Today is the 45 Anniversary of the Demise of the Culver Line

How time flies!  It has been forty five yeas since  the end of my favorite line. I am not talking about the present day "F" train,  which is fine,  but the section of line between Ditmas Avenue and really 36th Street - Fourth Avenue.    The culver line had it all:  A subway section at Ninth Avenue and the section(s) near 36th Street, a brick lined tunnel from around 1900,  a ramp,  an elevated structure with trolley freight running underneath,   intersections with the Church Avenue trolley,  intersection with the Cortelyou Road trolleybus,  intersection at Ditmas Avenue with the Church McDonald trolley and a trolley turn around loop midblock on the west side of McDonald Avenue,  intersection with the then "D" train at Ditmas Avenue( no track connection), and unused steel girders south of the Ditmas Avenue station on the Coney Island bound side.   Some people will forgot that when the Culver Line became a shuttle in the fall of 1954,  the northern terminal in non-rush hours and week ends was the busy station at 36th Street and Forth Avenue.   In the years after 1954,  the north destination was Chambers Street by way of a loop that returned to the starting point at Ditmas Avenue.  Around 1958-59, there were drastic cuts that made the northern terminal Ninth Avenue.   But at first,   both tracks on the elevated structure were used.    I think that a December 1960 snowstorm shut down the Manhattan bound track for good and the line became a one track on train shuttle between Ditmas Avenue and Ninth Avenue full time.  Be careful what you wish for.   I was happy with the snowstorm because school was closed, but that was used as an excuse by the TA to get the track out of operation.  Who knows,  may be if not for that snowstorm, the second track would still be operating to the end?  Of course, there were other snowstorms after December 1960.   It is making the Culver a one track shuttle that drove away passengers.  If the steel girders south of Ditmas avenue were used to connect the BMT culver to the IND at 18th Avenue,  more passengers on the "D" train could have had a quick and transfer less ride to lower Manhattan,  but it never happened.   We are lucky that we had the Culver shuttle all together.   I do not have proof of this, but I read somewhere that the original plans was once the IND "D"train was extended south to Coney Island,  in the early 50's,  the Culver line section from Ditmas to Ninth Avenue were to be replaced with buses.  This meant that a lot of us would never have known about the Culver Line.
Thanks,
Tramway Null(0)

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.

Look at This:

From Southern Brooklyn Scrap Book

This great photo was taken in 1941.  It shows that the incline to the IND subway to Church Avenue was in place and some of the steel structure was in place, but no steel structure was connected to the BMT Culver Line.  Pictures around 1954 shows that the northbound local IND track was connected to the BMT Culver structure south of Ditmas Avenue, near the signal and workmen shown above.  Notice the trolley line poles to the right on McDonald Avenue.  They were there since the Culver Line was electrified on the surface.  The BMT structure dates from 1919 so the poles were out of service from 1919 to at least 1941.  More to tell you later.

Was this Taken at Avenue "N"?

ref name=NYPL>{{cite web | url=http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/6f8a2cb0-a75d-0133-89e3-00505686d14e | title= (still image) View from the N Street station, (1954) }} |author=Digital Collections, The New York Public Library |accessdate=February 3, 2017 |publisher=The New York Public Library, Astor, Lennox, and Tilden Foundation}}</ref>

This photo was taken by Max Hubacher in 1954 and was obtained from the source above.  I do not believe that this is the view from the Avenue "N" station because you will see some interesting items.  Incidentally, you are seeing a southbound BMT Culver Line train composed of BMT Standard cars,  I think the B Types with roof vents.  The "S & M Plumbing & Heating Supplies" I believe is right at the private right of way of the Bay Ridge Division LIRR.  At that time, this branch operated with overhead high voltage wires and you can see the silver painted high tension wire support to the left of the train.  I believe part of that support may exist today and you can see it while looking out the west side of a southbound "F" train.  I believe that behind the train you can see the double platform 18th Avenue station.  The high wire support raised the high tension wires above the level of the Culver Line.  Notice the small yard to the left.  I believe that I may have seen a map years ago showing this.  This site today is occupied by "Amazing Savings" and other big stores near the Avenue "I" station.  The building dealing with plumbing supplies I believe still exists and has been refurnished.  The only electric transportation in this area is only the present day "F" train.  The LIRR pulled the plug on overhead power at this location many decades ago and the wires for the South Brooklyn Railroad and McDonald Avenue Trolley were gone by 1965. The tracks under the el lingered for a few more decades but were removed within the last twenty years because they were said to be hazard to motorists.
The map below comes from a great South Brooklyn RR site and shows the Parkville interchange.
ca. 1920 - ca. 1959 
R. Emery map
courtesy of S. Lynch
(modified by author and reoriented for north)
added 11 Dec 2009

