Trainmaster5

It's not impossible but look at the costs and delays we've had with this pared down SAS already.Now add the cost of a TBM and underpinning to the mix. Billions of dollars more in cost and the express tracks of the SAS will end up costing more than the present project IMO AND take longer to complete.

240th barn IS old, I agree, but if it was in danger of imminent collapse management and the union would not have let the A&B yard picks go in effect this Sunday would they? 240th is probably slated for replacement soon but I recall East 180th being re-done for the new tech trains and the major work was done at 239th while the overhaul was done. The equipment was still stored at 180th, Unionport, and 239th as usual. I can see them storing some of the IRT cars at 207th but they do that already. BTW, the main shops and the overhaul shops don't neccessarily hold 10 car trains inside but usually married pairs or 4 or 5 car units that need specialized work. I've done transfers with anywhere from 4-10 cars from the IRT to 207th and, depending on the transfer work, the train was usually drilled out by myself or a 207th crew. Same thing for my CI transfers. Hope this clears up any misunderstanding my earlier post caused. Carry on.

The CED and Operations and Planning decide where equipment will go and be maintained. Period. There are no yard dispatchers(if that was the inference) who have any input on rolling stock in any yard. The yard dispatcher picks a job, same as C/Rs and T/Os, under seniority rules, and can be replaced by someone with more seniority at pick(preference) time. Line superintendants can be replaced or transferred at any time, as happened recently, by higher-ups so they also have no say in equipment selection.. As far as CI vs 207th St goes they are both main shops so why would the IRT transfer it's cars to CI shop for maintainence when most of it's barns are in the Bronx? There may be stupid people in transit supervision but I doubt the scenario mentioned is being realistically considered. Maybe Two Timer ,RTO Man, or Eric B, can comment on this a bit more. I was in Livonia yard and barn Friday and nobody mentioned this change, hourly or supervisor, in RTO or CED and I think they would know before anyone else. The bigger questions, IMO, is why would 207th become an IRT and MOW yard and since when did Pitkin become large enough to handle the extra work? There's a diesel barn at IRT Westchester yard last time I looked. Carry on.

Just thought I'd throw this into the mix. Astoria, NY, Forest Hills, NY, Ozone Park, NY, Springfield Gardens,NY Jamaica, NY, Jamaica Estates, NY. ALL Queens locations and Zip codes. Riverdale, NY.....need I say more?

The section of St. Johns westward toward Utica/Schenectady was a commercial, residential mix as was Utica from St Johns down to Empire Blvd. The area below the present terminals, heading eastward was the far larger commercial strip of Pitkin Avenue running past Rockaway Avenue to Stone Ave( Mother Gaston ). I've always looked at the bus routes in that part of Brooklyn as connectors to the commercial areas rather than feeder routes to the subways. Beside the B45 and B65 routes the B10(15),B46,B40, B7,B12,B14, and B60 all ran through or connected with the two retail districts I've mentioned as well as the Kings Highway, downtown Brooklyn.,Broadway Brooklyn, and Delancey St retail areas. Although the routes were established at different times by different companies there was some sense of purpose and cohesion that appears to be well thought-out compared to what we're left with throughout the borough. I also think the B45 and B65 should travel beyond the eastern terminal but I'll leave the destinations to B35 and others who have more knowledge of the travel patterns and conditions on the ground today. Carry on.

St Mary's Hospital was probably the reason for the current terminal. That area was a major commercial district and transfer point before the area's decline. Originally, back in the trolley days,I believe the Bergen line ran to the old B12's terminal at Sheridan Ave in the City Line area, and the St John's line ran out to the area around Rockaway Ave and Hegeman St. IIRC after the Bergen St electric trolley barn closed for good and regular buses were used both the B45 and the B65 were based out of ENY depot so I believe they might have been based there before the electrics were used. In fact, before many of the Brooklyn streets were paved over in the mid '60s, I used to look at the trolley track remains and try to figure out the routes that used them and where they went. In those old, pre-Wiki days, I learned many things about bus transit from those rails I saw and questions I asked of the old-timers. I'm a proponent of overhauling the entire Brooklyn bus system to reflect today's realities on the ground but I truly believe that some of the older routings should be taken into consideration, too. Unfortunately I don't believe the present Surface Operations and Planning department has the same commitment toward improving it. The sole focus is cost reduction these days so I don't see them even considering the B45 or B65 and the Barclay's Center or the eastern terminals as part of the equation.. Knowing how they operate, in today's climate if the traffic situation wasn't so bad at Flatbush-Atlantic they would probably to eliminate one of the routes entirely if they could. That's my opinion. Carry on.

As stated the LIRR ENY station is slightly more than two blocks from the Broadway Junction station. After sundown it's one of the most dark,desolate, lonely walks a person can make. The walk from the LIRR station to the buses and subways at that time of day isn't bad but the reverse walk is not for the faint of heart. Going in that direction to catch the e/b LIRR after dark one must know the LIRR schedule in advance and time your walk to arrive at the station just as the sealed beams of the train begin to light up the station. Sometimes you get lucky and the MTA police car is sitting there on the e/b side watching the walkers and the people who wait upstairs in the L train station who also time their walk to meet the railroad. I've made that walk IN BOTH DIRECTIONS countless times in the last twenty years or so and although I'm used to it I never let my guard down in that area . Actually the worst times I've had over there was traveling w/b on the LIRR and getting off at ENY and trying to catch the last B20 or B83 toward Spring Creek. If I missed the buses I'd either catch a cab or catch the L to Rockaway Parkway and wait for the e/b B6.

