Wednesday April 9th was a beautiful and great day to take pictures of New York City. From across the Hudson River, the East River, or New York Bay. From railroad and subway station platforms and from the deck of the Verrazano Bridge and from the deck of the Staten Island Ferry. It was also another fun day for the Ridewithmehenry group. MNRR and NJT did their jobs of on time performance; PATH and MTA delivered us where we wanted to go without a hitch. Sort of. Every conveyance was where we needed it, when we needed it, and delivered us unscathed. However, we don’t like the Quiet Cars being first car when it is a cab car. Not only does it mean the door is closed to the engineer’s cab, so is the window blocked and the crew ain’t talken ‘cept to shut us up. I know, we’re the minority and we are wrong…but still, it does take away from the fun of riding trains. Not too different than what the vestibule and otherwise closeting of the cabin on the trains of the subway, PATH and SIRTT. Especially the latter two from us railfan’s perspective. It was the main factor that made the SIRT ride almost a waste of railfan time (the fact that we rode by rail to the most southern point in NY was the saving grace…but we need not do that again as only the St. George end of the line really piqued our railroad interests. Enough complaining already, there were great things beyond the clear blue sunny skies to make the day great. First and foremost the NY Transit Museum. Emphasize “Transit” and not “subway”. Yes, it is not easy to find because you’re looking for signs, arrows, and facades which don’t exist. What you’ve got to look for is a subway station entrance tucked low and around the corner, alongside a building and a few feet from the curb. Of course…old timers would know the old Court St. (Brooklyn Station of the BMT’ s GG train. And it is a transit museum extraordinaire dealing with everything transit including the building of the subway and elevated systems, the building and operation of the power systems, the buses and trolley cars as well as a sampling of subway train cars and equipment parked on the two tracks spliced by the station platform. This is a must visit for all rail and transit buffs. And really a short two blocks from several in service subway stations. We had taken the 7:44AM MNRR/NJT train out of Port Jervis with an on time arrival at Hoboken, got the PATH train to WTC, walked over to Fulton St. for the 4 train to Brooklyn Borough Hall station, viewed the transit museum fort the better part of two hours, lunched on Sabertt tub steaks from a cart, found the G train station and rode up to Smith and 9th, the highest station on the subway system , for some great views of the city and the harbor before boarding an F train for a one station hop for a transfer to the R train which would take us to 86th St. Brooklyn . Up the stairs to the waiting S53 bus which afforded more great views crssing the Narrows on the bridge named for them. At Grasmere the steps down o the SIRRT platform were virtually right there.. We rode to Tottenville then to St. George on a very loud and clunky sounding train but were deposited at the ferry terminal on time for the ride to South Ferry. Our walk from the to the PATH station was an adventure with street being blocked by construction and whatever forcing us through buildings and connecting bridges and getting virtually lost not knowing where we really were or really going. Or where one of our party went (took us about 15 minutes of backtracking and luck to find him backtracking to find us). Wound around and found PATH to Hoboken and Train 61 to Port Jervis. Had hoped for one of the two earlier trains but the silver lining…as far as railfans are concerned…was the nonstop ride from Secaucus to Harriman 62 minutes from the Hoboken bumping block and a tree minute early arrival at Port Jervis. Yeah even when something goes wrong, everything is right when you are riding trains for fun.
RIDEWITHMEHENRY is the name for our almost monthly day of riding trains and transit in either the NYCity or Philadelphia areas including all commuter lines, Amtrak, subways, light rail and trolleys, bus and ferries when warranted. No fees, just let us know you want to join the ride and pay your fares. Ask to be on our email list or find us on FB as RIDEWITHMEHENRY (all caps) to get descriptions of each outing.
Except that the GG, now the G, NEVER ran to Court Street. It was always the HH, and was four cars using only one of the two tracks, back and forth from Hoyt-Schermerhorn. But I forget whether it was the north track or the south track. Historically, the GG ran to Smith & 9th unless extended to Chrch Avenue.
The HH sign said: HH, Fulton St. Local. But of course it did not run on Fulton St. The original inteniton was for Court-Euclid HH local service with the A providing express service and then running local beyond Euclid where the subway would continue way out in Queens, not using the BMT el structure.
Sadly, the full width cabs on Subway cars eliminate the railfan window.