Is that the freight house in the left bottom corner?

Thanks so much for the map below from the link below!
http://arrts-arrchives.com/sbrt.html

Can you spot this error on this RR map?

  The above map was produced in ARCGIS and shows a familiar area posted before in this blog.  It shows the area around the 38 Street yard in Brooklyn where the West End and former Culver Lines meet.  This area is the site (across 37th Street) of the historic Greenwood Cemetery. where many famous people are buried.   This is a rich site with the 38th Street shops and yards on the upper level and various mysterious ramps and underpasses on the lower level.  In the map above, elevations are in feet and this is a very hilly area.  To produce the present layout, many thousand of cubic feet of material had to be extracted out and this took many years around 1914.  In the above map, NYC subway routes are shown as a red line and a Railroad shape file, supplied by DOITT (New York City Department of Information Technology) is shown in blue.  This general railroad trackage can refer to surface railways or non revenue tracks.  If you look closely, you can see that one set of RR tracks curves at the 37th Street - Fort Hamilton Parkway intersection and goes to what appears east to McDonald Avenue.  Also, there is a track that goes south on 37th Street south of Fort Hamilton Parkway.  This was true until the 1980's when South Brooklyn service was stopped along 37th Street and McDonald Avenue.

   It is ironic that railroad trackage was shown on Fort Hamilton Parkway next to the cemetery.  In the late 1880's, there were plans to expand various surface steam railroads from 37th Street east to Flatbush or East New York / Brownsville at this point.    (  See NY Division Bulletin, ERA, Vol. 18, No 1, February 1975, p.5-6.  These surface steam railroads were never built.   In addition, if the City of New York had the money, the Independent Subway would have been extended from the area around the Fort Hamilton Parkway station and along Ft. Hamilton Parkway to Bay Ridge and eventually to Staten Island.  If this second IND system was ever build and the Culver Line existed, the Ft. Hamilton Parkway station at 37th street would have been a busy one in deed.

470 Foot Tower Planned Next to Culver Line

Re: 470 Foot Tower next to Culver in Coney

Posted by Dan on Sat Aug 15 16:19:07 2015, in response to Re: 470 Foot Towet next to Culver in Coney, posted by AEM-7AC #901 on Thu Aug 13 17:00:12 2015. If a few more of these large scale apartment buildings are constructed along the Culver the MTA will have to consider restoring 'F' express service. This building alone could add 1000 riders to the 'F'. http://newyorkyimby.com/2015/08/revealed-532-neptune-avenue-coney-islands-future-tallest-building.html Hi Folks:   The above text from "Subchat" as posted by the sources shown.  It seems that a tall building is planned next to the Culver Line at Neptune Avenue.  This location is very rich in rapid transit history.  I have posted track maps of the area for the McDonald Avenue Line several years ago.  This in on the pathway of the historic Culver Line and you can see the elevated structure and station that dates from around 1919-20.  I have posted pictures of the trolley private right of way which was on the left side of the drawing above.    You are facing southeast at the Neptune Avenue station on the "F" train in Brooklyn.   You are seeing a northbound (Manhattan bound) "F" train just about to enter the station.  Many people are against development.    I do not know if this new building will add 1000 new riders to the F train but the building looks beautiful.  It is located where the former McDonald trolley made a sharp turn east on Shell Road on Neptune and turned south on  private right of way.  More to follow on this shortly. The community is very much against this project.  I do not live in this area so I will not give my opinion.  Just for the record,  along the historic path of the Culver Line, on McDonald Avenue and 37th Street, there were not to my knowledge, tall buildings.  You had the various developments in later years between Neptune-Van Sicklen and West 8th Street.  You had the Flatbush Terminal Bulding on 37th Street between 14th and 15th Avenues.  Of course, when the Culver Line used the 5th Avenue El  to reach the Brooklyn Bridge, the line passed talling buildings in Downtown Brooklyn.  And of course, when the Culver Line reached Manhattan via the BMT 4th Avenue Subway, the terminal at Chambers Street was at the base of a Wedding Cake type of skyscrapper (the Municipal Building).  In the drawing above, the tall buildings in the background are Co-Ops  built I believe in the early sixties.

