Delancey Street Trolley Terminal Brooklyn Streetcar Track Assignments

Source:  Rogoff, David, "Fifty Years Ago in the Electric Railway Journal - BRT Williamsburg Bridge Terminal", New York Division Bulletin, Electric Railroaders Assn., Vol. 1, No. 2, June, 1958, p. 3-4

Delancey and Essex Street on the surface as of June 11, 2012.  Photo by docjayva.

In the June 1958 edition of the Bulletin, one of the first issues published, there was an interesting article published by David Rogoff which itself was a review of a Electric Railway Journal article that appeared fifty years earlier, in 1908, describing the rapid transit facilities, both elevated line and streetcar at the Manhattan end of the Wiliamsburg Bridge.  While the bridge openned in 1903, as built, the rapid transit and trolley facilities were not ready at the Manhattan end.  In a future post, I hope to discuss this.   It appears in the article that the trolley terminal alongside the Essex Street subway station did not open until 1908.  For now, I just would like to add information from the article regarding the huge underground trolley terminal for Brookyn trolleys that crossed the bridge.  The trolley terminal had 8 loops plus a 2-car stub for disabled trolleys and a bumper.  The loops were numbered from 1 to 8 from west to east.  Although the Essex Street elevated/subway station was a few feet away from the trolley tracks, there was no track connection.

The original track plan was as follows:

1. #1 Nostrand Avenue and Belt Lines
2. #2 Reid Avenue
3. #3 Hamburg Avenue (renamed WILSON AVENUE during World War I).
4. #4 Ralph Avenue
5. #5 Bushwick Avenue
6. #6 Thompkins Avenue
7. #7 Bridge Local
8. #8 Grand Street & Franklin Avenue

More information regarding both the subway and trolley terminal to follow in the future.

Tramway Null(0)\

Could these be two 145 Street Streetcars at the Plow Pit West of Lenox Avenue in 1924?

Notice the two streetcars circled just west of the 145 th Street - Lenox Avenue intersection in this 1924 aerial.  Could they be at the location of the plow pit?  Going east  (see red question mark) from the "plow pit" should be visible trolley wire and poles but I could not see evidence of this, or trolley poles on top of the two streetcars in this 1924 aerial shot.  On the right side of the aerial, where the red question mark is located, you can see at intervals shadows that might be trolley poles supporting the wires, but I am not sure about this.  Off the picture, and to the right is the 145th Street Bridge over the Harlem River.  This bridge connects with 149th Street in the Bronx.

Below shows an extended aerial from 1924.  The two streetcars are at the extreme left.  On the bridge and in the Bronx, are the repeating shadows on the side of the road trolley support poles?

Broadway & 145th Street Line 1915-1947

Source:  B. Linder, New York Division Bulletin, Vol. 44, No. 7, July, 2001, pp.2-4.

The Broadway and 145th Street Line started its' life on April 19, 1915 and ran from West 181st Street and Broadway, via St. Nicholas Avenue, Amsterdam Avenue, 145th Street to Lenox Avenue and 145th Street.  During the period of July 2, 1919 to September 11, 1921, the northern terminal was extended to West 242nd Street and Broadway several times, for  summer service extentions and on weekends.  After 1921, the permanent northern terminal was West 181 Street and Broadway.
This line was unusual because a plow pit was located west of the Lenox Avenue and the 145th Street intersection.  If cars needed to reverse, they had to use trackage just west of the Harlem River or a switch in the Bronx (not shown). The trackage east of the plow pit had trolley wire and in order to reverse, going eastbound, the plow pit crew would have to disconnected the plow, raise the trolley pole, throw a switch and the streetcar would proceed a few hundred feet, reverse and go westbound.  At the plow pit west of Lenox Avenue, the reverse proceedure was followed:  The plow was attached and the trolley pole was lowered.  According to Bernard Linder in the article, the line had 701-801 series cars equipped with overhead trolley and underground conduit equipment. Though not shown on the map, a connecting curve with the Lenox Avenue Line allowed reverse moves using this trackage because there was a crossover at 146 and Lenox. This curve, which existed prior to 1928 allowed for reversals if the bridge was in an open position.

