the defendant’s automobile. The defendant’s car was in that place in violation of an ordinance of the City of New York and the question is whether under these circumstances, the plaintiff exercised due care in guarding against injury from the defendant’s car entering the prohibited zone. The ordinance forbidding vehicles to move within eight feet of a trolley car standing for the purpose of receiving or discharging passengers, was enacted for the very purpose of preventing such accidents as the one under consideration.

  The question came up whether the injured party should have been more careful…The plaintiff relied on the assurance of safety in the eight feet zone which the law gave, and that reliance is not negligence as matter of law.”  

 

Tom

 

This looks surprisingly similar.

This picture is of the St Johns building  This was the southern terminus of the High Line.  After the High Line was abandoned Merrill Lynch purchased this building.  It was used solely for computer operations  The second floor was entirely a computer room that housed six mainframe computers, 31 large laser printers and a gaggle of disk drives and tape drives.  The raised floor was 4 feet high to accommodate all the bus and tag cables.   Funny thing was that the railroad tracks were still under that floor.  I worked in that building for about a year while I was with IBM. 

Ben,

 

You need to write a book. All the items you know about the history of the NYC Subway system is amazing.

 

K

Before there was an A train to Far Rock or Rock Pk

 

 

The Rockaway line was considered by the LIRR an important operation. When the railroad began its electrification program, this Branch was the first to be electrified in 1905. Electric trains operated from The Flatbush Ave terminal in Brooklyn ro Woodhaven Junction and then South through Ozone Park across Jamaica Bay to the wye at Hammels dividing to go either east to Far Rockaway or West to Rockaway park or Beach 116th street. In the summer, this was the beach resort to be at . There was also a connection north of Woodhaven Junction to the Railroads Montauk Branch. Eventually a line was constructed North to the present LIRR main to join at Rego Park. The LIRR was a six track main in this area.

 

The railroad operated a round robin type of service between Penn station , Flatbush Avenue and the Rockaways. Some trains went via Jamaica, Valley Stream  and the present Far Rockaway LIRR Branch while others operated over the Jamaica Bay trestle. At Ozone park, there were very long platforms and there was a "Change at Ozone Park"  ritual depending on which which Rockaway you were going to . a Brooklyn Train would arrive followed by a New York Train on the same platform. Passengers could change from one train to the other. The same procedure was on the Northbound side as well when heading to Flatbush ave or Pennsylvania station.

 

Before the electrification, the LIRR built a connection to the BRT's Jamaica Elevated near Cleveland street in East New York. The LIRR could access the Broadway Ferry for passengers to cross the East  River . BRT trains used the connection as well to reach the Rockaways. When the Williamsburg Bridge opened at the  BRT extended accross the Bridge the electric LIRR trains also crossed the Bridge to arrive at Essex Street in Manjattan in 1908. The line and service was quickly extended South to Chambers Street and City Hall area . This was LIRR's first access to Manhattan and it preceded the Pennsylvania station route. For those of you who are familiar with the platform layout at Chambers street, there is a center platform between the center tracks which connect to the lay up tail spur. That Platform was used by the LIRR in those days. The service lated until 1917. There were trolleys operated to the Rockaways over these lines as well.

 

The city had long been interested in acquiring the LIRR's Rockaway line as an extension of the city's rapid transit system. Trestle Fires were a common problem plaguing the LIRR and the 1951 fire did it in. The LIRR continued operations on the line to Hamilton Beach and to Rockaway Park via Far Rockaway. This lasted to 1954-55 when the route was acquired for the extension of the 8th avenue subway line. The LIRR continued to serve Far Rockaway from Brooklyn and Penn station as it does today . Service was continued to Ozone Park until the early 1960s . The Right of way owned by New York City remains and is unused. The first 8th avenue trains started service in 1956 and it was a shuttle service from Euclid Avenue. A second fare was collected making this line a two fare line at the time.

 

I can remember riding the LIRR to the Rockaways when I was a kid. Rockaway Playland was a great attraction and remained so after the subway took over.  

Live Steamer and Everyone! Here's my website on the Rockaway Line: http://www.trainsarefun.com/li...arrockawaybranch.htm

 

I was lucky to catch the French Connection tonight and then found some details as to where it was filmed...

Here are some of the details on the subway/car chase footage:

 

"He requisitions a passing car and begins the movie’s famous chase sequence atBay 50th Street Station. The car chase filmed (over five weeks) beneath theBensonhurst Elevated Railway – 26 blocks (count ’em) of Brooklyn’s Stillwell Linefrom Bay 50th Street Station along Stillwell Avenue, into 86th Street and finally right into New Utrecht Avenue, ending at 62nd Street Station..."

 

Details from:

http://www.movie-locations.com...nn.html#.VRyoyJDD9Dt

 

Tom

Wow!!!   Great stuff

This picture is dated 1921.

I hope it follows the content of this picture perfect thread?

 

 

Thank for the cool pics and videos...Everyone

 

K.C.