Clyde McPhatter and the Drifters singing " White Christmas" and the Temptations " Silent Night". Bringing a little soul to the season.

A question from left field. Does anyone recall which Brooklyn routes with trolley tracks had those tracks removed rather than paved over? I remember a few locations like Nostrand/Fulton and East New York/Rockaway where the pavement would wear out and the tracks would be exposed 15-20 years after trolley service ended. In my lifetime I 've never seen what method was used to remove those tracks and I'm still trying to figure it out.

Match the Tempts " Ball of Confusion" with Marvin's "What's Going On ?" album while you watch the news from the US, London and the world's other hotspots in 2011. Damn, sometimes it seems like nothing ever changes for the better. " And the band played on".

The safest way is to use the Brooklyn Museum station and avoid crossing Flatbush Ave and/or Eastern Parkway, period. To build a Brighton line station adjacent to the library would be a waste of money IMO. It would only be two or three train lengths from the existing Seventh Ave station which is probably why it was never proposed or built back in the day. Remember the original Brighton line used the existing Franklin Shuttle ROW to get to downtown Brooklyn and Park Row. The library's ground breaking was in 1912 and the present Brighton route opened in 1920 so I guess the BRT never considered a Grand Army Plaza stop because they did have time to plan for and build it if they wanted to. Just my opinion. Carry on.

The Grand Army Plaza and Seventh Avenue stations are basically one to two blocks apart at most. The downgrade between Seventh Ave and Prospect Park on the Brighton line begins under the Grand Army Plaza IRT station. A station between Seventh Ave and Prospect Park at the half way point would leave one well past the library on Flatbush Avenue in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by the fences for the Botanic Garden and the park. On a side note, if one wanted to reach the library building itself the closest access point was the now closed exits at the north end of the Eastern Parkway-Brooklyn Museum IRT station. The Grand Army Plaza station is basically the station for the monument and the surrounding neighborhood north of the park toward downtown Brooklyn.

I think the is looking for a uniform fleet for it's subways and railcars because is cheaper to maintain. You'll never have TOTAL uniformity because of the different ages of their equipment and the (in)ability of the manufacturers to provide large orders of replacements at one time. That's why you have Kawasaki, Bombardier, Alstom, and the like providing parts of an order instead of one large order from one source. Throw the capital budget woes in the mix and we end up with supplemental orders from one or more builders. That being said, I would guess that any new car orders for the TA or the railroads will be based on NTT for a long time to come. They might not be totally interchangeable electrically but they will all look alike Just my opinion. Carry on.

I'm talking about Nathan's Famous.

I always wanted to try 5 guys but I heard they cook in peanut oil and I'm allergic to that. For fast food burgers I like Wendy's or Checkers but for a real burger has anyone been to Jackson Hole diner? My nephew took me to the one in Bayside and that's a real burger. I also have cravings for Jonny Rocket's sometimes, especially when I'm in Atlantic City. I'm a meat and potatoes guy most of the time but if I'm on the prowl for pizza it must be from an Italian pizzeria and if I want pastrami or corned beef it must come from a Kosher Deli. One question for you people. There's this place on Surf and Stillwell in BK yet no one has mentioned it. Why?

No, I didn't. As many RTO employees will tell you, convenience, work assignments, coupled with seniority, usually win out. Many of us admire the system as railfans but have no desire to operate every piece of rolling stock in every division. As a former work train M/M and transfer M/M I have traveled on just about every part of the system, except the 63rd St corridor, so I had no burning desire to operate passenger service everywhere. I've operated equipment to all the yards of the BMT-IND and that satisfied me.

I worked the IRT for my whole career...but from a fan's perspective I'll always have a fond spot for the BMT. From the old Atlantic Ave-Eastern Parkway- Fulton elevated complex to Broadway-Myrtle to the DeKalb interchange to Coney Island it made a child's imagination expand. The IND was fast and the IRT was interesting in some locations but the BMT had 9th Ave, Manhattan Bridge north and south, and an enormous complex at the now decrepit Chambers St municipal building station. It also had crossing gates at E. 105th St. I think the word I'm looking for is "character".

I could be wrong but it sounds like schoolcar and a C/Rs class to me.

The original proposal was to have the and swap fleets, in conjunction with the conversion project. It still is the only one that makes sense IMO. The newly built Corona yard facility was built to handle NTT with little or no changes to it. The Westchester facility previously handled R62A cars and can still do so with little or no overhaul. The new East 180th St facility was built expressly for NTT and doesn't presently have the capability to do major R62A repairs. Does anyone out here really think the wants to, or has the money to, overhaul a new facility in order to accomodate older cars on the and lines? While we're on this fantasy foamer trip can someone point me to the plan where the Lenox line will run nine car trains again ? Somewhere along the way I missed that one completely. Carry on folks.

Forty years and counting and we still haven't learned. I have an uncle who is 88 and into jazz and, while he loves the music, says we ought to listen to the lyrics and then maybe we'll catch on. And to think that Berry Gordy didn't want Motown to release it. Man. The album is pure genius.

The Master, Marvin Gaye's " Inner City Blues ", from one of, if not, the greatest Soul albums of all time. What's Going On ? The album is as relevant today is it was when it was released.