Eric B

Wow, they've been doing a lot of renumbering in recent years. They only used to do it in major fleet remans, such as Blitz and the RTS 7000's. I guess it's since they acquired the PBL's, with hundreds of additional buses, that it became harder to work around the existing fleet numbers when new buses are added? (Glad they didn't take the easy route and go with a five digit system, which they once tried briefly with the first Orion V's).

There was one back in service on the today.

It also isn't tall enough to be a route sign. It's not square; it's a flat rectangle, for text.

Yeah, that has to be a 211. The sign is not added to the window until much later; when the electrical stuff is done. This is just the bare shell now, and so the window without the sign will look like a window, but the fact that it's a window, and not a blank wall like previous NTT's, is proof that the space is reserved for the sign (and the sign on top, as stated, is for destination text).

Yes, they did do extensive surveying, in those years leading up to the final pattern, when the 6th Av. side was closed.

I remember when it was wooden, then they replaced it with the concrete in the mid-70's. Don't know why they didn't just rebuild it. Went to the aquarium the first time since way back then, this summer, and wished it was still there.

There's doing the same G.O as the same week last year, with the 53rd St. tunnel closed for the week.

Probably a wash, or layup.

Wow; I didn't even realize those were mosaic; it looked painted when I was passing through every day.

Yes; I didn't even know about it until my second trip, when I was two stations away, and heard it on the radio!

Yes, the blue walls are down, but it doesn't look like much was done to the station, he said.

Those Cummins sounded almost like the 6V71's with the VH9 transmissions in the old fishbowls, at least in the way they accelerated.

It's new LED panel lighting, and a lot of new wiring. there will probably be the new electronic screen boards on the walls as well.

They were like the '97's, 98's and 99's, where they only briefly passed them down to LGA, and were trying to get rid of them faster than the older stuff at the former PBL's.

Finally decided to draw the exact layout of north of 57th (which I've been mentioning/describing for years), to show the easiest solution. It's actually constructed as a "Flying junction", and the 60th St. tracks don;t become the local tracks, but rather "wye" into both the local and express trackways, from inbetween them. Only the local trackways were never used. The orginal four track line was built to veer west and continue uptown, and the 63rd St. connection simply cut across the ROW, to head east. So right away, the north trackway (A2) leads right into the north 63rd St. track (G2), but a concrete room has been constructed on the trackbed. That can easily be removed, as it is simply block construction. It's southbound, where the local A1 trackway veers away from G1, and then the columns between A1-3-4, etc. are present, that more work would have to be done (to remove the columns, the load bearing of the tunnel roof will have to be redistributed with all new horizontal beams). This will be the main problem. At one point, before it was mandated that the full SAS would have to be planned (and not just the uptown "stubway") in order to receive the funding, they were talking about reconfiguring the whole Prince-Canal st. junction, to allow the SAS and express to feed directly to the downtown tracks, and the local tracks would then lead across the bridge. This would require a tremendous amount of construction, including most likely, property acquisition (you would have to make the tunnel wider to have the trackways make the swap, and there isn't much space on Broadway). But just making this relatively simple modification north of 57th, then they could have a local connect to 63rd, and the express switch over to 60th, without crossing over each other. (good for unplanned reroutes and G.O's as well). Even if they did just the northbound, that would help a lot. with the reroutes. They really should look into doing this now, because when the is carrying a huge chunk of the riders next year, this cutting it at Essex or Chambers everytime something goes wrong anywhere on the IND (especially Queens, of course), isn't going to cut it. If in Queens (or the rerouted via 53rd), it will be better to cut the back to 57th, and then let all 's run to 96th. With the northbound connection, the northbound express could be the "pocket" for the , and yet some could still run around this on the local, and run through, so that there is still access from Bway above 34th, to SAS, and it would alleviate congestion with the single pocket filled; (and 's could be run through 63rd if needed) and the southbound track would still be open for the through service in the reverse direction.

He might mean "fuel celled". I think that is in the works for a test. A whole list of the tests coming up had been put up here somewhere.

Keep forgetting mentioning, I occasionally see an end sign with just the letter illuminated, and the circle dark. I've seen this on both 3053 and 3090. IIRC.

Yeah; they send (R)'s over 6th Ave. for the first problem, crossing them to the express at 42nd, and then that switch goes, screwing up 6th Ave. Domino effect! Then, the delay at Marcy Av. It's like the whole system melted down today.

Why don't they just send some of the (F)'s express (Which they had already been doing at times, unofficially). This would free up slots for the

.

Or, they could build UP. The main problem is getting past Nassau St., where the double-decked (J)(Z) line bisects the complex. If they built the passage as an overpass, it could go straight across, over Nassau, and connect to each section, and then run into the FTC Oculus. They've already torn down a couple buildings on both Nassau and Fulton, so they should have thought to purchase the property for this.

Saw them today, crossing the bridge, in service.

So it's like the Concourse line stations, then.

This part right here Eliot. https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=1_VEcJK0O4smmJKIK-guOV0hYkR2wpW1w&ll=40.72270545520368%2C-73.88799194080809&z=15 should make it clear how far out of the way the Ridgewood/Glendale buses go. They go right PAST the area (and with all the traffic on the highway and the streets), and then come back. They should just get out right by 61st St. and use that to access Fresh Pond, extend it further along Myrtle to at least the Woodhaven corridor to serve more riders, and then swing one of the other routes off of the expressway to cover Eliot.

I wonder why they didn't put them on the then, which runs up there, but is based out of CIY like the other lines. Then the 160's and 68's would simply be shared among the CIY lines more. This would also be helpful for the baseball specials, which borrow from the (B), and then have to change the signs, and often have the destination changed on the go. They do borrow (so that you might see a 68A on the (D)), or at least used to.