STAND CLEAR OF THE CLOSING GATES, PLEASE
--------------------------------------
John Pazmino
NYSkies Astronomy Inc
www.nyskies.org
nyskies@nyskies.org
2004 November 13
[This article was written before NYSkies set up its website and has
minor editing, mainly to remove residual typos]
Introduction
----------
Thruout 2004 the March of Dimes (MOD) is running excursions on the
New York subway using the Transit Museum's nostalgic trains. March of
Dimes hires the Museum trains from time to time, along with a transit
crew, for its benefit functions..
I went on two of these trips and reported on these in 'Crossing
the bridge' and 'Dis da A train' here in NYSkies. On those occasions
the R1/9 vehicles were highlighted.
In November 2004 MOD has a set of four trips, on the 6th, 7th,
20th, and 21st. Because on the 7th and 20th I have other engagements
(actually related to astronomy, if you can believe that!), I grabbed
the chance to take in the November 6th ride
Unspecified surprise
------------------
The advertisement for the November trips was a bit vague. It
promoted the Lo-V (loh-vee) train, a tour of the 207th St shops, and
some unspecified surprise.
The Lo-V train was featured on October 23rd and 24th in the parade
of nostalgic trains on the BMT Brighton line. A friend from the
Transit Museum got me rides on it, there being no public rides for
that show. It would be fun to get a ride again on this MOD trip.
The shop tour would be interesting. I missed several previous
chances to visit this or other shops around the transit system.
And what ever other 'surprise' may come to me, well, that would be
an extra treat.
I hurried to the meeting place, the center platform of Columbus
Circle, IND 8th Av, for the noontime start of the trip. I met up with
a transit buddy and about a hundred other subway fans. We drew stares
from the regular subway riders because we were on a platform normally
closed from the public. Across the tracks we shouted that we were
waiting for a special tour train.
The R1/9 train
------------
The initial part of the MOD tour was a ride on the IND classic
coaches of the R1 thru R9 contract series. I elaborated on this coach
in my two previous articles. This train has been in routine service on
excursions all thruout 2004 both for MOD and the Transit Museum as
part of the subway's centennial celebrations.
The ride was entirely uneventful, a run downtown from Columbus
Circle to World Trade Center and then uptown to Dyckman Street, all on
the IND 8th Av line. We had only one photo stop at World Trade Center,
which I passed up for already having plenty of pictures of this train.
At Dyckman St the train left the mainline and spiraled into the
surface-level 207th St shops.
207th Street shops
----------------
The 207th St shop was the main depot for the IND system when it
opened in 1930. Altho primarily a repair and service depot, it can
sleep about twenty full length trains on its fan of tracks. This shop
is located between Sherman Creek and Isham Park against the Harlem
River flank of Manhattan's panhandle.
On a map it does look small, maybe a block wide and a couple long.
When our train broke into daylight out of the subway, I was surprised
how vast this place is! It looks to be something like 1 by 1/2
kilometer in area.
On the high sea
-------------
This shop illustrates one of the weird features of cargo railroads
in New York City. They are isolated from the rails west of the Hudson
River. Passenger rails cross the river thru Penn Station but no
freight trains are allowed on them.
To move rail cargo between Rest of World and the City, the trains
are sent to a yard to be cut apart into short segments. The segments
are floated across the river om barges to an other yard, where the
train is reassembled into its original full length.
This system of ferrying trains across the Hudson is the 'car
float' system. It's not unique to the City but New York has far and
away the largest and best developed car float in the country. Each
year about 150,000 cargo cars are floated across Hudson River by the
several depots on the New York side and the one depot in Greenville,
on the New Jersey side.
When subway cars are transferred to or from the transit property,
they travel by car float from the 207th Street, or at Sunset Park,
shops. There we saw on the banks of the Harlem River the car float
terminal, a veritable ferry slip, complete with the hooks and pulleys!
It could have been for motor vehicles except that tracks led up to it.
