Mystery Solved: Link between Church and Ditmas Avenues Brooklyn

The above two pictures were taken off the web at various times.  I cannot give you the source, but my purpose is educational.  Church Avenue station on the Independent Subway System Prospect Park Line opened on March 20, 1933.  If we jump forward to October 30,  1954, we see that the link between Church Avenue and Ditmas Avenue was complete and thus "D" trains from the Bronx were able to reach Coney Island, or what is considered a one seat ride.   This link that enabled the extension of the Independent subway to Coney Island caused trolley service below on McDonald Avenue to be cut back.

In a earlier post, I showed that the incline with the trolley support poles were already built in the 1930s, perhaps at opening day.   The proof of this may be that there is a four track yard partially underneath the incline.  If you look between the tracks as the subway enters the incline, you will see ventilation grills and a street emergency exit just about where the track level reaches street level (West side of McDonald Avenue at the sidewalk).

What happened between 1933 and the pictures above from 1941?  I am not sure but the pictures seem to show that the incline existed without steel grid work with no built connection to the BMT Culver line.  I am not sure if the entire steel structure spanned completely from the end of the incline to the Culver Line in the 1940's   I do know that for many years there was a one track connection (North Bound IND Local Track) to the Ditmas Avenue Station.   Other parts of the steel structure had no tracks on them until 1954.    To be continued.

Thus the probable sequence:

• 1933:  Church Avenue Station and incline (non steel) to street level
• 1941: Steel Girders from street level to just south of curve of structure of Culver Line.
• 1942 - 1954? Steel girder connection between incline steel and Culver Line Structure, Track connection (one track) at the northbound local track at Ditmas Avenue to incline structure.
• 1954:  Incline and steel structure have tracks installed.  New Culver shuttle track built (southbound platform Ditmas Avenue).  Culver BMT line tracks severed from structure at Ditmas Avenue except one track.  Three tracks at Ditmas Avenue connected to four track incline.

SixtyYears Ago

  Sixty years ago, on October 31, 1956, the last city run streetcar ended service in Brooklyn.  Three lines ended on that date:  Two streetcar lines, namely the Church Avenue (35) and the McDonald-Church Line (50), and the Cortelyou Road (23) trolleybus.  In another part of the city, a line over the Queensborough Bridge would operate until 1957.   Trolleybuses ended on July 27, 1960 and electric trolley freight on the South Brooklyn would last for a few more years.  Searching the net to get photos regarding the Church Avenue Line that I  did not see before, I came across the website below called the "TheTrolleyDoger"

https://thetrolleydoger.com


https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=the%20trolleydoger

This website deals mainly (after a brief observation) with Chicago rapid transit and PCC streetcars.  Chicago, the second city in the United States has a large rapid transit system and still has an elevated line in the Central Business District.  This website has very interesting material dealing with the variety that once existed and still exists in the Chicago area.  This great picture below comes from their website and is quite rare.  It is rare because it shows two PCC streetcars at the McDonald - Church intersection sometime between 1951 and 1956.  As stated in the blog, Chicago and New York have similar transit histories.  But I disagree.  Chicago appears to be less anti-trolley than New York.  Chicago's trolleybuses lasted until 1973 with many lines.  New York's (Brooklyn and Queens) trolleybuses lasted until July, 1960.   Chicago kept their elevated lines in the Central Business District while Manhattan lost theirs in 1955.  Downtown Brooklyn lost the Myrtle Avenue Line in 1969.  I believe that Chicago's rail equipment (subway, elevated, and streetcar) was very innovative compared to New York's.  The Chicago PCC cars were huge and had an interesting door arrangement.  Chicago trolley's as shown in the"trolleydoger" website operated in very interesting environments:  Streets, under elevated lines, on bridges and private rights of way.  Similar to New York, Chicago is a big city, like New York and is having trouble bringing back trolleys.  One fact that I did not know about Chicago elevated lines: "...in the central city, the Chicago elevated lines operated over streets... but away from the central city, the elevated lines mainly operated over backyards and private right of ways...."   In New York, including the elevated lines that no longer exist, I would say that the majority is and was over streets.

In the picture above from "thetrolleydodger" website, a southbound streetcar (right) is about to turn into McDonald Avenue perhaps to the 16th Avenue Loop.  To the left, a Bristol Street car is headed east on Church Avenue.  You are facing east on Church Avenue, and you are looking at the Greater NY Saving Bank.

   As I said in the past, after October 31, 1956, the tracks and wires and poles did not disappear overnight.  The wires were up for years and many trolley wire support poles were left but they are all gone, except in some rare places as former trolley loops.   Will trolleys ever come back to Brooklyn?  A group is trying to bring it back but it will not apparently have overhead.  My guess as soon as construction is started,  a cheap Star Trak type of transporter will be made available making rapid transit obsolete.
Tramway Null(0)

Is this Trolley Line Support Pole 120 Years Old?