Culver El Train at Coney Island Creek, 1939

The private photograph is part of the digital archive at the New York Public Library.  It was taken on August 24, 1939 and it was photographed by P. L. Sperr. The  purpose of this photo was to show road construction near the Shell Road and West 5th Street intersection at the Coney Island Creek.  I am using the photo for research purposes only.  It presents several interesting points: Firstly, even though the Culver Line ran to Chambers Street via the 4th Avenue Subway, wooden el car service was still in existence in 1939.  This was probably a 5th Avenue - Culver El train running to Park Row or Sands Street.  Secondly, even though the el structure at this point was constructed in 1919-20, the el looks much older than other stretches of elevated trackage in NYC built around the same time.  This is because old parts of the BRT Fulton Street El was used for construction  here in order to save money.  If you are able to look closer, you will see that the outside sides of the trackways do not have a cat walk.  Only one catwalk is available for each track and is towards the center.  This situation does not exist today.  The photo is facing north east.  If you can look towards the crane near the train and look to the upper left, you can see an object.  This object might be the moon or it may be a drop of water, or it may be.. ... a UFO.  It looks very strange.

I believe that the wooden el cars are of the "BU" type numbered in the 1300 series.  I believe they were built in 1905-6.  (Source:  Bulletin, May, 1958, Vol. 1, No. 1  "New York Division Bulletin", P. 2.

Somewhere Along McDonald Avenue

The photo below, also comes from the New York Transit Museum Archives and it is from the Lonto-Watson collection.  It was taken on April 9, 1955 somewhere along McDonald Avenue.  This is the period after the Culver Line was "captured" by the IND Subway in October 1954 and PCC streetcars were found on the last three streetcar lines in Brooklyn (Church Avenue, Church-McDonald and Coney Island Avenue)  Streetcar service ended under the Culver Line on October 31, 1956.  This great shot shows a train of R1-9 cars on the Independent "D" Line (Sixth Avenue Line) between 205th Street in the Bronx and Coney Island.  Great side view shot of the PCC car and the"D" train. The PCC car shares its' tracks with the South Brooklyn Railroad.

Question About Interlocking at the Brooklyn Bridge

  A few weeks ago, a reader raised a question regarding the interlocking on the Fulton Street El near the Brooklyn Bridge where the tracks divide into the Kings County Station and the Fulton Ferry Station.  According to the map, the interlocking was removed from service on January 22, 1934.  Please see below part of a article titled " Two Brooklyn Elevated Lines Opened 120 Years Ago   ".    This is an article by Bernard Linder in the Vol. 51, No. 4 (April, 2008) edition of  "The Bulletin" of the New York Division, Electric Railroaders' Association.   As shown by the article, the Fulton Ferry Station was used only until May 31, 1940.  Does this mean that service was still provided even though the interlocking was removed years before?  Page 3 also has interesting information about the "C" type of wooden elevated car that was used on some of the elevated lines in Brooklyn.  Notice that the "C" types had originally two sets of doors only in the middle of the car but the fleet was altered with doors placed more towards the ends.  It is funny, that the doors on the "C" types appear similar to the sliding doors on the "D" Type articulated units of the BMT subway.  Wooden elevated cars provided some service on the Culver Line south of Ninth Avenue right up to 1954 when the southern portion was converted to Independent Subway Service.  Notice a train of "C" types in Culver Express service on the middle track at the Avenue P station.  Notice the wood and glass wind screens adjacent to the platform.