The barge has rails on it to line up with those on land, so the
rail cars can be rolled on or off. On the barge the car wheels are
chocked. Tugboats move the barge to the Greenville terminal.
Next stop, Davy Jones' locker
---------------------------
The car float at 207th Street was dormant during our trip. It's
only once in a while that subway cars move on or off the property.
However, in this 21st century the car float was in heavy use for a
really strange mission.
In 2000-2004 the entire fleet of oldest cars for the IRT lines was
replaced by brand new vehicles. The old ones, called Redbirds from
their dark red paint scheme, were sent to Davy Jones' locker.
Seriously, I'm not making this up.
The cars were brought to the 207th Street shops, cleaned and
stripped of obnoxious materials, then loaded on the barges. They were
towed to offshore sites up and down the East Coast to be dumped
overboard! When settled on the ocean floor, they become havens for
reefs. Within months, the cars host new colonies of coral, fish, and
other sealife. Divers now explore the cars like underwater caves.
In all, thru the last of the Redbirds in summer 2004, some 1.100
old IRT cars were 'reefed'. They sit off New Jersey, Maryland,
Delaware, and South Carolina.
Apartheid?!?!
-----------
You quickly learn after riding the New York subway for a few
months that the cars on the IRT are distinct from those on the IND and
BMT. The most obvious distinction between the two phyla of car is
their width, length, and doors.
IRT cars are about 2.7 meters wide; IND/BMT, 3. IRT cars are all
about 15 meters long with three doors on each side; IND/BMT, 18 to 23
with four. With the both sets of car side by side on the yard tracks,
these distinctions are all the more vivid.
The reason for this separated development is the stuff of urban
legend. It's really quite simple. The tunnels of the IRT, built under
19th century norms of railroading, are narrower and the curves are
tighter than on the BMT or IND. The latter two networks were built in
the 20th century with more ample clearances. Cars made for the latter
tunnels and turns will not fit into the IRT.
To clear up one mistaken reason, the track gage (distance between
the rails) and power supply are the same for all three divisions. And
this is a good thing.
IRT on IND!
--------
Despite the necessity to keep the fleets separate for regular
service, the IRT and IND/BMT are interconnected at various points so
that IRT cars can be moved to shops, like that at 207th Street. The
interconnects were made in the postwar era after the City acquired
the private IRT and BMT companies to merge operations with the City-
owned IND. In this process the IRT's own central repair depot was
eventually closed for being too obsolete.
For the 207th Street shop the link is between the 207th St and
215th St stations on the IRT Upper Broadway line, which runs adjacent
to the shop. It is a ramp leading into the uptown local track, so a
train entering the Upper Broadway line is heading uptown. Switches
near 215th St station allow the train to get to the other tracks for
an express or downtown run.
This link, and all others thruout the subway, is carefully guarded
to make sure only IRT cars cross over it, and never a BMT or IND car.
Where's the power?
----------------
Our R1/9 train paused outside one hall, then started slowly into
it. We deboarded from the front end door and rollaway steps. We filed
along a marked path under guidance from the shop crew. Off limits
areas were roped off and we were advised to keep within the delineated
paths for obvious (and not so obvious) safety reasons.
The tracks in this hall are depressed to floor level like trollwy
tracks and there is no longer a third rail. Besides the danger from
contact by shop workers, the floor has to be smooth for moving wagons,
carts, even motor vehicles around the shop. Third rail is laid only
along the outdoor tracks of the shops, with occasional breaks for foot
and road crossings.
To move a train within the shop or to feed electric to its
mechanisms, heavy duty power cables are clamped to the power shoes.
These are the 'tongues' hanging out between each pair of wheels of a
subway car. They slide on the third rail to collect the electric. Our
train paused outside the repair hall to attach this cable.
Time warp
-------
For the subway centennial some of the Museum trains were
overhauled in this shop. They were in various states of decay from
neglect or natural erosion. As we walked about, we saw four of these
trains, First was the R1/9 train we arrived on. A team of workers
started checking it over for later use in the centennial celebrations.
