Classic Shot of GG Train Leaving Smith-9th Street

  Many of my posts deal with the area around Red Hook, the Smith-9th Street Subway Station and the Culver Viaduct.  In this classic shot, showing the Manhattan skyline, a "GG" train of classic R1-9 subway cars are leaving the station and descending into the tunnel for their trip to Manhattan.  According to the skyline in this picture, I will date the picture as prior to 1960 because the Chase Manhattan Bank building is not yet built.  The "GG" train is now known as the "G" train.  The New York City Transit Authority dropped double letter routes many years ago (1979?).    The classic Independent Subway R1-9 cars openned the Independent Subway in the early 1930's.  These cars seemed to "be alive" with their interesting sounds of sighs, shishes and other aspirant noises from their braking and air systems.  I really miss them.

Photo Source: http://www.subchat.com  Hear the sounds of the R1-9 car below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=eP-RJqufZzI

Here is a 1959 jazz piece that goes along with the location:  A Charles Mingus Septet recorded in 1959 in New York with John Handy on Alto Sax.

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&frm=1&source=web&cd=17&cad=rja&ved=0CFcQtwIwBjgK&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DpsvjD6nfrPw&ei=yOPDULPeFcP30gHd94HwDg&usg=AFQjCNGvK1N-nwj5lXF8i14pb6NOL8HW5A&sig2=ijxuxoEXhIxYJqTdKA240w

Downhill Water Flow in Red Hook Brooklyn

In the attached map, GRASS 6.4.1 was used to produce a downhill flow map using local elevations.  The thin black lines shows the direction of water flow and the colors according to the legend show hypothetical low downhill water density flows in the area.  Areas east, near Prospect Park show stronger downhill water flows.  Hurricane Sandy was a sea surge event in New York City with relatively light amounts of rain.  The map shows that in case of large rainfalls, Red Hook is not in any danger and thus the flooding from Sandy was a sea surge.  Areas with more black lines shows increased downhill waterflows.

Theoretical Downhill Flood Flow in Southern Brooklyn and Sea Beach Line Open Cut

In the map below, I used GRASS 6.4.1 to bring in the "carve" file of river channels produced earlier based on the street elevation.  Remember in an earlier post, the program predicted a river flow along the open cut of the Sea Beach Line (N) between 86th Street and Avenue U.  Using this as a basis, I constructed a water flow diagram for southern Brooklyn.  What is surprising is that the water flow in the penciled area, along the open cut of the Sea Beach Line is from west to east and not south to north from the Coney Island Creek as expected.  Also notice that the horizontal flow near the Sea Beach Line is along the western side of the open cut.  I do not know if GRASS is incorrect in this projection or if I made a mistake in the settings. Notice the water flow in Coney Island where there was extensive flooding.  Correction:  The GRASS 6.4.1 hydrology program here creates a vector showing downhill flow on the surface elevation.  Since Hurricane Sandy was mainly a sea surge event and not a rain event. the minor downhill flow on the surface would not explain the flooding of the Sea Beach Line.  For this reason, the vector direction is perpendicular to the Sea Beach open cut.  The vectors do not show the direction of the sea surge.

Theoretical Downflow Flow in "River Channel" in Southern Staten Island

In the attached map, I used the GRASS 6.4.1 hydrology program to construct the hypothetical river flow based on elevation for southern Staten Island.  I brought in the "Carve" program that used the Staten Island Rapid Transit right of way as a base.  The artificial channel follows the Staten Island Railway for a small section and then goes to along Seguine Avenue.  The narrow thin black bars is the theoretical water flow direction.  The program seems to have done this for even the higher elevations as well.  This is just an experiment and is not done by a professional environmental person.  The areas of interest, which is the flood channels along the SIRT and Seguine Avenue and vicinity is penciled in red.  Notice that the flood flow pattern for Seguine Avenue is from east to west and not north to south.  Since there are more flood flow bars on the Seguine Avenue than on the southern Staten Island RR right of way, I believe the Seguine Avenue corridor is a stronger flood flow victim than SIRT.  The SIRT flood flow is also from west to east.  Correction:  The GRASS 6.4.1 program here creates a vector showing downhill flow on the surface.  Since Hurricane Sandy was a sea surge event and not mainly a rain event, the flooding that occured was due to a sea surge and  a downhill water flow mapmay not explain that much, particularly any theoretical flooding along the right of way of the Staten Island Rapid Transit line and Seguine Avenue.  Notice that the flow along Seguine Avenue is west to east.

South Brooklyn RR Map with Street Crossings - by H. Raudenbush 2/61

Source:  Groh, Karl F. and Seyfried, Vincent F. "The South Brooklyn Railway", in Headlights, Arthur J. Lonto, Editor, Vol. 55, Number 5-6, May-June 1993, Trackage by H. Raudenbush, February, 1961, p. 8.

I posted some South Brooklyn Railroad maps before but this map is more complete in showing the various sidings and connections to other railroads and rapid transit.  Notice the siding on 37th Street between Fort Hamilton Parkway and Ditmas Avenue.  Previous trolley trackage and loops such as the Kensington Junction Loop and the loop at First Avenue and 39th Street is also shown. This is a good detailed map and a notice shot of Locumotive #1 is included.

GRASS's 6.4.1 Prediction of River Channels in Southern Staten Island

  In the map below, I used GRASS 6.4.1  Hydrology Program and the "Carve" option to predict river channels based on street elevation.  Instead of using the input "river stream" I used the subway line shape file.  The results indicate that at the western end of the Staten Island Rapid Transit Railway, there was an image of a river channel from Tottenvile to around Richmond Valley Station.  In addition, there appears to be a low lying area along Seguine Avenue near Wolfe's Pond Park.   I highlighted the potential "stream" areas in red pencil and it would interesting if some reader(s) can tell me if the map was accurate in predicting actual flooding conditions.  May the residents effected have a speedy recovery from their many hardships connected with the storm.  Tramway Null(0).

  In the map below, I brought in the Hurricane Zone layer for zones A,B and C, where A is the zone in most danger of flooding.  It appears that the river channel program was accurate in predicting Zone A.  The GRASS 6.4.1 program does take into effect the elevations but the hydrology option sought of outlines where a river type of channel may be created and you can see this clearly on portion of the Staten Island Rapid Transit right of way and near Seguine Avenue.

Sao Paulo Electric Transport Map 1980

Source:  Porter, Harry, Editor, "Trolley Coach News", No. 49, Spring, 1980.  Map drawn by Allen Morrison, January, 1980, p. 58.

I had this interesting map of Electric Transport of Sao Paulo Brazil dated 1980 in my archive.  Map shows trolleybus lines, trolley bus lines under construction, metro stations at that time and the former tram network.  I hope that some of you will find this map useful.  "Trolley Coach News" is no longer published after many decades.