Avenue "P" Sunrise on the Culver Line

This photo was taken 50 minutes ago (7:15 am) from the Manhattan bound platform of the "F" train (Culver Line) at Avenue "P" facing east.

McDonald Avenue PCC near Neptune Avenue - Part II

  In this posting, we will shift our focus slightly to the two deck elevated structure that I was telling you about in the prior post.  You got to see the photo below by Zach Summer which was taken on July 9, 2010 probably from the top level of the West 8th Street Station.  This is the next station that the elevated structure runs into from the previous post.  What a great shot!

A "Q" train of R160 cars are headed towards Manhattan and about to enter the West 8th Street station in Coney Island.  You can we what remains of the formerly great Coney Island amusement area.  The Cyclone  roller coaster ride is toward the left and so is the Atlantic Ocean.  Please go to http://www.nycsubway.org to see the rest of Zach's photos which concentrate on this area of Brooklyn.

In the picture below, from the George Conrad collection at the same website, a 1939 view of the easterly end of the West 8th Street station is shown where the  Culver Line swings out from beneath the two level elevated structure.  The picture above is from the top tier of the same station but facing south west while this picture is facing slightly south east.  On the lower tier,  a Culver-5th Avenue train of wooden elevated stock with gates are about to enter the West 8th Street Station on their trip to Stillwell Avenue- Coney Island.  On the upper level, a Brighton train of BMT Type D Triplexes are found.  According to what I can see, there are trolley tracks on both sides of the Culver Line structure.  I believe that by 1939, the Culver Line ran two services, subway service to Chambers Street using BMT Standard steel cars and wooden elevated cars to Sands Street or Park Row in Manhattan.

In this photo by Brian J. Cudahy in 1954, at the same website, a train of IND R-1-9 cars are headed towards the lower level of the West 8th Street station.  By this time, IND service to Coney Island was just a few months old.  A great snow shot.  We also see two of the trolley line support poles carrying the power source perhaps for the subway trains in the area.  I believe that the trolley PRW is towards the photographer's back.

Looking North from Ditmas Avenue Brooklyn 2009

This shot was taken by Leonard Wilson on 4/15/2009 and it shows a R-160B F Train emerging from the tunnel south of the Church Avenue Station.  I took this photo off the http://www.nycsubway.org website because in this one picture, many of the topics that this blog discusses is shown.  You can see the tunnel into which the F train goes into south of Church Avenue.  This tunnel was built for the Independent Subway.  This portals' construction date is not clear. It may have been built after the Church Avenue station opened in 1933 or later, perhaps before World War II.  The actual incline did not have service until October, 1954 when the IND subway "captured" the BMT Culver Line.  For many years, the incline, which has space for four tracks had only one track, the northbound local track, was actually connected to the BMT Culver Elevated.  I read someplace that in the middle of the incline, there was a large tree growing probably through the war years.   In the picture, you will also see the large radio tower at Bishop Ford High School which was the location of the 9th Avenue trolley depot that was in service until 1956.  This trolley barn had two levels.  Also, if you look at the right side of the incline, you can see serveral vertical iron beams that were used to support the McDonald Avenue trolley wires.  Believe it or not, some of the insulators and a few inches of trolley support span wire are still in the horizontal position!  These are probably the very last of the few artifacts of the great trolley operation in Brooklyn.  The only other artifacts are several trolley line support poles scattered throughtout Brooklyn and an occasional peak of trolley track through asphalt for the few tracks that have not been pulled yet.

Culver Line Track Plans (1931-1954) with 38th Street Yard

Source: Linder, B. & Erlitz, J.  "Culver Line 1931-1954" In The Bulletin, New York Division, Electric Railroader's Association,  Vol. 43, No. 9, September, 2000, p.3.
Source: Linder, B. & Erlitz, J. " 38th Street Yard Tack Plans 1939-1943 ", In The Bulletin, New York Division, Electric Railroader's Association,  Vol. 43, No. 11, November, 2000, p.2.