There was the Lo-V train, which we anticipated riding later in the
day. Then we spotted the 'gate cars', which was the star of the
October parade. Last up was the 'train of many colors'. This was a
gaggle of IRT cars from the 1950s and 1960s, fully restored and
painted in their original factory colors. Since the IRT went thru
several color patterns over the years, we end up with a technicolor
set of cars, the 'train of many colors'.
Watching the shop crews work on these trains, with modern tools,
equipment, machines, was, erm, crazy. All the more so because the
crews tended to these trains as casually and routinely as with the new
models on adjacent tracks!
Choo-choo chow
------------
The trip began at noon and it was now a little after 13h. The shop
set up a mess for us with belly-packing fare. I filled up with a
chicken hero sandwich and bottle of fruit juice, then scooped up
potato and macaroni salad. We deployed on the floor or at work tables
around the shop.
Alas, as welcome as this lunch was, it made most of us miss the
formal tour of the shop. The line for lunch was long and slow. And we
were then encumbered with plates and bottles. Never the less, the shop
crew accommodated to our questions and we took in enough of the
activity to fill our interest.
The Transit Museum had souvenir stands with its mix of old and new
transit items. I passed up on this, being that I work near the
Museum's store in Grand Central Terminal. The favored item was a steel
handhold, the 'strap' you hang from on crowded train, from reefed
Redbirds. The director of my office has one in his room mounted on the
wall for grabbing in tense moments.
Wheelies
------
The hall we were in catered to the wheels and trucks of subway
cars. There were seemingly hundreds of trucks, the heavy carriage
encasing the motors and wheels, lined up soldier-like on one side of
the repair hall. On the sunken depowered rails, they looked very
innocent. When galvanized, each truck sucks in 600 volts and spits out
400 horsepower.
Between and below the rails was a man-high trench, reached by
stairs from the floor level. This lets the underside of the trucks to
be inspected and maintained. I can imagine how fanaticly torrid this
trench is when a truck is moved over it fresh from the road.
To repair or replace a truck, the car is moved under a travelling
crane. The entire car body is hoisted off of the truck. Yep, the car
just sits on the truck with a sleeve bearing around the truck pivot
with no mechanical connection. Electrical contact with the rest of the
car is made with flexible detachable cables.
The wheels are seated on the axle by shrink fit. The wheel is
electricly heated, making it and its center hole expand. The wheel is
pushed onto the axle by hydraulic press and allowed to cool. The
shrinking wheel grabs the axle with around 40 tons of pressure!
Removing a wheel is done by brute force. The hydraulic press yanks
the wheel off of the axle. After dressing the axle for scoring and
gouging, it's ready for a replacement wheel.
Surprise!!!
---------
The Lo-V train wasn't ready for us yet. To pass the time, the crew
rolled out the gate cars.
The gate cars!!
These are the oldest car in the Museum, built in 1903, predating
the underground railroad. They were made by the BMT's predecessor
Brooklyn Rapid Transit, which at the time was converting its els from
steam locomotives to electric third rail.
Remember that the 'centennial' you're hearing about is for only
the SUBWAY. New York City (and the then-separate Brooklyn) were
running rapid transit by steam locomotives and elevated structures
since the 1870s.
Only three specimina of the original many hundred coaches survive.
For decades they were static exhibits in the Museum. At 207th St shop
they were carefully restored to a glistening factory-fresh condition.
I missed actually riding them in the parade on October 23rd and 24th,
being content then to photograph them from the stations along the way.
Tragic history
------------
These cars, like all el cars of the early 20th century, were
patterned after railroad vehicles of the 19th century. They were made
of wood with simple fittings and furnishings. The earliest models were
trailers, no motors, for being hauled by miniature locomotives. These
particular gate cars are among the first set of electric rapid transit
vehicles in New York.