Manhattan's Post Office Streetcar Line

Source: B. Linder, New York Division Bulletin, Vol. 45, No. 1, January 2002, pp. 2-4.

  Where Park Row meets Broadway in Manhattan today is an extention of City Hall Park.  Previously on the spot, was a 19th Century Post Office in front of which various streetcars terminated.  One such line was called the Post Office Line that ran from a loop at Broadway, through the lower east side and across the Williamsburg Bride to Bridge Plaza in Brooklyn.  It was not battery operated but used conduits and what is interesting is that it used the North Side of the bridge because those tracks had conduits.  For BRT-BMT Brooklyn streetcars, power was supplied by overhead trolley on the south side of the bridge that lead directly to the underground Delancey Street Trolley Termininal.   Thus Bridge Plaza in Brooklyn had overhead and conduit trolley tracks for the various companies.   Some interesting points are:

1. Line started on June 6, 1908 by the owner, Third Avenue Railroad Company but cars were operated by its subsidiary, Dry Dock, East Broadway & Battery Railroad Company.
2. Dry Dock wanted to increase the fare around June 1928 but the case went to court.  See material compiled by Lawrence F. Hughes in the reference cited above.  The Transit Commission disapporoved the tariff request.
3. The line was discontinued on January 21, 1932.

Moscow and St. Petersburg Trams in various running Environments

My friend from St. Petersburg gave me these links to very interesting tram videos showing various tramways operating in various environments:  Street operation, through a park in Moscow and on an elevated bridge in St. Petersburg.  Also included is a very short video telling us that according to the producer of the video in his opinion, that St. Petersburg trams are in great danger of being replaced probably by buses.  You will see that some of the trackwork is crumbling and some of the trams are shabby.
You will enjoy the Moscow tramway line that operates through a delightful park in its own right of way.  There is also a junction of three routes right in the park!  In Manhattan, some streetcar routes ran across Central Park but they ran on a park road shared with other traffic.  In Brooklyn, the busy Flatbush Avenue Line ran down Flatbush Avenue between the Brooklyn Botanical Garden and Prospect Park.  If the Flatbush Avenue Line ran in its own right of way in Prospect Park, it would look probably similar to these fabulous scenes from Moscow.  The tramway that goes through the Moscow park must be quite scenic in the fall.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8SEnHRiele8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZbwaTWX0aU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lh4rQE7kO5k

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nreqQQCf-j0

Another Mystery Ramp? Which Set of Ramps did the 5th Avenue El use to Access the 9th Avenue Station?

There has been some questions regarding which set of ramps did 5th Avenue-Culver trains use west of the Ninth Avenue Station to access the 5th Avenue Elevated.  The two most westerly ramps that did not have fences or tracks on them in the 1950's,  I believe, were not used for this access.  I believe the present day leads to the 36th Street yard that presently have tracks on them were used. I'll try to prove this in the future with some maps.  For the present, I post a present day photograph and a 1924 Aerial.  The 1924 aerial shows that there is no trackage west of the ramps, but you can see trackage more on the northerly side of the yard.  Please see the area circled with a thin black line.  In the 1924 Aerial, the most westerly untracked ramps are shown on the bottom margin near the right corner at the milage scale.  More about this later.

Please note that on the recent photograph it is not clear, but two ramps rising with no tracks on them while about four active tracks enter a tunnel at 7th Avenue.   (The rising ramps do not lead to further tracks.  Culver-5th Avenue El trains used more northerly trackage leading to the 5th Avenue El.) This four track tunnel becomes a very old two track, brick lined tunnel that dates well before 1914 and was originally used by the SBRR.  This two track tunnel ends just short of 4th Avenue which you may see in the 1924 Aerial view just where the captions "1924" and "1951" are printed on top of the picture.  This is the junction point of  4th Avenue subway tracks and the SBRR where the SBRR tracks head directly west to the waterfront.  Tramway Null(0)

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.