Trainmaster5

Back in those ancient days we were taught that in the subway express meant that you made fewer stops than the locals.

Personally it seems like you are making excuses for people. I hardly consider myself a rail fan but I knew the difference between the IRT, BMT and the IND before I started junior high when Ike was still president. . I think anyone with a subway map would be able to figure it out. I’m of the opinion that the vision and hearing impaired people can get around better than many so-called healthy, intelligent people.. My opinion. Carry on.

Read the post above yours again. While we’re at it let me tell you something we were taught on the first day of school car. The motor instructor, a former Marine Corps drill instructor, told us that people were getting dumber by the year and he wasn’t only talking about New Yorkers. He questioned how immigrants from Europe after WWII and poorly educated transplants from the South could navigate the transit system on trains without PA systems yet the so-called intelligent New Yorkers were often confused. He said the trick was platform signage and the marker lights on the trains. COLOR was the great equalizer. As he pointed out the sight and hearing impaired people seemed to have more knowledge than the other passengers had. This is the first two days of Conductors school car. He and his 3 partners quizzed all thirty of us about neighborhoods, railroads, subways and buses we were familiar with. I was exempt from most of those discussions because I had a bus and train pass since before JFK was elected and I was also a provisional RR Porter for a year. Heck, I rode or worked on many lines that had been demolished by then. The one thing that all 4 motor instructors instilled in us was that the Conductor was in charge of the train and the passengers. The drill instructor also said that people were getting so dumb over the years that one of the duties of future Conductors was to walk the riders home to their front doors because otherwise they would get lost. My classmates and I would laugh about those things until I was a Motorman on a rerouted train headed s/b to Flatbush at Times Square. Never mind that the to the ‘ Bush regularly stopped at the same station and track and we were headed to the same terminal many folks would not board my train. Despite my C/Rs announcements and those of the station PA the dispatcher told us to close up and leave the clueless people behind. We were all taught to treat the passengers with dignity and respect but after that experience and those that followed I tried to keep my distance from the general public. My own experience. You’re entitled to your own opinion. No hard feelings. Carry on.

Although I was unaware of the 5 car occurrences on the I’m well aware of the breakdown problems in the IRT back then. Trains breaking down, catching fire, going dead, etc. I remember leaving New Lots on a headed towards my job at Lenox . Got to Grand Army Plaza and an announcement was made about a train delay at Chambers and no service past Nevins. I transferred to a at Atlantic Avenue and rode to 145th Street and walked to Lenox Terminal and jumped ahead to make a s/b to Flatbush. Heading n/b we got to Atlantic Avenue and then Command Center told us to take our 9 car( train up Lexington Avenue to the Concourse. We encountered NO delays (because riders were smarter back then)) compared to today’s folks in my opinion. I definitely agree with you about the unreliability of service back then. Every day was an adventure in that era and, IMO, things didn’t get much better until the MK Redbirds were introduced to supplement the R62/62A class of cars. I was part of the Lenox Division in those days which limited me to the , , lines. From what I remember the and weren’t much better in those days. It never entered my mind that you were that ancient 😃. Carry on.

I can remember changing signs on the platform at Dyre with my C/R countless times because the T/D couldn’t find the C/Rs who were supposed to be on WAA. He actually picked the job at East 180th Street where he wasn’t responsible for the folks who put his job on the line. The sad part is that these people are supposed to be responsible adults. You and Kamen Rider know what I mean. Carry on.

I think you better check your statement about the midday . The train ran from Dyre to Atlantic Avenue midday alternating with the from Woodlawn. Both lines ran 10 car trains. I was stationed at Atlantic Avenue frequently in the early Eighties by the crew office daily. I can tell you that the ran 5 cars on the midnights from VCP to the ferry because I was assigned there to cut the 10 car trains to 5+5 a few times. I also know that the train ran 4 car trains middays out to Euclid in the mid eighties. Finally I had a job on Sunday nights on the from New Lots to 241 Stb and WPR. We ran 5 cars on that interval and the train was cut in the station , not the yard, at New Lots. Back then we had signals that alerted the M/M if there any cars in the station as you approached. Just a few things that I observed over the years. The only time that I left Dyre on the with less than 10 cars was Thanksgiving Day 1988 which was the last holiday I ever worked 😁. I had 6 cars. Carry on.