The Brooklyn system was an all-el grid spreading out from what is
now Cadman Plaza to the far corners of the city. Urban astronomers now
today starview in Cadman Plaza on the exact spot where the sprawling
Brooklyn el terminal and yard stood on stilts high above the streets.
In the 1910s Brooklyn Rapid Transit began building subways and
ordered new cars. By then steel was the preferred material, a practice
initiated by the IRT company for its own subways. But the BRT
continued running the woods on both el and underground sections.
On 1 November 1918 during a wildcat walkout by train drivers, the
BRT sent office workers to run its trains. One was assigned to a wood
train -- virtually the same as our gate cars -- starting from
Manhattan's City Hall (Brooklyn has its own, thank you very much),
over Brooklyn Bridge, thru the Cadman Plaza complex, and eventually
onto the Brighton line.
The driver had only momentary tuition at the controls. He entered
Prospect Park station, on a short tunnel under Malbone Street, too
fast. The train derailed. The wood cars burst against concrete walls.
Third rail sparks ignited fires. Some 100 riders were killed, an other
hundred were injured.
So horrible was the accident that the BRT reorganized as the
Brooklyn Manhattan Transit company, the BMT. The street was rebuilt
and renamed Empire Boulevard. (A short piece of the old alignment of
Malbone St remains a kilometer east of Prospect Park.)
And wood cars were banned from carrying riders in subway.
The woods were supposed to be totally scrapped in favor of the new
steel vehicles. With continuing shortage of cars, they were maintained
for emergency use. That's how, by sheer luck, we have these last three
to delight 21st century New York. There's even the BRT name still
burnished on glass panes inside the cars!
Living legacy
-----------
The banishment of the woods from underground service is still on
the books, long after the woods were confined to all-el operations by
1930. This rule bit us in 2004 during a series of MOD trips with these
gate cars. The cars were towed by the R1/9 train partly because the
gate cars weren't yet fully operable on their own power.
The greater reason was the no-rider rule. When the excursion train
approached a subway section, the train crew shooed riders out of the
gate cars into the R1/9 cars. When the train emerged into el sections,
the excursionists were allowed back on the gate cars!
The gates
-------
The gate cars have no side doors at all, just a long row of
windows from end to end. At each end of the car is a porch enclosed by
a waist-high lattice fence. The fence panel against the station
platform is a gate worked by manual lever and linkage. It opens and
closes much like the clamshell front doors of certain buses.
A gateman is needed at each coupling between cars to work the
levers. After the gates are closed and riders are safely inside the
cars, the gateman rang a bell on the hood over the porch. When the
driver got the bell from all gatemen he threw the train into gear.
Riders were supposed to only board and deboard thru the gates.
They must continue into the car thru end doors. With the overcrowding
prevalent in the old days, riders crammed onto the porch.
There's room for six people on each porch, three on each side,
leaving a corridor for the end door. In a crush, two more on each
porch can stand at the end door, blocking it.
More living legacy
----------------
Modern cars have no such porch. Every one must ride within the
body of the car. Yet you hear announcements that you must not ride, or
walk, between cars.
Why?
We STILL ride outside the car!
During my house sitting years on Manhattan the Lexington Av line
was so stuffed with people it was impossible to squeeze onto the train
thru the side doors. We on the platform, after hopelessly waiting for
a lesser loaded train, climbed between the cars and rode on the little
apron outside the end doors!
Yes, the conductor yelled at us and even let out a naughty phrase
or two. That we could take as the price for getting to work or home on
time. The ride on the end apron was, to be polite, noisy as Hell.
There was a protocol to observe. Woe be to the one who tried to
buck it. Only two people fit on the apron of each car. No newspaper
reading or other space-grabbing activity. No spitting or puking into
the wind. No food or drink or loud radios. Latch the safety chain back
behind you. Call your stop before reaching it so other apron riders
can ease out of your way. Stifle your nature calls.
Lift off!
-------
When word rang out about the gate cars, we all cheered! The shop
crew led us to a train platform nestled between other shop buildings.
