Of Horsecars, Extinct New York Streets: The East Belt Line

Source: "East Belt Line" by B.Linder in "The Bulletin", New York Division, Electric Railroaders' Association, Vol. 46, No. 11, November, 2003, pp. 2-5.


  The information provided by Bernard Linder (op. cit.) tells us about a very long horse car line whose running time in 1888 was two hours and 16 minutes.  The exact starting date is not known but it was known that in 1869,   the line ran from South Ferry to East 59th Street and Fifth Avenue and was called the East Belt Line.  It was extended several times including west to West 54th Street and Tenth Avenue and in 1898 to East 125th Street and First Avenue.  In 1913, partial battery car operation was from East 59th Street to Grand Street.  On July 1913, the last horse car ran and the line was fully battery car operated.  In 1914, the line was divided into two parts; South Ferry to Grand and Goerck Street and Grand and Goerck Streets to East 59th Street and First Avenue.  In 1917 the line was again through routed and on June 3, 1919, after a cutback, the line was discontinued.  The line was one of the first to go in Manhattan and was never conduit operated.  Parts of the line ran in commercial districts where trucks  were used.  These heavy trucks damaged the tracks and the Third Avenue Railway could not afford to renew or upgrade the tracks to conduit operation.  Also the heavy trucking operation on many of  the streets caused running time to be slow and thus was not attractive to passengers.

  Goerck Street:  Where did I hear it before?  My father mentioned Goerck Street that existed in the lower east side, along with other strange streets such as Attorney Street.   According to the article above, the following streets on the attached map are no longer "on the map":  Cannon Street, Goerck Street, Corlears Street, Front Street, Oliver Street, James Slip and Burling Street.  Many of the old time lower east side streets were destroyed when urban renewal replaced these streets with new parks,  housing developments and highways.  Goerck Street kind of sounds nice.

 

 

Manhattan's Avenue C Streetcar Line

Source: Linder, Bernard, " Avenue C Line - 1919 ", In  New York Division Bulletin, Electric Railroaders' Association, Vol. 31, Number 8, August, 1988, pp.4-5.

According to the material supplied by B. Linder, horse cars started running on this line in 1870.  There were many route changes to this line throughout the years, but it basically went from the Desbrosses Street Ferry on the Hudson River at West Street to First Avenue and 24th Street where there may have been a ferry to Long Island City.  In 1916, battery cars replaced horse cars and by September 21, 1919, the line was replaced by buses.  So we can see that this line was never equipped with conduit trackage.

Unusual Manhattan Streetcar Line - The Avenue B Line

Source:  B. Linder, "Avenue B Line", New York Division Bulletin, Vol. 44, No. 11, November 2001,  pages 2 -3.

I came across this interesting map about an obscure streetcar line in Manhattan called the "Avenue B Line".  According to what is in the fine article and map written by Bernard Linder, I found these interesting points dealing with electrified and non electrified street trackage that our readers may find interesting.

• The original franchise was dated April 17, 1860 but due to complications, horse cars have been running on a similar route since 1869.
• On October 1, 1911 battery cars replaced horse cars.
• From 1913 to 1924 there were many extentions and cut backs to the route.
• Buses replaced street cars on July 30, 1932 and on the next day, the Avenue B & E Broadway Transit Corporation took over.  I remember the smaller fishbowl GM private buses running on this route.
• On March 29, 1980, the Manhattan and Bronx Surface Transit Operating Authority  took over this route ( part of the New York City Transit Authority).
• On September 13, 1987 the route was extended to W. Thames Street and South End Avenue near Battery Park City near the former World Trade Center.
• On the map, notice that non electrified track is indicated by a bolder black line.  This indicates that sections of the map where used by both traditional conduit - plow street cars and battery cars.  According to the article, Battery Cars 1152 to 1201 were built by Brill and were assigned to the Dry Dock Lines, of which, the Avenue B Line was a part in 1911.
• The Avenue B Line was always two-man operated cars and this implies that the othe battery operated lines were one man operated cars at some point.  On the Avenue B Line which shared trackage with conduit operated cars, a special procedure had to be followed.  At junctions, a special spring operated switch had to be set.  The default position was  for the operation of conduit cars.  If a battery car needed to switch unto non conduit trackage, the conductor had to leave the car and hold a lever as the battery car passed over the switch.  When the car passed the switch, he released the lever and the switch was reset for conduit cars.  If the procedure was not followed and the switch was not reset, a conduit operated streetcar would enter trackage where there was no conduit and the plow would have been sheared off causing a big interruption in service.
• The line had five owners between 1860 and 1932, the first was the Dry Dock, East Broadway & Battery Rail Road Company which I heard has an interesting history.

Unusual Trolley Operations in Brooklyn

In noticed that one person is interested in Manhattan Beach Trolleys.  I was very lucky and I found an interesting item in my archive.  Of course, we are thankful to Bernard Linder for providing this source material.  I am sorry that I cannot provide a scan of the map at this time. 

The material comes from the New York Division Bulletin for December, 1984, Vol. 27, Number 12. and is titled "The Marine Railway Company" is found on pages 2 and 3.  The essential points are:

1. The companies that ran this railroad were not your typical Brooklyn streetcar companies and were over three time periods:  Manhattan Beach Company, Manhattan Beach Estates and Manhattan Beach Park, Incorporated 1918-1923.
2. From 1906 to August 7, 1913 a service was provided using trolley cars between Manhattan Beach and Brighton Beach using a private right of way that was formerly used by steam locomotives from 1878.  No track diagram provided.
3. From August 7, 1913 a new service was started using battery cars form Oriental Boulevard and  Langham Street via Oriental Boulevard, Long Island Ralroad trackage near Corbin Place and parallel to West End Avenue to the Sheepshead Bay BMT subway station.  This Long Island Railroad trackage we discussed regarding the Sheepshead Bay Race Track.  The Manhattan Beach trackage was on the east side of the BMT Brighton Line embankment.  The terminal was a stub terminal at Voorhies Avenue on LIRR trackage, not BMT trackage.
4. On April 27, 1921, the prior route was discontinued and a new route was established between Oriental Boulevard and Langham Street, Brighton Beach Avenue to Coney Island Avenue.  According to the track diagram that I saw, the Langham Street terminal was a one track stub terminal and the Coney Island Avenue terminal was two tracks that ended at a stub and was not connected to the Coney Island Avenue trolley that curved 90 degrees at that point.
5. On June 10, 1923, this service was discontinued and service between Manhattan Beach and the Sheepshead Bay station was furnished by Plum Beach Auto Stage Company with buses from April, 1919.
6. The Marine Railway trackage at its' last stage was probably not connected to any other streetcar line.  I wonder how the battery cars were maintained because the Linder track diagram shows no turnoff to a service area.

Thank you Bernard Linder for the material.  Scan perhaps to follow next week.

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