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Brooklyn Elevated Lines

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Brooklyn Elevated Lines
Posted by daveklepper on Saturday, April 11, 2020 6:08 PM

Two piectures obtained from Transit Authority files by Jeff Erliltz and one I've had for some time, possibly mine:

1.  The rush-hour branch of the Fulton Street line to the Fulton Ferry and its exposed, unprotected platform, that stayed in rush-hour service to relieve congestion on he Brooklyn Bridge, even after the ferry service to Manhattan was discontinued.  Jeff did not provide a caption for "2," but I believe it is where that branch passed under the Fifth Avenue Elevated (Bay Ridge and Culver) connection to the Brooklyn Bridge.  5.  Looking south to the intersection of Broadway (Brooklyn) and  Myrtle Avenue.  The ramp tracks continued in use for the "M" but have been replaced with a rebuilding of the structuer.

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Posted by Penny Trains on Saturday, April 11, 2020 7:24 PM

Look at those wrought iron railings!  What a civilized mode of transport!  Big Smile

Trains, trains, wonderful trains.  The more you get, the more you toot!  Big Smile

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Posted by Flintlock76 on Saturday, April 11, 2020 7:38 PM

I love the look of those elevated cars!  Not quite out of the 19th Century, but not quite into  the 20th either.  They straddle both centuries beautifully. 

And if I understand correctly, with certain modifications they lasted nearly 50 years.

Speaking of which, I just noticed that "Esso" gas station sign down on street level.  Is this 1940, or 1950 perhaps?

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Posted by Overmod on Sunday, April 12, 2020 9:36 AM

Flintlock76
Speaking of which, I just noticed that "Esso" gas station sign down on street level.  Is this 1940, or 1950 perhaps?

The sign is metal, and lit by gooseneck (probably incandescent) lamps.  The thing that will probably date the scene best is the gas pumps, which have a distinctive style and were probably replaced at some date range by still more 'modern' ones.  There are gas-pump enthusiasts who make railroad rivet-counting look a bit simplistic, and in some of their discussions we might find enough answers.

I see parts of several vehicles in the picture: one is a fender and wheel across the street from the gas station; another is what appears to be a bus in the street past the curving tracks.  I'm not a bus expert, but it looks to me that someone who is might have a comparatively tight 'possible' date range given the other clues.  There are a couple of 'car tops' visible just across the pillar to the right of the Esso sign; I at first thought the severe outline of windows in the 'bottom' one was a roofline from the early to mid-Sixties seen on its left side, but I now think it's a much older (e.g. '30s) vehicle seen from behind, on its right side, with 'clear vision' front windows and a high curved roof with small backlight.  Can't stop seeing the upper one as '50s, though... perhaps a pickup cab?

 

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Posted by Flintlock76 on Sunday, April 12, 2020 10:04 AM

Yeah, dating this photo sure isn't as easy as dating the one in the older elevated thread David started, you know, the one with the square-rigger in the background?

That was easy!

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Posted by Jones1945 on Sunday, April 12, 2020 10:30 AM

Elevated Trains, New York City :

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Posted by daveklepper on Sunday, April 12, 2020 1:44 PM

Jones, you can leave the fine video here too, but please, please post on the Third Avenue Elevated Thread!

Come to think of it, it was posted possibly about 18 months or two years ago.  Still, having an up-to-date posting means more people will see it.

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Posted by gmpullman on Sunday, April 12, 2020 3:50 PM

Atlantic Avenue, 1910:

 Brooklyn by Edmund, on Flickr

The Detroit Publishing Company.

There's so much to see here, really multiple scenes in one!

 Brooklyn_Newsstand by Edmund, on Flickr

The pretty lady deserves attention. And that lovely hat!

 Brooklyn_Polka-dots by Edmund, on Flickr

 

A media blitz! Wrigleys. Anyone recognize the colonel's cleaner? [I'm guessing Bon-Ami, his belt buckle features a large "B"]

 Brooklyn_Broadsides by Edmund, on Flickr

What appears to be car #117. Just another run for the motorman:

 Brooklyn_Car-117 by Edmund, on Flickr

A crop of the newsstand. That's the August 6, 1910 issue of "The Post" featuring the Businessman Mowing the Lawn.

 Brooklyn_Magazines by Edmund, on Flickr

Original negative from the Library of Congress.

Thank you, Ed

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Posted by Flintlock76 on Sunday, April 12, 2020 4:04 PM

That young lady's a cutie all right, and I see she's got the undivided attention of a young man too!

I don't recognize that brand of cleanser, but I sure recognize the Wrigley's gum ad all the way to the left.  They were plastered all over the Erie stations on the New Jersey commuter lines at this same time period.

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Posted by Overmod on Sunday, April 12, 2020 6:03 PM

gmpullman
Anyone recognize the colonel's cleaner? [I'm guessing Bon-Ami, his belt buckle features a large "B"]

For heaven's sake, it's Babbitt's.

