NYC Transit Operates Vintage Subway Trains For Father's Day Weekend Specials

Brooklyn, NY, June 16, 2018 -
NYC Transit operated vintage BMT AB Standards and other museum equipment as Father's Day Specials that coincided with the Coney Island Mermaid Parade. The vintage trains are the 100+year old 'Brooklyn Union cars; 'Train of Many Steels'; BMT D-types and BMT 'B-type' Standards on round-trips to the Kings Highway station and back to the Brighton Beach elevated station on the BMT 'Q' Brighton line in Brooklyn from 10 am to 4 pm both days.
Some of the parade participants boarded the old cars and posed for my camera on Saturday morning.

At 4:30 pm on Saturday, all the vintage equipment was lined up next to the Ocean Parkway station for a group photo-op of the historic rolling stock.

MTA Continues The Fight Against Sandy’s Destruction – This Time It’s the Greenpoint Tube

Queens/Brooklyn, NY, July 25, 2014 – As part of the recovery from Superstorm Sandy, parts of New York’s subway system was closed to rail traffic to speed repairs so trains could run again. Beginning Friday, July 25^th, a second tunnel, the Greenpoint Tunnel of the IND’s ‘G’ line, will be taken out of service to apply major fixes to damaged tunnel walls. For five weeks, riders using the Court Square, 21^St-Van Alst, Greenpoint Avenue and Nassau Avenue stations will need bus connections to go between Queens Plaza and Nassau Avenue. 125,000 riders use the G train daily and 30,000 of them are directly affected by the station outages.

This work is not suited to weekend closures and requires full 24/7 access to get the work completed effectively. The MTA’s Fix and Fortify Sandy Recovery Work is the protocol to combat the destruction for the tube that connects Long Island City, Queens with the Greenpoint section of Brooklyn until September 2.

The tunnel was ruined when 3 million gallons of salt water flooded the tunnel at the height of the storm. Tracks and equipment were totally submerged, and the tunnel’s pump controls, electrical, communications, fan control and signal equipment all incurred serious damage.  Power cables immersed in salt water corroded from the inside, while corrosion on rails and fasteners increased the potential for delay-causing failures. The controls for ventilation, lighting and communication systems were all destroyed and have yet to be restored to their level of pre-Sandy reliability.

NYC Transit President Carmen Bianco said in a prepared statement, “Our goal is to complete this work as quickly and efficiently as possible while exposing our customers to as little inconvenience as we possibly can by using the more lightly-traveled summer weeks to make repairs. To that end, we are providing an extraordinary amount of information to help our customers navigate around this vital work.”

Commuters are being offered a $4 ferry service ride from the India Street Pier in Greenpoint to Manhattan as a supplement to the bus substitution. 

Photo caption: NYCT's IND 'G' Crosstown local line in Queens with R-68 type equipment. Court Sq/21St-Van Alst/Greenpoint Ave. will be closed for 5 weeks to repair the damage in the Greenpoint Tunnel between Brookyn and Queens caused by Superstorm Sandy.

NYCT Subway Service 2012 Investments Announced

New York, NY, July 19, 2012 – The draconian service cuts made 2 years ago during the apex of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's (MTA) fiscal crisis may make a partial reversal while keeping the IND Queens-Brooklyn crosstown local ‘G’ train service extension in addition to some new transit operations. At that time in 2009, two subway lines and some bus services were either eliminated and others re-routed. Commuter trains were pared or combined to save money.

According to published reports, of the $90 million extra dollars stated in the MTA's most recent finance report (than were projected in the February budget), $20 million of that could go to fund the restored service. The news for straphangers isn’t all good as a 7.5% fare increase is expected to pay for it in March, 2013. The MTA’s adding and extending service on almost 40 bus, subway and commuter rail lines to better serve its customers, enhance access to mass transit, accommodate ridership growth and attract new transit customers. These investments come at a time when MTA ridership is steadily increasing across all forms of mass transit: subway ridership is at levels not seen since the 1950s; commuter train ridership is approaching all-time records and; bus service is at a premium for riders.

The G train story is of particular interest because the line was extended due to the Culver Viaduct repair work at the Smith-9th Street elevated stop over the deep-bottomed Gowanus Canal. Built in the 1930s, it was the only IND (New York City-built INDependent line) service constructed as an elevated. Due to wear and tear over the decades, the structure needed rebuilding which included a complete gutting and overhaul of that station. With the advent of the Culver Viaduct restoration work in 2009, the line was extended 5 stops to its current Church Avenue terminus with intermediate stops at Fourth Avenue-Ninth Street, Seventh Avenue, 15th Street-Prospect Park and Fort Hamilton Parkway.



EDITORS: The full-length article is available upon request to: jmcalisi@verizon.net

  

Christmas Time In New York - Get Out There And See It!!!

New York City, December, 2010 - New York is a fascinating city year-round but Christmas time in New York has its own special charms. With childhood dreams and a willingness to fulfill them a common wish in this holiday season, the opportunty to experience those and other desires are realized more during this time of year than any other. There are an endless number of places to visit in town and I'll clue you in on a few of them.

Holiday-themed productions are the rule this time of year and Wintuk is no exception for juggling, tricks and other amazing things to watch and have fun with.

If model trains are your thing, the Holiday Train Show at the New York Botancal Garden in The Bronx is a truly incredible experience. Garden-scale (also known as G-scale) trains meader their way through New York landmarks - and some of them are just memories now. The original New York Penn Station was destroyed in the 1960s where Madison Square Garden now stands but it has been resurrected and built with recycled plant parts. Trolley cars once ruled the streets of our city but now operate there again as the photo on the right suggests. The layout has a vast assortment of real and imagined trains. Waterfalls and rivers? Plenty of them! Bridges? Lots of them! This is 'a real worthy' as we say in the local vernacular!

If you're looking for a giant Christmas tree to see, Rockefeller Center's is not the only one. In the Financial District, a 60-foot Norway Spruce sits in front of the New York Stock Exchange. Just to the south of the tree, Broad Street has been made into an historic pathway as the history of the street is chronicled on the ground.

There are many different museums in Lower Manhattan that are open for visitors during the day. Federal Hall, The Museum Of American Finance and Fraunces Tavern are just three of them. There are some buildings in the area that date back to the American Revolution. There are many parks in the area including the first public park in North America - Bowling Green Park, which is where the American Revolution began and ended. A 3-day 'Culture Pass' gives you a discounted price and even transports you to each museum in this special program.



If you're looking for a real train to ride, 1930's vintage IND subway cars operate every Sunday from 10 am to 5 pm. The 'Shopper's Specials' (right) began operating November 28 from the 'F' Second Avenue station on the 6th Avenue IND line to the Queens Boulevard IND's Queens Plaza station. These are the cars of folklore - wicker seats, ceiling fans and all the smells and sounds of yore. The free rides (yes, you must pay the regular subway fare) end on December 26th.

The Italian American Museum at the corner of Mulberry and Grand Streets in Little Italy is an interesting place to learn about the immigration experience of Italians that migrated to this country. There are holiday-themed seminars and is a great snap shot of the past.



Grand Central Terminal rounds out this photo essay. Aside from the Main Concourse with its breath-taking sight, this historic structure also caters to shoppers. All kinds of goods are for sale in Vanderbilt Hall and food is available in the food courts on both levels.

What ever you do, enjoy the holiday season as here are a variety of places to go and places to see.