Where is this?

Well, according to some posts in Facebook's "New York's Railroads, Subways & Trolleys Past & Present" group, where this picture was also posted, this is Parkville Junction on the Bay Ridge line.  The cars are new R46's being delivered.

Stuart

Yes Stuart I saw that post but I am pretty sure they are wrong.  This doesn’t look like parkville

This picture was taken along the bay ridge branch at parkville junction.  The ta would send a engine down. To take cars to Coney Island yards 

The picture was taken before the land  was developed into a car dealership after the freight station burnt down. I know it well I used to hangout here watching trains as a teen

You need to explain where this is. I know, but there are plenty of forumites that don't know where this is. Is it in California, Chicago, Washington DC, The Bronx, Long Island?

eddie g posted:

You need to explain where this is. I know, but there are plenty of forumites that don't know where this is. Is it in California, Chicago, Washington DC, The Bronx, Long Island?

Eddie;

Bay Ridge is a section in Brooklyn, NY. It begins out by the Verrazano Bridge.

bluelinec4 posted:

This pic baffles me   I thought it was the Bay Ridge branch but I don't think so  The Penn Central never touched the delivered cars there   I know Joe Frank could figure it out

Hello Ben

 Yes -- IT IS Parkville Jct and the LIRR tracks and the Culver EL in the background  -- I have been  down and in  there -- the LIRR cut - many times in the 1960's & 70's in that cut

 Here is a current view from an Aerial vantage point --- the building in the left center is still there along with its lower lighter colored one closer to the camera --  this aerial below shows the new supermarket built on the level fill that obliterated the N.East to South curving up-ramping tracks to and from MacDonald Avenue --- the Shop Rite angled  parking lot and driveway are the near approximate alignment where the 2 LIRR tracks came upward in and long wide curve from the cut and turned into the streetcar tracks of MacDonald Ave under the Culver EL . of course the long  upward grade of the two track earthen ramp was all filled in and leveled decades ago.

Very High Aerial image of Parkville Junction area -2016

In the picture you posted,  there was very very long ago a small freight storage yard where all the empty space is to right of the active tracks -- one track has its right edge at the later years paved lot where additional tracks were.

Here is another shot of the current (a bit renovated) buildings at the left of the train by the locomotives

Close view of Two building near Locomotives near the EL in older photo

Parkville Junction (no longer a "rail junction" of any kind, heh )-- looks nothing TODAY as it did in the 1940's thru 1970's

regards - Joe F

Wow... that's in the Midwood section - lived there for a number of years in the 70's & 80's. 

Joe; when I was younger, I lived in Flatbush and we always referred to the tracks that ran under Flatbush and Nostrand Avenues near the Junction as the LIRR Cut. Was that part of the same line that went through Parkville???

Hello Paul

YES -- that was the same LIRR line and open cut -- here are two aerial photo views of the same cut --- one looking N.E. away from Parkville, and one S.W. towards the Parkville Jct side.  New commercial properties as seen were built over the cut with a railroad tunnel provided below them for the tracks (called selling "air rights", heh)

As I haven't been up there in many years -- I don't know the use or active status or condition of the apparently ONE track left in the cut.

BELOW are the two aerial image LINKS  -- when opened you can zoom in, out or move in any direction on those images or get street views...I guess you would know that anyway.

Aerial Photo-S.W. to Flatbush-Nostrand along LIRR Parkville Cut Line-2016

Aerial Photo N.E. to flatbush-Nostrand along LIRR Parkville Jct Line Cut - 2016

regards - Joe F

Thank you Joe   A few things that made me think this wasnt Parkville

Why are there Penn Central loco's coupled to it

Why isnt there a transition car

Why are they on the leftmost track when the interchange was to the right

Where can they be going  I thought they might be heading to the interchange at the Linden shops and this might have been further down the line

The one track left in service has seen alot of activity lately   The Bay Ridge yard belongs to NY/NJ Rail ( Successor to Cross harbor)   One train a day goes down the LIRR bay Ridge branch   The New York and Atlantic delivers cars to one of three sidings adjacent to the Sea Beach portal at fifth ave.  NY NJ switchers shunt cars from 65 st yard where the car floats are to the sidings   The 53 st car floats were destroyed by Hurricane sandy ( The second pic is 53 st float bridge which is gone )  so the 65 st yard is the embarkation point to Greenville  

There have been proposals to introduce new subway service along this line  It would cross brooklyn and queens and end in the Bronx

Ben & Joe;

Thanks for all the great info, not to mention a nostalgic trip down memory lane.

And Ben, if they ever build that subway through the cut, I'd definitely make the trip back to Brooklyn to take a ride - hopefully it doesn't take as long as the Second Avenue Subway   

Happy Thanksgiving.

Hello Ben and Paul ------

Glad you both enjoyed my previous materials and hope the below is interesting also !~

Ben - I know you likely know this info well anyway -- but for the other viewers -- I submit these aerial images and map below

BELOW is a 1954 AERIAL photo showing the (Brooklyn. NY)  Parkville Junction LIRR Yards, Freight house and facilities, and as seen in the yellow circle,  the place where the LIRR track to SBK / B&QT streetcar tracks under the Culver BMT EL over MacDonald Ave. crossed and curved over the  stretch of Avenue I.  Ben, notice all the extra freight siding tracks in the (later paved) open space which was seen to the right of the (new R-44's) seen in your color photo in the LIRR cut where the LIRR crosses UNDER MacDonald Avenue

BELOW is an enlarged image of the 1979 AERIAL Photo showing in the yellow circles, the faint traces of the  single track coming straight past the freight house (left circle) and at an angle straight across Avenue I and the whiteish sidewalk corner-point, and curving under the then IND Culver EL.

BELOW is a current time map of the now vastly re-developed area once containing the vast LIRRFreight Yards and tracks, the freight House and the upgrade ramp from the open cut where it curves (per the red line I drew in) past 19th Avenue and following the alignment somewhat within the new Shop Rite Supermarket paved driveway-lot over to Avenue I.

A large part of the Shop Rite was built over the filled in and embankment-walled former freight storage tracks -- later the  open paved space seen in your color photo with the R-44 (?) subway cars seen in the cut in the PHOTO BELOW

I hope these images gives more precise visual info of the before and after appearance of the Cut, area and former Freight Yards.  A very busy place in the 1920's thru 1970's  !

Regards - Joe F

Ok now that we know where it is   I found this other pic that confirms it

Why are Penn Central loco's involved  Penn Central never went past 5 ave on the Bay Ridge branch   Why aren't there any transition cars   How did they couple I know Penn Central had nothing like this.  This is SBK

Bushh Terminal loco with transition car

Transition car at Parkville