There the gate train twinkled in the sunlight!
For this ride only one gate was open, minded by crew on the
platform. It took a good fifteen minutes to board the hundredish folk
wanting the ride. With a throw of the lever and satisfying latching
click, the platform attendant rang the bell.
With a sudden lurch and rattling of chains and loose fittings, our
train eased out of the station. We spiraled around the yard to the
Upper Broadway line just outside the campus. The train was up to the
task easily, sliding onto the mainline as if it was merely the next
run of a normal service life.
We let off some excursionists at 215th St for picture taking; we
will pick them up on the return leg. then we flipped onto the center
track for a roll uptown.
Ride with your head, not without it
---------------------------------
What a difference! It's one thing to look out an open window at
the countryside rolling by. But you are still 'in the car'. It's quite
an other to be outside with nothing between you and the outer space
but a thin lacy fence.
As we boarded and again when we were about to depart the shop, the
crew loudly warned us to keep heads and hands inside. This certainly
applied to us on the porch. It also was applicable to those in the
seats. The windows on this train open from the BOTTOM, like ordinary
house windows! It takes just an instant of foolhardiness to terminate
your earthly existence.
It didn't take long to see the sense of this warning. Within
seconds after leaving the shop's platform, a thick wayside pole
whizzed by mere centimeters from our faces. We all were extra careful
to stay within an imaginary plane above the porch fence.
I have to credit the discipline of the riders for not tempting the
fates. On previous trips, many excursionists recklessly leaned out of
the windows for a photo shoot in the face of warnings by the crew.
Today on the gate cars, I didn't see anyone itching to trade life or
limb for a better picture angle.
BMT on IRT?
---------
I explained before that BMT trains can not run on the IRT, yes?
Well, here we were, a pure BMT train on a pure IRT el! The trick is
that the gate cars are of 19th century design, with narrow bodies and
short length. They are, in fact, pretty much like the IRT;s own el
trains.
And so, we took to the foreign rails like we belonged there.
Rumbling thru space
-----------------
The Upper Broadway line is the last remaining el on Manhattan,
being the northern extremity of the underground branch out of 96th
Street station. It is a glatt el with three tracks, wood ties and
deck, cute station houses. It sits on tall stalks to even out the ups
and downs of the terrain. This profile made for some soaring and
swooping and a gorgeous glide over Harlem River into the Bronx.
It's a good thing we were on the center track! Not only for the
nonstop rumble but also to avoid conflict with the regular trains.
This is a busy part of the system, even on the Saturday of our trip,
Regulars shot by in each direction on the local tracks every two to
three minutes! They greeted us with horn toots. Their windows were
filled with nose-pressing gawkers, At the stations, waiting riders
stared in disbelief. Not only were they seeing an antique train but
they saw people riding on the outside with only a low flimsy fence to
keep them from tumbling onto the track!
With no confinement by window frames, I drank in the fantastic
vista. Wide sweeps of the Manhattan and Bronx countryside, long peers
into the side streets, bird's eye views of the Harlem River, Beneath
the the rattles and clanks and hisses of the train was an undercurrent
of clicks and whirs of cameras. We burned thru a lot of film and chip!
There's little artistic relief, if you can't stomach walls of
graffiti, car carcasses, weed-filled lots, glass-strewn alleys. On the
other hand, we spotted Baker Field of Columbia University, Isham and
Inwood Hill Parks, Marble Hill and Fieldston 'hoods, Metro North rail
line. Manhattan College, Soviet 'spyscraper', and Van Cortlandt Park.
An incident averted?
------------------
At one point we stopped for a signal to clear. There in the street
below was a gang of youths in horseplay. I hope it was only horseplay.
Suddenly as we sat still about 50 meters slant range, one of the men
looked up and pointed. He grabbed his fellows to look. In an instant
all eight or so guys were waving and shouting to us! We were way too
far away for voice; we made do with waves and gestures. With a jolt,
we started up again, leaving the gang as friends now. Did we dissipate
a possible nasty incident?