Just saw a Washington Post article about the unveiling of new subway cars for the Metro. There’s a mock up on display down there.

That’s why my C/R and I were together for 14 years.

I was actually replying to Jake’s reporting on the LIRR car acceptance progress but thanks for your clarification. Carry on.

Are we talking M9 LIRR or M9A MNRR cars ? They’re different animals.

Thanks for pointing out what many of us old timers see as an important issue. Most of us wouldn’t even pick a job on a line that primarily ran that equipment. Wait until a train gets caught up in the scenario you described and the public and the media will be screaming at the top of their lungs for heads to roll. Carry on.

Although I’ve been traveling to Suffolk County ( Brentwood ) since my inlaws moved here in 1981 I’ve only ridden one SCT bus in my lifetime and that was an exploration trip on the S1. Rode it from end to end just for the experience. I remember telling my father-in-law that as a Brooklynite I wanted nothing to do with a bus system that seemed to stop operating after 7 pm. LIRR had a single track at Brentwood and the station was located on the west side of Brentwood Road. No westbound trains between 4:23 and 7:23 pms on weekdays. Because I worked late pms on work trains in transit I had to get that 4:23 train or catch a ride to Babylon if I hadn’t driven out there to Brentwood. There were times I had to climb up onto the trailing diesel to make that train. The Conductor would read me the riot act after we stopped at Deer Park. When they upgraded the LIRR line to 2 tracks and relocated the station house they installed bus stops on both sides of Brentwood Road although that 3 hour gap westbound remained and then I started paying attention to the bus routes down there. I think there were 3 routes prefixed with an S, 27, 41, and IIRC 47. There were 3 routes prefixed with a 3, A, B and D. I remember the 41 went to the VA hospital and the 3D was for Stony Brook Hospital. Even after reading B35’s adventures with SCT I still can’t see how the service was interconnected. In 40+ years of being around this area I travel to the South Shore Mall, Huntington Square and the Smith Haven Malls by car. I think I was spoiled by NYCTA bus service in Brooklyn and the city in general. Now with the new service out here in Suffolk I notice the 5 and 7 bus routes and I’ve seen a ARBOC (?) with a split 7/11 sign on the front door. The little jitney type buses have no numbers on the overhead signs which is bad enough but I drive through the Hauppauge Industrial area and I noticed old signs or missing new signs at some of the bus shelters or stops. Very tacky in my opinion. For all the fanners I thank you for enlightening me and keep up the good work. Carry on.

Let's try to clear this up. In the real world everything costs money. The is no exception. Think about what you're saying. The is not just subways as you seem to be implying. There are bus depots, transit hubs, railroads, stations and a zillion other things that cost money. A train in the transit museum, lights in the river tubes 24/7 as well as parking facilities. You have equipment in maintenance facilities using diesels. I've been in subway yards where older non-revenue cars were being used by Car Equipment and/or RTO for equipment storage and such. What I'm trying to show that everything in the whether it moves or not costs money. Just my take. Carry on.

I really didn't mean to equate you with a pom pom waver. I was actually focusing on those posters who act as if everything the flacks put out in the press is the Holy Gospel. It's frustrating for some of us oldtimers to see some posters gobble up the B.S.. You've been around long enough that I'd never make the mistake of putting you in that category. Sorry if I offended you. Carry on.

Finally a knowledgeable person who can see behind the curtain. This simple fact should be drummed into the heads of every pom pom waving rah rah believing posters out there. My opinion. Carry on.

Been like that off and on since the early eighties. Nothing really changes except the dates. Carry on.

