Let's Hear It For the "GG"

[bigrene18]

It's sad to see the total deterioration of the lowly G train into the footballed relic that it's about to become. A few (nostalgic) observations:

 

 

I grew up on the IND Queens line, near the Woodhaven Blvd. station. I was wasn't born when the 60th Street connection opened (the R1/9 signs read "QUEENS-FOREST HILLS" and the B-type signs read "FOREST HILLS-QUEENS"), but of course, 70(GG) service was the mainstay of the local stations after 7 PM and all weekend. 70(GG)'s ran with 8 cars in rush hour, 4 midday, and 3 cars on most weekends (this probably lasted into the early 60's). As a kid in the late 60's, I remember coming home saturday afternoons, getting off an 70(E) or 70(F) at Roosevelt Avenue (it always seemed like there were 4 expresses to a local, although I KNOW that couldn't have been true), and peering down the track until I'd see those faint R1/9 headlights (before the bright ones were installed) of the local train at 65th Street. The train would approach, enter the station, the third car would roll all the way up to the middle of the platform and hordes of passengers would run after it. Amazingly, it seemed like everyone always fit.

 

I also remember during the late 60's and into the early 70's the rush hour 70(GG) service operating with 8 cars at a 4 minute headway (the same as the 70(RR)). It was dependable and a well-integrated member of the Queens Blvd. "family." Its greatest moment of glory was in 1968 when it got to serve the 70(F) as a local at both ends of its run - "QUEENS-FOREST HILLS" to "BKLYN-CHURCH AV" during rush hours. That didn't last too long, and it was downhill from there, not made any less unpleasant by having the R-16's dumped onto its runs (remember those hard gray seats?) I did like the way those compressors sounded, though.

 

The whole shtick of the (or 70(GG)) is an intriguing part of IND history. I don't think is fully sussed out. The weirdness of a local train that used to terminate its run in midline at a local station, and then using the express tracks to take its nap is so unlike the mindset of the IND. Yet this is how the 70(GG) operated from day one of the IND life. The 4th Avenue station was built purposefully to accommodate the 70(GG), the routing if the 70(GG) was not a later cutback of the line.

Note the peculiar switching and the concrete, not ballast, roadbed of the sleeping track within the station. Note, to the silly dance up and down the ramp at Bergen Street, in the stead of the flying crossover at Hoyt-Schermerhorn or West 4th Street. Note the odd layout track on the el structure in the stead of at, say, 7th Avenue or near Bergen St. As for why the 70(GG) was ended at S-9 and not turned at, say, 7th Avenue, I have plain no idea.

 

I feel sorry for the arriving at Court Square, looking down the track to Queens Plaza knowing it's forbidden territory.

[Shortline Bus]

IMO based on an idea from a friend in Queens was that the should be bulit a lower level 2-track terminal under Queens Plaza as a compromise for the when the 63rd St extension to the Queens Blvd line was being bullit. That why it would have been an easy direct transfer between the and the other current QB lines.

 

Not to mention an underground terminal at QP could have also be used for both lay-overs and to terminate trains from Manhattan as well for G/o's.:eek:

 

It's sad to see the total deterioration of the lowly G train into the footballed relic that it's about to become. A few (nostalgic) observations:

 

 

I grew up on the IND Queens line, near the Woodhaven Blvd. station. I was wasn't born when the 60th Street connection opened (the R1/9 signs read "QUEENS-FOREST HILLS" and the B-type signs read "FOREST HILLS-QUEENS"), but of course, 70(GG) service was the mainstay of the local stations after 7 PM and all weekend. 70(GG)'s ran with 8 cars in rush hour, 4 midday, and 3 cars on most weekends (this probably lasted into the early 60's). As a kid in the late 60's, I remember coming home saturday afternoons, getting off an 70(E) or 70(F) at Roosevelt Avenue (it always seemed like there were 4 expresses to a local, although I KNOW that couldn't have been true), and peering down the track until I'd see those faint R1/9 headlights (before the bright ones were installed) of the local train at 65th Street. The train would approach, enter the station, the third car would roll all the way up to the middle of the platform and hordes of passengers would run after it. Amazingly, it seemed like everyone always fit.

 

I also remember during the late 60's and into the early 70's the rush hour 70(GG) service operating with 8 cars at a 4 minute headway (the same as the 70(RR)). It was dependable and a well-integrated member of the Queens Blvd. "family." Its greatest moment of glory was in 1968 when it got to serve the 70(F) as a local at both ends of its run - "QUEENS-FOREST HILLS" to "BKLYN-CHURCH AV" during rush hours. That didn't last too long, and it was downhill from there, not made any less unpleasant by having the R-16's dumped onto its runs (remember those hard gray seats?) I did like the way those compressors sounded, though.

 

The whole shtick of the (or 70(GG)) is an intriguing part of IND history. I don't think is fully sussed out. The weirdness of a local train that used to terminate its run in midline at a local station, and then using the express tracks to take its nap is so unlike the mindset of the IND. Yet this is how the 70(GG) operated from day one of the IND life. The 4th Avenue station was built purposefully to accommodate the 70(GG), the routing if the 70(GG) was not a later cutback of the line.

Note the peculiar switching and the concrete, not ballast, roadbed of the sleeping track within the station. Note, to the silly dance up and down the ramp at Bergen Street, in the stead of the flying crossover at Hoyt-Schermerhorn or West 4th Street. Note the odd layout track on the el structure in the stead of at, say, 7th Avenue or near Bergen St. As for why the 70(GG) was ended at S-9 and not turned at, say, 7th Avenue, I have plain no idea.

 

I feel sorry for the arriving at Court Square, looking down the track to Queens Plaza knowing it's forbidden territory.

[R32 3348]

IMO based on an idea from a friend in Queens was that the should be bulit a lower level 2-track terminal under Queens Plaza as a compromise for the when the 63rd St extension to the Queens Blvd line was being bullit. That why it would have been an easy direct transfer between the and the other current QB lines.

 

Not to mention an underground terminal at QP could have also be used for both lay-overs and to terminate trains from Manhattan as well for G/o's.:eek:

That's a moot point now, considering that a direct transfer is currently being built between the and the . It's set to open by December.

 

 

(Photo by Robbie Rosenfeld)