Elevations in Feet Near the Rockaway Park Station and Yard in Queens

The area shown by the map was hard hit by Sandy.    Map produced using ARCGIS.

A GRASS 6.4.1. Output Aspect (Terraine Analysis) map of the Hammel's Wye Area below:

Miracle on 35th Street

About 33 days after streetcar service came to an end on October 31, 1956, on December 3, 1956, this tragedy occured at a pier at 35th Street, Brooklyn, four blocks from the trolley turnround shown on this blog's headpiece.  Many people were killed and injured and windows were shattered many miles away from the blast site near the former trolley loop.

http://marine1fdny.com/miracle_35th_new.php

The above photo comes from Dave's Rail Pix and shows a Church Avenue Car on 13th Avenue
 bound for the waterfront, just about to turn unto 39th Street, to the side of the retail market shown below.
Windows at 13th Avenue and 39th Street at the wall paper store shown on the right broke from the shock wave of the explosion, many miles away from the Luckenbach pier at 35th Street.  In the background, you can see the staircase to the 13th Avenue Station of the Culver Line and you can see the horizontal wooden trough for the overhead of the South Brooklyn Railway beneath the el.  Windows also broke on 39th Street at a laundry right off 13th Avenue and other places all over the city.

At the time of the blast, doors similar to these at the 39th Street side were blown open by the force of the  explosion.  I was inside the market  at the 39th Street side at the time of the explosion.  Within minutes, the sky darked from the west eventhough the sun was setting.

Norton's Pt and Sea Gate Line Trackmaps

Source: B. Linder, "Sea Gate Line" and "Norton's Point Line" in New York Division Bulletin, Vol. 21, No. 2, February, 1978, pp. 2-5.

Note:  This lines have a complicated history.  Service was not always electric operated during the span of years of operation.  For example, the Norton's Pt Shuttle was bustituted in 1935 but cars came back during the war between June 7, 1943 and October 1943.  The Norton's Point Shuttle ran from West 37th Street to Norton's Point at the end of the land mass.

Nortons Point Line in Coney Island

This great picture, whas just posted a few hours ago in subchat by Avid Reader and he asks information regarding this ramp.  According to Edward S. Watson in his history of various lines in Coney Island (Source: New York Division Bulletin, Vol. 21, No. 2, February, 1978, p.3.), the Norton's Point Line started as a Steam line from June 9, 1879, and was routed from the Culver Terminal at West 7th Street and Surf Avenue and via a Private-Right-of-Way west to the Norton's Point Dock.  This line later became part of the Culver Steam Line.    In 1899, the line was electrified and was called Coney Island-Norton's Point and the line was operated by surface trolley cars from July 3, 1910.  Before this and since electrification, elevated cars were used.  The line was doubled tracked from West 8th Street to West 37th Street in 1912.  In May 25, 1918, the line was cut back to the Culver Terminal to Stillwell Avenue using the incline shown in the photo that bridged over Stillwell Avenue and connected with the then new Elevated/Subway terminal.  From May 25 1918 to October 19, 1919, single elevated cars were used on the line.  The tracks at Stillwell Avenue connected with the Culver Line Tracks directly as the Culver Line makes a 90 degree turn going into West 8th Street Station.  In 1929, the line was connected to the Sea Gate Line at West 37th Street.  The line was terminated on November 7, 1948 and its' history is connected with other lines, such as the Norton's Point Shuttle and the Sea Gate Line.   According to my track diagram, the structure begins at West 16th Street and crosses Stillwell Avenue with a two platform wooden station.   I remember reading that later the line was physically isolated from other streetcar lines and order to service the cars, east of the Stillwell Avenue Station,  an employee had to hold a jumper cable connected to the trolley line with an insulated stick and make contact with the then uncovered third rail on the elevated structure.  This difficult task had to be done until the trolley reached the Coney Island shops for service.

I hope to post the track diagrams tommorrow.

Tramway Null(0)

Thank you Avid Reader for posting these great pictures.  The diamond crossover may be directly over Stillwell Avenue.  A passageway lead to the subway station.

West End Trolley Private right of way with its' own UFO

Folks, I copied this wonderful photo from subchat this morning from a post dealing with private right of ways..  It is the West End Trolley private right of way near the BMT West End Line.  The private right of way even has its' own UFO.  Notice BMT style wooden windscreen.  Great photo.  See http://www.subchat.com   Posted in Subchat by Avid Reader.  Location of photo is at 83rd Street.  18th Avenue Station is in the background.  Other private right of way photos are posted by Avid Reader in his posting.

New York City Subway Stations with Street Elevations less than or equal to 15 Feet

In the map below that I prepared in ARCGIS,  I selected those subway/elevated stations that have a street elevation of 15 feet or less.  For the Rockaway area, which was devastated by Sandy, except for Rockaway Park station, the stations are on a concrete viaduct.  The elevations listed are at the street surface.  Generally, the stations effected by flooding are those that are underground and have a low surface elevation.  For elevated stations that have street level elevations at low levels, such as Brighton Beach, the station was not effected but the surrounding community was.  Some of the elevated stations that are at low lying areas, such as Coney Island - Stillwell Avenue and Ocean Parkway did not show up on the map because their street elevations were listed as above 15 feet.  This I believe is a mistake because technically, my "spatial join" picked up building elevations; perhaps the height of the station itself or surrounding buildings instead of the surface elevation.  I apologize for this but I believe that the map overall shows that the areas in distress as a result of Hurricane Sandy are indicated on the map.  It is possible that the elevation file give for the Stillwell Avenue location the height of the station and not the street elevation.  See second map where the street elevation for Stillwell Avenue is not correct.  The shape file provided the height of the elevated structure and not the street.  The streets near Stillwell Avenue are below 25 feet as indicted by the legend.  Sorry for the mistake.

Steinway Tunnel Trolley Map 1907 and Queensboro Plaza Area Maps

Source: B. Linder, "Flushing Line Queensboro Plaza Area, 1924-38", "Flushing & Astoria Lines Queensboro Plaza Area, 1917-1924", "Steinway Tunnel Trolley 1907", in New York Division Bulletin, ERA, Vol .34, No. 1, January, 1992, pp.3,5.

  The Queensboro Plaza elevated station has today four tracks on two levels with center island platforms.  In years past, the complex was more complex with eight tracks on two levels.  The service pattern was more complex with joint BMT IRT operation on I believe both branches. The 2nd Avenue El also ran to the plaza after crossing the Queensboro Bridge.  In the left hand corner of one of the maps, is an interesting diagram of the Steinway Tunnel Trolley that was originally built between Lexington Avenue (Grand Central) and 21Street in Queens.  I believe that although the wire was up and the system was complete, no revenue trips were run using trolleys and the tunnel was unused after many years until it was converted to subway rapid transit configuration with third rails.  These two tubes are used today by Number 7 Flushing Line trains.