All along the way, from 215th St to 238th St (the paenultimate
station on this line) we drew attention from the street. Every one saw
us! We got waves, pointed fingers, rubbed eyes. One woman was so
stunned as she walked with arms full of shopping, she let her bags
spill on the ground!
Modern 'gate' car
---------------
The gate train will run for special occasions. You'll learn about
them thru transit, not astronomy, litterature. Yet, you can tomorrow
acquire much of the flavor of these ancient trains with modern cars
rolling around the subway.
Modern cars are fully enclosed with flat vertical end faces. One
model, the R40 car, has at its ends a slanted fiberglass (or such)
face. It is one of the most distinctive cars on the system, easily
recognized as it swooshes thru the stations.
Today these cars are assigned to routes B (Brighton via 6th
Avenue), N (Sea Beach via Broadway), and W (Astoria via Broadway).
Only 1/3 of trains on route N are R40s; you may let a couple trains
pass by before catching an R40 train. The other two routes are almost
completely R40s.
One peculiarity you notice is that the EVEN numbered couplings,
besides the very ends of the train, have the slant face. The ODD
couplings have flat faces. The R40s were made as coupled pairs. The
inner ends of the pair have the vertical faces; outer, the slants. A
full length train consists of five pairs,
The B service has open air sections on Manhattan Bridge (north
side) and along the Brighton line. From Prospect Park thru Avenue H
the Brighton line is in a trench. south of there the line runs on
either a berm or steel & wood el. The N service runs on Manhattan
Bridge (south side) and in trench along the Sea beach section. Both N
and W trains operate on el along the Astoria line.
Having found the R40 train, walk between the cars at the even
couplings. You step onto a little porch fenced in by heavy square bars
and a chain. Wrapping around the bars secures you against bouncing off
of the porch as the train shakes and quakes. The sloped faces open a
wide vista and the wind (and noise!) whistles thru your head.
I strongly advise that you lay off of this ride when the porch is
wet with snow, ice, rain. It may be very slippery. If such is the
case, the weather is likely too harsh for outside riding anyway.
One blessing is that there's no danger of being whacked by
obstructions. The fence is recessed more than arm's length from the
car sides. Even so, please stay put, no funny antics, OK?
The best prospect is on Manhattan Bridge itself. From the south
side tracks via the N train you see Lower Manhattan and the Harbor. On
the B train from the Bridge's north tracks you overlook Midtown
Manhattan and East River. The view from the N or W train on the
Astoria line faces Midtown Manhattan.
Sunset on the rails
-----------------
It was late in the afternoon as our gate train rolled back and
forth above Broadway. The Sun was skirting the housing blocks,
throwing long shadows into the streets. We headed back to the shop. By
radio, the crew got word that the Lo-V, the original highlight of the
excursion, was now ready for our ride, .
Off the mainline we spiraled, back to the service platform in the
shop. We pulled in right in front of the Lo-V train, all fancied up
for us. We boarded, waited for the gate train to move out of the way,
and started to roll.
It was now early twilight.
All was well for a couple minutes, then, Boom! Motors bucked and
chattered. Wheels span. Circuit breakers popped. Something was truly
wrong. A bevy of train crew huddled at the driver's cab. Lots of
banter by radio, much fiddling with the driver controls.
No go. The Lo-V was not up to the mission. After a half hour, by
now in deep twilight, the crew let on that we had to cut short the
trip. Our tickets were now rain checks for one of the other November
trips. For this reason, as well as the length already of this article,
I leave out a discourse about the Lo-V car. It's enough to note that
this was the standard coach of the IRT until the 1960s, when the
Redbirds replaced it.
Uh, we're on the center track with no way to deboard. The crew
nursed the train enough to move it without risking a shutdown of the
whole line. Slowly and carefully the train hobbled along. We ended up
at the northern terminal, Van Cortlandt Park. The Lo-V shuddered to a
stop and let us off. We dispersed for home on regular trains.