  Some time ago, the question was asked regarding which of two sets of ramps Culver-5th Avenue El service used to exit the 38th Street cut in order to reach the higher levels of the yard.  The track diagrams, as provided below, shows that the most easterly ramps were used to access the el and yards.  These ramps are used today to access the yard that was greatly modified over the years. Other interesting features is a trolley wire equiped yard to the west of the yard and other interesting details.  On one map, notice the interlocking between Ft. Hamilton Parkway and 13th Avenue Stations.  When I was small in the 1950's, the shadows of this interlocking that were removed in 1938 or 1939 was still visible.

Culver Shuttle Track Plans 1954-1975

Source:  B. Linder and J. Erlitz, "Culver 'L' Track Plans", The Bulletin, New York Division, Electric Railroaders' Association, Vol. 43, No. 9, September, 2000.  Page 4.

 

   Of all the subway and elevated lines in New York City, my favorite line was the obscure Culver Shuttle.  Not only was it a few blocks away from my home, but it was my portal to the world.  The Culver Shuttle had everything:  A typical underground station, passage along an embankment, an incline to a typical 1914-1920 elevated structure and a stub terminal track at Ditmas Avenue.  It passed coal silos, factories, some of which were abandoned, and underneath were various sets of tracks with charged trolley wires for freight.  You would see frequently a special steeple cab locomotives equipped with a trolley poles pulling freight underneath.  The Culver Shuttle passed the Cortelyou Road trolley bus line and meet the Church Avenue Trolley at 13th Avenue.  At Ditmas Avenue, the Kensington trolley loop still had wires and of course, there were plenty of track junctions just south of the Ditmas Avenue station.  When I came along, I remember the BMT Standards on the line, the Staten Island Rapid Transit cars and around 1960,  IRT Lo-V cars equipped to run in BMT territory.   The third rail on the Culver Shuttle was not covered by a wooden board (except at Ditmas Avenue or perhaps Ninth Avenue Stations), the rail itself might have been it what was called elevated line position.  You can imagine the electric show that you would see when there was an ice or snow storm!  Although not shown on this map, I remember the Culver Line running to 36th Street and Fourth Avenue before the drastic cuts of 1958.  I got to see up close the various mystery ramps, and tunnel openings that appeared to be blocked off west of the Ninth Avenue Station.  More to follow later.

The above photo, comes off the web by Joseph D. Korman.  This shot taken from either the front or back of the culver shuttle, is facing west towards the 13th Avenue Station and you can see where the former west bound track branches off.  You can see the Flatbush Industrial building in the distance and the 38th Street Park.  Near this spot, the Cortelyou Road trolleybus crossed under the el.  From the clues in the picture, I would date the picture as sometime between 1961 and 1967.  The westbound tracks are rusted and not and use so this is after 1960..  The unused western and center tracks were removed around 1967 so this picture must be before 1967.  The Ditmas Avenue station is towards the photographer's back.

In the track diagram below, the Culver Line trackway map is shown from 1931 to 1954 from the source sited on page 3.  At the position shown on the photo above, up to 1954 there was three functioning tracks at this spot curving into the Ditmas Avenue station.   There was no crossover between tracks at this spot up to 1954.

Culver Line with BMT Standard Cars ( UFO Included)

Source: David Pirmann Collection from http://www.NYCSUBWAY.org

The top photo comes from the NYCSUBWAY.ORG website while the second photo comes from off the web and shows the former Boston trolleys parked in back of the Fairway market in Red Hook.

