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Friday, February 27, 2015

Gas Tanks and Triplexes Go Good Together


  This picture above, was taken from the archives of the New York Transit Museum.  It was shot in 1942 as part of the xxx collection.  According to the archive, you are looking at a BMT West End (Local or Express?) train consisting of Triplex (Type D) cars at the large Stillwell Avenue - Coney Island terminal in Brooklyn.  You are facing north and the north end (not canopied) part of the station.  You also see a large gas holder that lasted until the 1970's?  This large gas tank is on the banks of the Coney Island Creek and I believe that many toxins are deposited at that site.  The Triplex was one of my favorite types of subway equipment.  Three sections, connected by an articulated unist and with unique signage system.  The Triplex was one of the first BMT cars to have front lighted destination signs and lighted signs on the side.  They had a unique back lighted glass plates that stated "VIA BRIDGE" or "VIA TUNNEL".  The triplex was associated for many years with the Sea Beach Express but it may have appeared on some of the other southern division lines.  It even appeared in 1964 for a few days on the Culver Shuttle with the number 5 in front..  They made interesting train noises similar but not the same as the R1-9 series.  I associate them with the SEA BEACH EXPRESS runs on Fourth Avenue on the express track in Brooklyn while passing the parade of sun lighted and dark sections of the tunnel.  Remember from an earlier post, the medians on Fourth Avenue Brooklyn were wide and had grills that let in a lot of sunlight.  The Triplexes also sported, as I remember a unique white faced route sign that when lighted, showed the route in white print even though the sign was all white.  When this sign was not illuminated, you could not make out the route.   Memories....

Monday, February 16, 2015

McDonald and Church Avenues Brooklyn: 1952

  I came across this picture taken in the Spring of 1952 from the Transit Museum Archive.  You are looking north along McDonald Avenue at the Church Avenue intersection.  Notice the turnoff in this picture, which is turning south west to Church Avenue.  A northbound or eastbound PCC car is shown.  I am not sure if it will continue its' trip north along McDonald Avenue or will turn east to Bristol Street in Brownsville.  According to earlier posted map showing the McDonald Avenue Line (1940-56) by B. Linder( (ERA Bulletin, October, 1977), this turnout curve was installed in the Spring of 1952 and occupies the south west quadrant.  This will allow eastbound Church Avenue cars to turn south on McDonald Avenue and perhaps use the loop near 16th Avenue.  This new turnout will only have a few years service until the entire operation was bustituted in October, 1956.

Some Thoughts from an Old Timer


Hi Folks:

   I have not posted some pictures and maps for a long time because of both hard and software problems... therefore  I would like to apologize to you all.  Currently, I am running out of ideas to post and I do not know how long I can continue this blog.  Now I would like to give you some of my biased options about the current state of affairs of transit in the New York region.

  1. Lack of Interesting New York City Subway Equipment.  Today, for both the IRT and IND-BMT divisions, in my humble opinion, the current equipment lack variety.    On the IRT subway lines, you basically have two types of equipment:  The R-62's and the R-142's, and newer R-188's.  There are two basic types and the newer equipment is similar to the R-142's which is similar to the R-160's on the BMT-IND Lines.  In the "B" division, you have the elderly R-32's which are interesting, R68's which are similar to R46's, some R-42's, and similar R143's and R-160s.  So generally speaking you have two major classes for the IRT and five on the BMT-IND, you have generally seven types of cars.  One person posted me and told me that unlike the old days, we have air conditioned cars and better signage.  This is true but system wide, there is only seven basic types.  I was told... well, in the old days, you had only three basic types:  On the IND, you had the R1-9 series, for the BMT, you had the BMT Standards and for the IRT, you had the Low-V's.  While this is somewhat true, let us pick a year and see what types of cars were around. Let us pick, the year that the Third Avenue El stopped running in Manhattan in 1955.  Generally, on the IRT, you had Low-V's  and there were some variants around.  You had the Steinways, you had old elevated equipment such as the Q types and other types.  You had the post war R-12  to R-15 types on the Flushing Line and I believe the R-17's. On the BMT, you had the BMT standards, some elevated equipment as the "C" types, you had the very different Triplexes. You had some borrowed SIRT equipment on the Culver Line.  Even the BMT standards had two classes as well with different types of roll signs and roofs.  What was interesting, is that you had some IND equipment on the BMT, such as  on the Fourth Avenue Line and you had some modified Low-V to run on the BMT around 1959.  On the IND, you had only two types, the R1-9's and the R-10's.  Some R1-9's had experimental features.  I believe the R-11 experimental cars were also around.  In short, passing and viewing a train yard was very interesting those years.  No one would mistake a Low-V interior for a BMT standard interior.  Today, the interior of IRT cars are similar to the cars on the Lettered Lines.  Yes, the current information systems on board the newer equipment is wonderful , but when the newer R160's style equipment gets old, and the same style would be copied in the future,  riding the subway would be very boring indeed because of lack of variety.  And if the equipment should be vandalized, the boring environment will not be a pleasant one, just as was in the 1970's on the IRT, where the R 17 to R -35? equipment looked alike.

Saturday, February 7, 2015

Great Russian Transit Simulator: Autobus, Tram and Trolleybus

Hi Folks:

  I came across this video by accident.  I cannot make out the Russian title but it was posted in Polish which translates as a "Great Russian Simulator:  Bus, Tram and Trolleybus"


https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=pJeLqjwM5pM


I did not see any trams in this segment and the sounds of the trolleybus is similar to the autobus.  During simulation, speed, acceleration and bending angle is measured, in Russian.  Very interesting.
More to follow..