Bon Ami had a newborn chick with the slogan 'Hasn't Scratched Yet'...

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Posted by gmpullman on Sunday, April 12, 2020 6:33 PM

Overmod
For heaven's sake, it's Babbitt's.

OK, didn't mean to get too fussy. Thanks for your input anyway. I was just curious.

From what I recall, Bon Ami had several slogans in use.

https://www.nycsubway.org/perl/caption.pl?/img/maps/bmt_1924.gif

Respectfully submitted, Ed

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Posted by Flintlock76 on Sunday, April 12, 2020 7:49 PM

Ah, Mike and Vince strike again!

I have to admit I don't remember Bab-O, or Babbit's for that matter.  Comet?  Yes.  Ajax?  Certainly.  Various store brands?  Absolutely.  I guess Mom didn't like it.

But it looks like it's still around!

https://www.cvs.com/shop/dollar-deals-bab-o-fast-action-bleach-stains-away-cleanser-prodid-329728  

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Posted by daveklepper on Sunday, April 12, 2020 9:19 PM

Flatbush and Atlantic from the originsl glsss-plate negative:

But the earlier posting in my opinion is better wih contrast improved.

The head-house of the entrance to the Brighton Line subway station (not yet opeened in 1919) and the IRT subway station.  These co-existed with the elevated station and he use of 1000-seeries arch-roof convertable cars unil Unification, June 1940, when all Culver trains were switched to the 4th Avenue subway. the Bay Ridge trains discontinued, and the demolition of the 5th Avenue Elevated initiated.  .

 

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Posted by daveklepper on Monday, April 13, 2020 6:06 AM

Curve 38th St. to 3rd Avenue, Bay ridge Branch

Possibly already posted on the South Brooklyn thread.

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Posted by Overmod on Monday, April 13, 2020 8:31 AM

Flintlock76
I have to admit I don't remember Bab-O

Bab-O is one of those things, like Whink, that are more or less amazing to see marketed to 'ordinary housewives' for problem cleaning.  It contains not only scouring grit, but a powerful detergent, and a chlorinating agent: the stuff is remarkably well-suited to dealing with coronavirus on surfaces and I'm surprised the campaign hasn't caught up yet.

I have to confess that I always thought of the name as being a kind of artifact of the '20s flapper culture, like '23-skidoo' or my cousin Elizabeth's nickname 'Libbo' in that era.  Kind of the K-mart to Babbitt Soap's Kresge.

I certainly remember Bab-O better than most.  Our Latin master at the Englewood School for Boys in 8th grade was a corpulent individual by the name of Conrad Babrowsky.  The nickname we used for him was pretty obvious...

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Posted by daveklepper on Monday, April 13, 2020 9:09 AM

My Latin Master  at Columbia Grammar Preparatory was "Doc" B. Been(e?)

An ex-Baptist Minister!  I took piano lessons from his wife.

Favoite sayings:   "It's too late to pray when the Devil has got you."

"The 'gin' owner does not care which rout you rook to bring the cotton, just the qualify of the cotton."

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Posted by Overmod on Monday, April 13, 2020 9:54 AM

daveklepper
"The 'gin' owner does not care which route you took to bring the cotton, just the quality of the cotton."

How very different from the rationale of 'new math'!

The master the following year, Mr. Clark (with his elfin shoes), was fond of saying he didn't like four-letter words in his classroom.  Words like "test", or "exam", or "quiz".

He gave us a hard test one day, which very few passed (regrettably me not among them).  So many, in fact, that he said he'd consider it a fluke, and would give us a retest.

Of course what appeared the day of the test was precisely the same questions on the same piece of paper.

Amusingly, there were still 'those among us' who did not pass (this time, me not among them) so he gave them a shot at a retest.

Which, of course, was once again the same questions on the same piece of paper.  That man understood how to deal with ninth-graders.

We've mentioned this before, but https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lczHvB3Y9s

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Posted by Deggesty on Monday, April 13, 2020 10:22 AM

Yes, I remember Bab-O; I do not remember that my mother used it, but my grandmother did.

Johnny

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Posted by daveklepper on Monday, April 13, 2020 10:35 AM

Overmpod.  Thanks!  I wish I had used that system when I taught architectural acoustics as City College!  I'll keep it mind.

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Posted by Flintlock76 on Monday, April 13, 2020 11:14 AM

Brilliant YouTube clip Mod-man!  I wonder how many taggers would indulge in their "hobby" if they were caught by a no-nonsense sergeant-major (Roman, British, or other) and pummelled into a grammar lesson?  

"Right!  Wot's all this then?"

Per David's last two photos, I'm really impressed with the way those elevated stations and lines were built.  Talk about permanence!  No doubt about it, that system was built to last!