The top photo is interesting because it shows the elevated structure south of Avenue X adjacent to the Coney Island Yard and Shops.  Taken probably in 1954, the top photo shows the Culver Line with BMT Standard Cars before it was converted to IND Independent Line Service with "D" trains to 205th Street in the Bronx.  Notice that the elevated structure is of the lattice type, which is not typical of the more modern elevated structures in Brooklyn and the other boroughs.  In fact, on the same line, from the Avenue X station north to the portal north of Ditmas Avenue, the structure in more of solid girder type.  I believe that the section on the Culver Line openned between 1919 and 1920 and is in the period when solid girders were used for elevated construction.  What gives?  To save money, the BRT Corporation? used older elevated parts from the Fulton Street Elevated that was going under modification at the same time.  This lattice type construction is found south of Avenue X to near the West 8th Street station.

Notice that next to the elevated structure on Shell Road was a yard equipped with trolley wire.  Notice the trolley line support poles and it's associated UFO (lamp).   Some of these poles were given by the Transit Authority to Bob Diamond for use at his Red Hook trolley line in back of the Fairway market.  If you look closely at one of the trolley poles in the second picture, you can see that some loops and a side bracket is still attached, just like they were originally found in the Coney Island Yard so many years earlier.

Culver Madness

The source for these two pictures is http://www.nycsubway.org  and Dave's Rail Pix.

The top picture shows an older streetcar on the Church Avenue Line eastbound to Bristol Street. It just turned on 37th Street and just entered the begining of Church Avenue.  The lumber yard, I am told, was formerly one of the building connected with the Nassau Electric yard on 37th Street near 13th Avenue.  Notice how close the streetcar runs close to the lumber yard.  Also towards the back of the picture, you can see the northbound platform windscreen on the Culver El structure.  You can make out probably some of the overhead wires from the South Brooklyn Rail Road that used to run directly in its' own PRW under the structure.  In other posts from this blog, I published pictures directly from that platform.  In the second picture, you see a BMT Standard car in Culver Shuttle service resting in the 9th Avenue Station.  The 9th Avenue Station lower level never got a lighting upgrade and was lighted by incadescent lights, which does not make for good photography.  This BMT Standard is parked in the middle track and you can barely make out the tiles on the station walls.  I found the BMT Standard cars very comfortable.  Notice the middle double doorway towards the left of the photo.  This served as the conductor's position for controlling the doors and you can see the push button control panel.  In cars in which the conductor was not present, the controls were not active and so many children, including myself, played with the push buttons.  My father asked one time a conductor that he knew how he liked being a conductor, and the conductor's response is that he enjoys pushing the buttons all day.  The BMT Standard photograph is probably from 1965 and the Church Aveue Trolley picture I do not yet have a date for.  Sorry for the quality of the Church Avenue Trolley photo.

 

Coal Bins at Gravesend and 16th Avenue Brooklyn

A reader was searching for coal bins at 16th Avenue and McDonald (Gravesend) Avenues in Brooklyn.  In this 1924 Aerial, you can see the coal bins near the historic Kensington Junction circled in red.  Also, the private right of way of the 16th Avenue Streetcar is also shown.  The private right of way was also known as Lott Place.  You can see Culver el swing to the left at 37th Street.  This is before the Independent Subway ramp was built connecting to the Church Avenue Station.  The Church Avenue station openned in the early 1930's.  By the 1950's, this group of coal bins was gone but others remained along the Culver right of way along 37th Street and McDonald Avenue.

Elevation of Staten Island Railway Stations at Street Level

  Staten Island has an interesting railway that shares many characteristics with its' relatives across the bay in the other boroughs of New York City. Almost 100% open air except for some small tunnel segments, this two track, third railed powered line operates subway like equipment very similar to the R-44/R-46 class. In the 1920's, there were plans to build a tunnel under the narrows to join the Staten Island Railway with the BMT Fourth Avenue subway in Bay Ridge Brooklyn.  Except for some shafts, nothing much more was built.  The elevations shown are at street level at the station location.  Some smaller segments on the eastern side of the line closed in the 1950's and they are not shown on the map that was produced in ARCGIS.  There are some plans to activate the North Shore Line (represented as a railroad) but from what I was told, it is not likely to be light rail or rapid transit.  The Staten Island Railway used prior to the R-44/R-46 class cars equipment that was very simlar to that of the BMT Steel "BMT Standard" cars.  In fact, a group of these cars, as a result of trackage abandonments on Staten Island in the 1950's  found their way on various BMT southern division lines.