NorthWest Sadly, the full width cabs on Subway cars eliminate the railfan window.
It actually goes beyond full width cabs, NorthWest. PATH goes to the extreme with full bulkhead, no windowed door while others have full or partially frosted or otherwise black windows in the door. But where there is a three inch square "clear" view in the center which does not allow one to see but straight ahead, the motormen will taped newspapers or other paper to cover that view, too. Some windows are scratched or otherwise "adjusted" by motormen so as not be be able to see. Being in a first car like that is like being in an elevator: you don't see anything but do have a sense of motion.
Boston also has the full bulkhead on their Orange, Red and Blue cars. I don't remember about the SEPTA cars on the Broad Street or Market-Frankford lines. I don't think anyone is buying cars with half-width cabs anymore.
Do many of these agencys have to board on both side of train for any run. It certainly is true on Atlanta's MARTA ? In fact at least one stop both sides of train.
Usually it is one side. But at some stations and terminals, it might be both sides.
Generally, at stations on three-track lines, express trains have doors opened only the side that allows interchange with the locals going in the same dirrection. The only exception is when all trains in one direction run on the express track because of track, signal, construcdtion, or station work. Then, doors open on both sides to permit interchange for passengers going to or from by passed stations.
The Long Island's Jamaica station is famous for the platforms on both sides of the train...a set both eastbound and westbound. During peak or rush hours the train on the track with the platforms becomes a walk through ramp for commuters!
Another such station is the PATH Hoboken Station where, from the head concourse looking toward the trains the track for 33rd St. bound trains on the far left has a platform on each side; arriving trains open doors on the right to empty train and to the left (again as we are looking, opposites if you are riding) for boarding. Similarly the WTC line trains share the platform with the incoming 33rd St. train for boarding and its own farther to the right for detraining. The trains enter the station from the west and leave to the west then turn south and east.
Furthering Henry's explana tion, remember that LIRR inbound commuters are headed to four destinations: Penn Station, of course, Atlantic and Flatobush Avenue, Brooklyn. Hunterspoint Ave/LI City with connection to "7" train, and Woodside, with "7" and Triboro Bridge bus connections. Soon there will be a fifth, GCT!
Jamaica has 3 tracks (in both directions) with the available cross-platform arrangement. Can I presume that generally there is one track for each of the 3 end points: Atlantic Terminal; LI City; and Penn Station?
We are talking about the LIRR here. You cannot count on anything all the time based on schedules. Westbound, the outer track can have Jamaica terminating trains or a NYP terminating train or both for instance. But westbound is the easier to predict whereby eastbound, because of the greater number of destinations available and because they all can change so rapidly over the hour or the day.
Generally, the eastbound track assignments are more related to where the train is coming from rather than where it is going. It may have changed in some 18 years since I was there, but generally, the Babylon trains used the center track of the three, whether they were running express to Penn, stopping at Woodside, or going to Brooklyn.
Manhattan bound track assignments seem more stable and sure while outbound tracks can vary. It seems like the interlocking east of the platforms does more of the sorting and direction work than what had been west of the station leading to Morris Park yards.. There is actually 2 and half selections westbound: 1) Brooklyn Barclay Center; 2a) New York Penn Sta. and 2b) Hunterspoint Ave and LIC via Woodside (2a and 2b using the same main west of Jamaica). The Lower Montauk is no longer part of the LIRR but of the NY&A from Sunnyside and Fresh Pond. Eastbound the choices are 1) Montauk, Speonk and Patchouge, 2) Babylon, 3) Long Beach 4) West Hempstead 5) Far Rockaway, 6 Hempstead, 7) Oyster Bay, 8) Huntington 9) Port Jefferson 10) Ronkonkoma and Greenport. Again most of the sorting and dispatching is done off the east end of the platforms but the preliminary slotting is done from the west. It is a great railfan experience to stand on the east end of the platforms and see as many at 10 trains moving at once in a mixture of arrivals and departures.
That is quite a change from what I remember, and probably results from the massive rebuilding of the tracks, with higher speed switches, etc. especially east of the station.
And add to the mix are the trains that don't stop at Jamaica and use the bypass tracks to and from Penn Station only. I presume these trains still have their red lights lit as well as the white lights.
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