A Selection of Maps Made Using QGIS

I revisited QGIS again, that GRASS related geo-spatial software.  It is possible to bring in previously created or used raster and vector files into that environment.  There are many advanced features that I did not try yet, that the no-frills ARCGIS software does not supply.  In QGIS, you can take a raster file and make contours; something that you cannot do in ARCGIS without buying a more expensive package.

In this QGIS map,   a NYC raster file was brought in and converted to contours.  A vector subway map (stations, lines and RR's) was also added.  The arrow points to the area between the Culver and Brighton Lines in Brooklyn along the Bay Ridge RR cut/  The map is able to show the open cut (change of the elevation) around the area.  The contour lines are very crisp and easy to produce.

 A closer map of the area.  The arrow points to the location where the Culver Line on McDonald Avenue passes over the Bay Ridge Cut at "Stop and Shop".  Produced in QGIS using Bytes of the Big Apple and other sources.

  This interesting map was produced using recent NYC flood zone information, the street grid for Staten Island and a contour map produced in QGIS from a NYC Elevation raster file.  I was surprised to see that the RR for the northern shore of Staten Island at this point is more inland as one goes west.  These three maps were produced using QGIS, is a free online software.

McDonald Avenue PCC and South Bklyn RR Diesel # 8 at Avenue "I'

Picture Source:  Undated.  Frank Pfuhler Collection from Dave's Rail Pix: http://www.davesrailpix.com/nyc/htm/bqt806.htm

In this undated photo, a McDonald Avenue PCC car is headed north while South Brooklyn RR Locomotive # 8 switches tracks.  An observation of the area makes me believe that this is under the Avenue "I" station of the IND Culver Line prior to abandonment around 1956.  Presently, "Shop Rite" is on the left.  From my previous track diagram, there is no other crossover between tracks on McDonald Avenue except at Avenue "I".  Though not shown in the picture, a couple hundred feet north in the picture is a overpass over the LIRR Bay Ridge Division which at that time had two tracks and had high voltage type of overhead.  Surprisingly, tracks remained intact on McDonald Avenue many decades after 1956.  In the early 1980's, the overpass over the LIRR tracks was reconstructed but without trolley tracks.  Around the 1990's,  the trolley tracks were covered with asphalt and within the last 10 years, the trolley tracks were completely pulled out of the pavement from Cortelyou Road to around the Avenue X shops by the New York City's Department of Transportation probably because of complaints from motorist that the tracks were slippery in wet weather.  In my humble opinion, McDonald Avenue would have been good candidate for a historic streetcar line because the tracks were there, the electric power source was a few feet above on the el, and the trolley wires did not need poles for support.  Could you have imagined the action movie shots of chases on McDonald Avenue dodging trolley cars under the el?  The fees that New York City could have received  from these movie shotscould have paid many of the expenses connected with this hypothetical trolley line.  Today, there are no tracks on McDonald Avenue, the LIRR Bay Ridge Division at this point has one track that is diesel operated, and the interchange track between SBRR and the LIRR at Avenue I (south of this shot) in back of  "Shop Rite" is gone.