They are probably run by “ old farts “ because the young people don’t vote because they’re too busy worrying about new trains and buses. A man whom I was taught by and respected 40 years ago said that people were getting dumber instead of smarter as each new generation took over. He was a former USMC drill instructor before he became a Transit instructor and he saw it firsthand. I personally think he was correct. With all of the daily problems on the subways and railroads these days for someone to worry about station signage is beyond comprehension to me. My opinion. Yours may vary. Carry on .

😃😃😃 you’ve been around long enough to know that many posters don’t even know the difference between real world orders and prototypes. Happy New Year. Carry on.

Try the Transit Employment section for answers to your questions. That’s what it’s for. Good luck

Why not ask your question in the Transit Employment section ?

Perhaps you can elaborate on your point about the Crescent Street curve ? I don’t know your age but BMT Standards , 67 foot cars, ran along the line from Broad Street to 168th Street and Jamaica Avenue. As far as the line’s sharp curves perhaps you should ride it sometime before belittling the route. It’s the 75 foot equipment that was a waste of money in my opinion. The BMT didn’t demolish the Lexington or Myrtle Avenue Elevated lines. The City of New York did it because they would be too costly to repair or replace. The NYCT wouldn’t go back to an oddball fleet again. My experience with the agency tells me that. Carry on.

Hello and Happy New Year to all. Since Thanksgiving week I’ve been in contact with some of my former coworkers discussing subway issues and I’ve formulated a list of some things we’ve talked about. First off is we’re all wondering if you guys really read the website ? There are threads about the unreliability of equipment like the R46, R62, 62A, and the R68 class of cars. Just curious because from Thanksgiving until today there isn’t much information about equipment caused delays. Signal, switch trouble. Network communication problems. Unauthorized people on the tracks. Disorderly people. People struck by trains .We haven’t seen much about equipment issues in either division. The R211 class is undergoing some issues at the moment but we figure those issues will be resolved soon. What we are saying is that some people seem really upset about the wrong things. Either that or they are prone to exaggerating. Look back at what I posted.at the beginning. R9-R211 doesn’t matter. The equipment doesn’t seem to be the reason for most delays as far as we can see. Old timers opinions. Agree or disagree. No hard feelings either way. Carry on.

Believe me when I say that crap started about 20 years before 2001. I was in school car back then and we had some know it alls in my C/R and M/M classes. I’m talking about dudes who had collections of pictures taken by people hanging from the girders of Hammels Wye or the abandoned trackways leading from Atlantic Avenue to the tracks to the old Fulton Street El toward Rockaway Avenue. My motor instructors told us that most of the buffs were destined to be unemployed within two years. Interesting things but had nothing to do with knowledge about the job we were hired to do. Twenty years later 9/11 happened and we were told by the and the Federal Government that NO information was to be given to ANYONE not authorized to receive it. My coworkers who were buffs toned down their actions and conformed with the edicts. Unauthorized picture taking and the clowns 🤡 who were glued to the RFW from terminal to terminal were observed and sometimes reported. Personally I figured that most of the questions asked by folks were none of their business anyway. There were ways to be polite to the ridership but there were limits on what they were told. As far as employees passing information to outsiders I think that termination, loss of pension and benefits, and possibly Federal prosecution would be in order. I’d also like to add that the folks who blame EDP people for the situation today better get their facts in order. We’ve had EDP types riding the trains for generations and didn’t cause these delays for the most part. What we have today is criminal activity, vandalism, and should be prosecuted as such. IMO anyone who has an obsession with RFWs, ROWs, trackage and the infrastructure is an EDP where I come from. That’s my personal opinion. Feel free to disagree. I won’t take it personally. Carry on.

Try asking your question in the Transit Employment section and you might get a response.

I’ll simplify this for the rest of the thread. My opinion. Whether it’s a local, state, or Federal crime situation. Arrest, fines, and/or incarceration . Of course the ideal solution would be accidental electrocution of a few of these miscreants. The old folks would tell my generation that if you had a cancer you would cut it out and move on. My musings. Carry on.