BusTalk :: View topic - On this day in 1964, we beheld the glorious future....... (2024)

https://www.nycsubway.org/perl/show?21179

(courtesy: nycsubway.org)

1:

Note "Aitch & Em" (n foreground) "toid rails".

1:

Note the experimental "Blue Train" in the background ( Your's Truly well recalls this unique consist!); the grilled panel replacing the vestibule door of car #430 was part of an experimental a/c unit.

Note the modern doors on car #472, clearly reflecting those used on the "joint service" cars ("MP-52/K-class") cars of 1958..........

"NYO"

["PATH"]

W.B.:

Here is the CORRECT link (see what happens when you're a die-hard, card-carrying insomniac)?

https://www.nycsubway.org/perl/show?21778 *

(courtesy: nycsubway.org)

*This yard has been totally obliterated and the site now so built over you would not know that the yard ever existed.

The tunnel that connected the yard to the Grove Street station has also long ago been sealed...........

["P.A.T.H."]

You should find this of interest, from:

"ELECTRIC RAILWAY PIONEER" (Demoro)

This book deals with the electrification of the NWP's Marin-area (SF) commuter lines in 1903..........

".......electric third rail was used in the electrification instead of overhead trolley wire, which could interfere with freight trains......" (the NWP's "toid rail" was over-riding, like the "Noo Yawk" subways and Els)

"........new third rail weighing 60 pounds per yard were laid in 30-foot lengths on about half the line. The remainder was 56-lb rail salvaged from the narrow gauge trackage......."

".......in the yards and at the Sausalito ferry terminal, the contact rail was mounted on reconstructed granite insulators. Elsewhere, wooden blocks were used, startling the operators of eastern electric railways....."

".......the NWP's third rail was, of course, never subjected to the heavy snows and freezing temperatures that were the bane of Eastern rapid transit systems. ......"

".......heavy copper cables, the traditional means of transmitting the direct current from the power house and substations to the third rail, were not used; aluminum rods were used instead......."

The NWP's electric suburban lines (and the connecting ferryboats) made their final runs in 1941 (interestingly, though regular tickets were used, the conductors aboard the NWP's electrics used OHMER registers suspended from the car ceilings, to ring up fares)

In the late 1920s, the NWP took delivery of a group of new steel/aluminum, owl-eyed cars, as part of the railroad's modernization project.

However, these new cars only supplemented the original fleet of old open-platform wooden cars, and both the old and the new soldiered on side-by-side, connecting with the ferryboats at Sausalito, until the NWP abandoned all commuter service in 1941.

The new cars were hefty indeed; they were sold to the PE in 1941, where they became the iconic "Blimps", which ran until the last PE line, the line to Long Beach, was converted to buses in 1961......

"NYO"

["MANOR"]

Nowadays, rapid transit/commuter trains utilizing "toid rail" no longer have lights that "blink" when passing through switches.

GOH'd subway cars (except for the famed "Redbirds") all lost the "blinking lights going through switches" feature after being rebuilt (Your's Truly STILL misses those days!)

Interestingly, in 1903, the aforementioned NWP utilized a unique system (recall there were motors and trailers in these trains) where a heavy electrical cable were strung through the trains (through the use of sockets) so that the lights in the cars remained lit when the train was passing through switches.

And also, so that the motors in the cars at each end of the train would stay connected............

"NYO"

["SAN ANSELMO"]

Recall, in the early years of the "INTERBOROUGH" (subway), most trackage was still underground; on the early "Bee-Are-Tee", however, there was much trackage that was out-of-doors, and thus exposed to the elements.

Recall, originally, that "Bee-Are-Tee" elevated trains only utilized "toid rail" on the elevated structures themselves; once operating at surface level, they utilized surface trackage, often sharing the rails with local streetcars.

When the new "Standards" were coming on line (circa-1915), the West End depot at Coney Island used low-level platforms 9and trolley wires) for the El trains originating at Park Row, and new high-level platforms (and "toid rails" for the new steel "Standards"....................

"NYO"

["FREQUENT ELECTRIC TRAINS TO NEW YORK"]

Note that, at that time, no "Steels" were yet to be seen, and overhead trolley wires dominated..........

https://www.nycsubway.org/perl/show?117053

(courtesy: nycsubway.org)

["B.R.T."]

Note the early "toid rail" in this view, and the cars with trolley poles..........

https://www.nycsubway.org/perl/show?116198

(courtesy: nycsubway.org)

["PARK ROW"]

Note both the "toid rail" shoe and the trolley wheel.............

https://www.nycsubway.org/perl/show?141879

(courtesy: nycsubway.org)

["BROOKLYN RAPID TRANSIT"]

From: "UNDER THE SIDEWALKS OF NEW YORK" (Cudahy)...........

".........the new Standards should have between put to work on the Centre Street Loop as soon as they arrived on the property, but wooden El cars continued to ply the Willamsburg Bridge until the Broadway El was upgraded to handle the weight of the new steel subway cars........"

"NYO"

["A.C.F."]

Recall, too, that when the "Steels" (aka "Brooklyn Battleships") were still the "new kids on the block", the cavernous Chambers Street station was a TERMINAL, and, indeed, the "heart" of the "Bee-Em-Tee"; and, for a brief time, even playing host to the LIRR's MP-41s, running out to Rockaway Beach.

When one stands in awe of the decaying, echoing Chambers Street station (indeed, a perfect set for a "Temple Of Doom"-type "INDiana Jones" flick, it is easy to see why this vast, decrepit station built as massive as it was, considering what a bustling hub it was for so many years (SEE POST FOLLOWING).........

["SEA BEACH EXPRESS"]

Last edited by NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629 on Fri May 17, 2024 7:17 pm; edited 2 times in total