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Posted by Flintlock76 on Monday, April 13, 2020 9:32 PM

The steam ship New York!   (Actually City Of New York.)  

That's the ship that was pulled from it's moorings in Southampton harbor by the "suction," for lack of a better term, of the passing Titanic!  

A collision between the two ships was prevented by some aggressive tugboat work and Captain Smith of the Titanic  calling for increased revolutions on the port engine which pushed the New York  away from the larger ship.  

That photo's got to be pre-1903, the New York  underwent a major refit starting in 1901 and lost one of her three funnels at the time.  She re-entered service in '03.

Amazing what people turn up for this Forum, isn't it?  

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Posted by daveklepper on Monday, April 13, 2020 9:57 PM

Wow!  Need to put a reference to this thread on the Fateful Journey thread.

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Posted by M636C on Tuesday, April 14, 2020 4:31 AM

"Of course what appeared the day of the test was precisely the same questions on the same piece of paper."

I am reminded of my final year examinations where we were expecting a question on a reduction gear for use between an aero engine and its propellor.

A friend and I tried separately to work on a sample question in our nominated textbook, which fortunately had an answer in the back of the book, this on the morning of the examination.

We applied rather unthinkingly the procedure we had been shown, but we both failed to get the printed answer.

Finally, my colleague came down to my cubicle and explained that we had been applying the the formula unthinkingly. In the example we had been given, gear A meshed with B and gear C meshed with gear D.  In the textbook, gear A meshed with C and B with D.

We both worried abut how we had wasted our time on a simple question by not paying attention.

Come the exam, we turned over the paper and saw that the first question was the question from the textbook with even the numerical values unchanged.

For the only time in my life, I wrote he answer at the bottom of the page and filled in the working backwards because I knew every step in the process backwards.

It appears that nobody else in the class had checked the textbook, and my friend and I topped that class.

And I don't think I'm related to Overmod's maths teacher.

Peter

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Posted by daveklepper on Sunday, May 31, 2020 9:47 AM

Jeff Erlitz forwarded me a great summer 1950 (last year for the Lex. El.) picture at Lexington Avenue and Grand Street in Brooklyn.  By 1950, only four, five, or six of the window panels of the 1300-series composite convertible motor cars were replaced by summer panels.  Notice the cavass shades drawn, since some riders wanted sun protection.  Note there are two trains in this picture.  The full-viewed 1300 is the first car of a train moving north, left-to-right in the picture, and the 900-series trailer, which saw service behind steam, is on the far track, and its lead 1300 motor's platform gate is also visible.

Compare with the much earlier Flatbush and Atlantic picture when all summer panels were used on convertables.

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Posted by daveklepper on Friday, April 2, 2021 9:45 AM

Just received frm a fellow MIT OLd-Senior-House Alimnus, Flatbush & Atlantic:

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Posted by daveklepper on Monday, April 5, 2021 4:08 AM

There is now a plaque on the still-existing headhouse for the IRT Atlantic Avenue Station.  Originally the station was just an island-platform, two-track, termnal station, the southern terminal of the original subway's Brooklyn Extension.  But, before WWI, under the Dual Contracts, the second IRT East-River Tunnel brought the outside two tracks and the side platforms, so the station serves the 4 and 5 at the inside platorm and the 2 and 3 at the outside platorms. And within fare-control one can reach the Q and B at their Atlantic Avenue Station, the A and C at the Jay Street - Borough Hall Station, and the D, N, and R at their Pacific Street Station.  Outside fare control and also an underground right-of-way currently without track, are passeges to the LIRR Atlantic Avenue Terminal.

The above is currrent, sent by another MIT-Senior-House alumnus.

But going back 74 years, while photographing the DeKalb Avenue streetcar line, I glanced sideways toward Lexington Avenue, spied an elevated train, and was in-time to catch its last car:  (Except that Joe Frank corrected me and explained thatv I must have been at 2nde Avenue & 86th Street, Msnhsttan, his neighbolrhood, andv photographed a 3rd Avenue Thru Express gate-car train's last car northbound or 1st car light-move southbound. 

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Posted by daveklepper on Monday, April 5, 2021 4:34 AM

I should note that the N bypasses Pacific Street most of the time.  Does the D during rush hour?

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Posted by daveklepper on Tuesday, June 1, 2021 2:45 AM

 
 
 
 
A Lexington Avenue Bridge & Jay - Grant Avenue elevated train on the connecting track,
also used by the 14th Street - Lefferts Avenue multi rush-hour service.
 
Today the connection does not see revenue service and remains only to connect the "L" 14th-Street-Canarsie Line to the rest of the system.
 
I wonder if both tracks still exist, or does only one remain?
 
A great place for a photo stop for a future BU-gate-car Nostalgia Special, with
photographers leaving the train at Broadway Junction, ENY - Easter Parkway and
reboarding at Atlantic Avenue.
 
 
 

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