This photo was taken off Google Maps and shows the intersection of Church Avenue and Schenectady Avenue in East Flatbush section of Brooklyn.  If you look at the light pole and mast to the left of the bakery, you can see the metallic pole with a horizontal attachment to support the power cables.  According to Forgotten New York, this is at the South West corner of Schenectady Avenue and Church Avenues.  As a child, I was able to see the end of electric surface operation in Brooklyn and I noticed that generally speaking, for the few lines that had intact overhead, such as the Church Avenue, McDonald Avenue, Coney Island Avenue and some of the trolleybus lines such as Cortelyou Road, the thick power cables ( not the trolley wire itself) was generally on the eastbound side the street.  If this was the case, this pole which supported the power cables (because of the horizontal attachment with insulators) would have been on the eastbound/southern side of the street, not the SW intersection, but I may be wrong.  It is interesting to note that 39th Street, between 5th Avenue and Ninth Avenues, had power cables on both side of the street:  one set for the Culver Line and one set for power for the Church Avenue Line.  Other cities, from the pictures that I saw, specially Philadelphia, did not "display "its power feeder cables alone the trolley support poles, unlike some lines in Brooklyn.  At any rate, along this stretch of Church Avenue, which may have been called "East Broadway",  received electric trolley service on June 1, 1896.  If this pole was there from the start, which is not easy to tell, because the pole may be a replacement or the original poles were wood in this then rural part of Brooklyn, this pole would have to be 120 years old (1896-2015) and it would span three different centuries.  Of course, the pole did its job for holding the span cables and power supply for trolley operation from 1896 to 1956 or 61 years.  I remember passing through the area in 1970 or so and I remember a similar solitary pole in the same location, but it was in middle of  a block, not at the corner, as far as I remember.

Some Brooklyn Trolley Overhead Artifacts

Readers of this blog know that many times the topic of interest in this blog is the last days of trolley operation, both streetcar and trolleybus in Brooklyn.  Streetcar service ended in Brooklyn in 1956 and trolleybus service in 1960.  For many years after abandonment, entire section of wire and poles remained standing, but surely over the past decades, nothing almost remains.  Yes, there are a few poles around in various parts of Brooklyn, specially near many BMT rapid transit facilities.  I mentioned the horizontal span wire segments along the incline of the "F" route Culver Line south of Ditmas Avenue.  Here is a close up generated by Google Maps:

The view is facing south east along McDonald Avenue.  Notice the green girder with the horizontal insulator and a few inches of span wire.  Former southbound McDonald and McDonald-Church trolleys ran southbound along this wall.  In the incline are four IND subway tracks joining the Culver Elevated south of Ditmas Avenue.  I believe that the incline was built sometime between 1933 and the late 40's.  This green girder has been holding the span wire and segment for a very long time!


 Another area of focus was the trolley turn on the waterfront for the Church and Eighth Avenue trolleys at 39th Street near First Avenue.  Some poles remain and is that the original span wire?  There appears to be two "clamps" for the power cables at the right position.

  Notice the "span" wire between the two poles.  The attachments to the poles do not look original but look at the span wire and what appears to be small clamps.  I believe the view is west towards New Jersey.  This is the present turnaround loop for the B-35 Church Avenue Bus.

Another area that is interesting is near the 62nd Street - New Utrecht Avenue intersection.  Here you had everything: 1)  Sea Beach Express Line in open cut (N train today),
2)  West End Line on Elevated Structure (Present Day D train).
3) West End Trolley under the el on New Utrecht Avenue and
4) LIRR passenger and freight using electric overhead (at least during the freight days) to the mid sixties and now consists of one track that is diesel operated in open cut slightly to the side, and
5) Trolleybus # 23 turnaround  (Cortelyou Road Trolleybus) from roughly 1932? to October 31, 1956.  The poles from the turnaround for the trolleybus operation and probably date from 1932.  The second pole was hidden behind a tree so I did not include it in the picture.

The view is southwest towards New Utrecht Avenue.  You are facing the 62nd Street station of the BMT West End Line.  The concrete building is the entrance to the joint entrance area for both the Sea Beach (N) and West End (D) trains.  You can see the walkway to the elevated station to the right of the picture. Due to budget cuts, the B-23 Cortelyou Road bus has been cut from service for several years already.  It is interesting to note that the line was important enough in the 1930's to be tested with the first trolleybus operation in Brooklyn.  Other areas with trolley overhead artifacts can be found, but they are getting fewer and fewer.

What a difference 88 years make!

In the reworked ARCGIS map below, I added an aerial photograph from 1924 showing the Canarsie Depot and the Hegeman Avenue Private Right of Way.  In the aerial shot, you can see the path of the PRW and it should be contrasted to the line drawing by Bernard Linder.  When we say that we want to reinstate streetcars for the sake of the environment and pehaps as a hedge against Peak Oil, I came to the conclusion that the route of any reinstated streetcar line or light rail line cannot be exactly the same as in the past.  Much of the area shown in the aerial photograph are now covered by multi-story housing developments and hospitals.  Where will the depot and repair facilities of a reinstated streetcar line be located?  It will probably result in a great deal of opposition by people who do not want anything " not in my back yard ".  In the end of the 19th Century, the area shown in the photograph was mainly vacant land and farms and there was no opposition to the new techology of electric streetcars.

Tramway Null(0)

East End of Church Avenue Line with Aerial 1924 Shot of PRW