We Miss You

This a Joe Testagrose picture taken from the Dave's Rail Pix site.  It shows a McDonald PCC car on Shell Road south of 86th Street sometime between 1951 and the last day of service on October 31, 1956.   The Culver El structure is in the background.  This portion of the line used steel from the Fulton Street Elevated and thus looks different than other el girders built around 1914-1920.  The Coney Island gas tanks are also in view and perhaps BMT "C" type el cars in the background.

 A few years ago,  a proposal for a new streetcar line on the Brooklyn - Queens waterfront was established.   By April 2017, a detailed statement dealing with the route and costs were supposed to be made public.   Nothing was heard since April and the rumor is that this project is in trouble because of the source of funding.    Thus it appears that this project ended up like all the other trolley projects proposed for Brooklyn and Manhattan.  You know what I miss?  Even though a trolley was a few blocks away, the wire started to vibrate and you heard a swishhhiing sound, something like a bird tweet.   This was caused by the vibration of the trolley power wire by the trolley pole.  It is unlikely that this will ever be heard again in Brooklyn or New York City.  Notice on the el structure that at that time, no outside cat walks were provided for workers.

You Want A Seat Near a Window? How about No Seats at All?

http://www.mta.info/news/2017/10/03/subway-action-plan-update-new-subway-cars-e-line

  From the MTA website, a picture of a R-160 class on the "E" Line.  It appears that the end seats, that give you a sideways view of the outside, will be eliminated.   At another source, regarding the heavily used "L" train (14th Street - Canarsie Line), entire benches will be folded up and locked.  The philosophy behind this is to fit more passengers in the car, while all the other systems, such as tracks, signals, power and so on are failing.  The elimination of car seats is an experiment however.  For those persons who are taking longer trips, who are disabled, elderly or pregnant, this may cause a problem however.  It seems to me, that from over 100 years ago, the wonderful BMT standard cars, types A and B, had many seats near windows and seats in all configurations, with a great deal  of standing room.  These 67 foot cars had only three entrances per side and the conductor's position was in the middle.  I do not know what to say, but I believe that all these transit related problems that we had here in New York over the past few years will result in individuals and businesses fleeing the city.

Tramway Null(0)  Please see below photos from NY Post;  Test with seatless cars on the "L" line.

Interesting Article by Bill Newkirk of Subchat Dealing with BMT Standard Destination Signs

  A few days ago, Mr. Newkirk submitted to Subchat a posting dealing with BMT Standard destination signs.    A BMT standard car is shown above on the Culver Shuttle and shows one type of destination sign.  According to Bill, there was a period in which the destination signs had readings like the typed copy above.   According to the original article, the typed page was produced from looking at destination signs on some BMT standard cars in 1932 while those original signs was produced in the 1920's.    There are many surprises here, because many of the settings where for elderly elevated lines that would become extinct years later.  For example, there is a setting for Park Row Manhattan.  Would  heavy BMT standard cars would have able to make it across the Brooklyn Bridge to Manhattan without the Fulton Street elevated line and Brooklyn Bridge not altered for heavy steel equipment?   What about the destination "SEA GATE"?  Sea Gate is at the western tip of Coney Island and was served by trolley cars.   To provide this service, would some of the BMT cars be equipped with trolley poles (like the early Sea Beach Line) or would third rail need to be installed?
Other interesting questions remain and this will be continued later.

Interesting Read: Original Destination and Route Designation for BMT Standards

Posted by Bill Newkirk on Sat Oct 14 19:18:40 2017 Just received this document, typed many years ago showing original readings for BMT Standard routes and destinations. There are some unusual readings for older elevated routes. Perhaps the BRT had hopes of rebuilding older els to accommodate BMT Standards. That's my guess. I don't know which series or if all Standards had them. These signs were out of the Standards by 1932. None are known to exist.