Both photos above are from the George Conrad Collection located at the http://www/nycsubway.org website.  The first photo is that of former SIRR cars on the Culver Line at Fort Hamilton Parkway just about to make a left turn to the incline towards the Ninth Avenue Station probably in 1955.  The second photo is also from the same source and was shot on 11/12/1955 showing a train equipped with SIRR equipment.  This is a north bound Culver Line train at the 13th Avenue Station.  The Flatbush Industrial Building is in the background and it is still standing.  It had its' own spur to the South Brooklyn Rail Road with trolley wire.  These cars were very interesting in that the middle doors were BMT Standard like and the end doors were like IRT Lo V doors.  Destination signs were metal plates.

In the photo above, a SIRR car rests on the Culver Line at the Ditmas Avenue station.  This photo, which is from the collection of David Pirmann is interesting because to the lower left of the car at street level is the Kensington Loop of the Church Avenue/McDonald Avenue trolley line with the wires and poles visible.  You can see the Flatbush Industrial Building to the far left and perhaps you can make out the overhead wires on the Cortelyou Road-16th Avenue trolleybus line also at the far left near the 38th Street Park.

A Close Up Look at various ramps in the 38 Street Cut

     In some of my prior posts, I focused on the various ramps west of the Ninth Avenue Station on the present day D train in Brooklyn. I posted aerial views, historic views and so on. Now it would be interesting to see at train and track level, what these ramps look like.  In the two attached videos that I got from the web, you will see close up action, however they are not perfect and just as we are about to get to an interesting point, a train running in the opposite direction will block your view!

In the first video, a R-160 "M" train leaves Ninth Avenue Station (upper level) and  will run to 36th Street and 4th Avenue station.  Currently, the "M" train does not serve the Ninth Avenue station but runs by Sixth Avenue to Queens from the Williamsburgh Bridge after Essex Street.  Therefore this video is several years old.  The sequence that you will see as follows:

1. The westbound train goes down a ramp and meets the former trackage to the Culver Line and the 5th Avenue Elevated.
2. After an interchange, two ramps go up to a higher level.  Although these ramps are under construction, they normally carry tracks to the 36th Street yard and this is the trackage that the 5th Avenue-Culver El trains took.
3. The two mystery ramps are seen with grass on one of them them going to the upper level.
4. The train enters what becomes a two track brick lined tunnel which is very historic and may have been the original route of the South Brooklyn Rail Road.
5. The train emerges into the light momentarily where you see a turnout for the SBRR tracks to the waterfront.
6. Just as we are about to see the SBRR yard that stretches from 4th Avenue to 3rd Avenue, your view is blocked by a Coney Island bound train.
7. The train makes a sharp turn and enters the Fourth Avenue Subway where the tracks go lower and meet the tracks of the "N" and "R" trains.
8. The train enters the 36th Street (Fourth Avenue) Station.
9. The view of this video is west.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=0TdfHWYRqlQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFqAy38wKW4&feature=player_detailpage

 

In the second video, the "M" train made of R-160 cars is running south from 36 th Street to 62nd Street and New Utrecht Avenue on the West End El.  The view is easterly and you will be able to see the various buildings in the 36-38 Street yard.  At the Ninth Avenue Station, you will see the closed off staircase to the abandoned Culver Line and your will enter the West End El.  The order is reverse of the above where the train leaves 36th Street, leaves the "N" and "R" trackage which goes to a lower level, makes a sharp turn and enters the two track brick tunnel and so on.  I hope you find these videos interesting and a thanks to the person(s) who shot them.

F Train the New Silicon Subway?

Hi Folks:  Please see the attached article. The F train in Brooklyn covers part of the original Culver Line route.  Who would think that part of the Culver Line would become fashionable?  Map drawn by myself to show New York City neighborhoods connected by the F train in Brooklyn and Manhattan.  Shapefile is not of the latest routing.  Tramway Null(0)

http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20120729/REAL_ESTATE/307299984